Prisma lightfast vs Prismas Premier

Yesterday I received my very first Prismacolor Lightfast pencils. Only 5 but enough for trying out and comparing.

My first impression and my later as well is that I like them but they are definately NOT comparable to their little brothers and sisters the Premiers.

Lightfasts are in my opinion much harder and the pigment is not that willing to stay on the paper. I made a diect comparison with Premiers - means nearly the same colors were compared.

Also the solving with both oil and Zest-It was not that nice. And I had problems to apply enough layers to achieve a look I am used to get with my "cheep" prismas.

Maybe it's the colors I used (cobalt blue hue, canary yellow, raw umber, diox. purple hue, neutral grey 2) and I had bad luck to order just the hardes colors but however - after using and comparing these I am sure I'll stand by my Prismas and Pablos - both are much better! Maybe not that lightfast - but I do not care about it because my art is not that good or precious - it is a problem of the future generations to conserve and restore the "masterful artwork" of Mrs Alberts. <--- me.


In the meantime I've heard that Sanford stopped producing these pencils and the 'lightfast' pencils will be incoorporated into the regular prisma line.

Barry, the cat

I started with the line drawing - oh no, I started with making a grid over the reference photo and THEN the line drawing! And surely I forgot to make a photo first I started with a first layer of Prismacolor Indigo. I used my Stylus for indenting the whiskers and some other hairs under his chin.

I went on layering next layers of indigo and ultramarine and a little bit of black grape (I LOVE this color!).

After I asked my friends on PPN they gave me some good tips how to do the reflecting areas of Barry's fur and so I added some slate grey and powder blue and a bit of true blue. I blended everything with almond oil.

Black was added with heavier pressure at the dark areas and very light layers at the - guess where - lighter areas, right! Again some layers of the blues and the slate grey and again blending with almond oil. The ears got both two layers of Clay Rose and Light Peach and where blended with ......... ye - he - heeees - almond oil. While I blended the ears I could easily draw the black color with my oily cottonbud into the skin area of the ears so that it looks really like hairs.

I burnished most areas with white and then made the "pillow" (it's not a pillow but an upholstered lying surface of the kitchen-scratch-tree) with different reds and orange as a finish layer. and to stress my patience I of course had to do the background tiles of the wall (which is exactly so awry and crooked like it looks here. hm ... okay ... not THAT crooked...) with the same colors like the ear plus Peach. At last I added the shadow area with dark violet and indigo and a very light layer of black.

Now I call it finished although I could have done more on the wall tiles. The painting is not so bluish i.r. especially his top nose.

It was fun to paint this, especially because my 'model' sat besides me and watche part of the time while I was doing him. This wy it was easy for me to adjust the color of his eyes and so on. Here and there he tried to help me with dipping his tail into the oil and then to blend but I told him that I better o this. And this nice guy was NOT upset. ;)

"Barry"

Size about 210 x 290 cm, Prismas on Canson "White Drawing Paper".

Latest CP painting

CP painting for a challenge at our Pencil Painting Network.
Prismacolors blended with almond oil on Canson *Pure white Drawing' board. Size 210 x 110 mm

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