My new CPs

Okay - now it's a fact: I'm one of thoose people who must have every kind of pencils that are produced on this planet. But I fear I also would buy a set of "Moon-Made-CPs" or "CPs dine by little green people from Mars".

However - my new set is the full set of

Supracolor II Soft

and I have to confess: BEST EVER!

I never thought that I would say that but there are pencils that are better than Prismas. At least in my eyes. (Ouch! I better say in my hands.) Now let me say a bit about them.

First the facts:

o Supracolor are made by Caran d'Ache, a producer in Switzerland.

o They come in a range of 120 colours.

o They are watersoluble.

o They are wax- and oilless (this word looks strange, or not?) so they have no wax-bloom or glossy shine.

o They have the same color chart as their "siblings" Pablo, the oil or waxbased CPs made by Caran d'Ache

The lightfastness is very good:

# - 7 of 120 pencils have one star = good lightfastnes

# - 66 of 120 have two stars = very good

# - 47 of 120 pencils are rated with three stars = excellent!

You can have a look at the whole information sheet at www.carandache.com

They are wonderful soft and easy to layer. If I want to solve I simply can use water instead of Zest-It (although I love it) and the colors are wonderful - dry AND wet.

This is for example a huge differerence to the inktense pencils. Inktense only show their real colour and beauty after applying water - these watercolour pencils are also dry beautiful.

I'm doing a still-life on two different surfaces - Clairefontaine pastelmat (sienna) and Bristol Board (ATC size) - because I want to know how these pencils behave on the different mediums. The feeling on both is wonderful and I can layer and layer. On the bristol board I use the pencils dry and on the Clairefontaine I added water. (Great surface btw for dry AND wet! I will talk about it another day.)

This is what I have so far:

When finished I'll post also the colour chart which I am going to make on Stonehenge paper.

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Still-life and a discovery

Last days I tried out Caran d'Aches Supracolor Soft pencils. I bought them about one or two months ago (lucky shot) but never used them.
But now I decided to give them a go and I am totally thrilled. I started a still-life with my Prismas (outline and a little layering on the candle-holder) on Clairefontaine Pastelmat (coloured) and then went on with the supracolors.
I added different layers on the candle-holder and the apple, wettened the colour, let it dry and then added more layers.
It was huge fun to work this way and the surface seems to fit perfect.

This is the reference I worked from. I took this photo two years ago in autumn so it is more an autumn picture but who cares....

And here is the result. It is not finished yet, close to but not at all - and believe me: Right now I am as proud as a 6 year old one on the first schoolday with a paper funnel.

I think these Supracolor pencils have won a new fan.

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