Saturday 19 September 2009

Prismacolor, Sansodor, Zest-It ... Review?

Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencil and my colouring ... or at least, my attempts at it but I think I'm getting there *grin*


Still room for improvement but it's a learning curve. I've picked up lots of hints and tips along the way, combined them and have been doing my own thing with what I've learnt. The card these are done on doesn't lend itself to dragging colour from the edge towards the centre so the whole image is coloured very lightly then built upon. On the little ladies some white is left uncoloured to give highlight. The owls are blended with Sansodor (UK equivilant of Gamsol) and blending stumps but then I bought some Zest-It and the Anya's are blended with that. I have to say that there's little difference in performance for blending but Zest-It has quite a strong smell (although not unpleasant) but it is natural. Sansodor doesn't smell but is a chemical so not necessarily good if you have lung probs. Having said that I'm finding that the Zest-It smell is quite a problem for me and seems to affect my lungs more than the Sansodor does but I know it's not medically affecting them - if that makes sense - whereas the Sansodor might ... just quietly so. I shall be sticking with the Zest-It and I shall definitely continue with the Prismacolor. I've now got a 'need' to increase the colour range I possess .....


A note on the card. I've found that some card does allow for easier blending than others so the colour can be placed around the edge of the image and drawn in by blending but there's much that doesn't. The card that these images were stamped on didn't allow for that process successfully so I had to colour the image completely, albeit very, very lightly initially, and then build up the shading etc. which is why the colour is quite intense. Very small areas of white were left or a bit of white pencil added, to allow for highlight. Very smooth white card could lend itself to blending from the edge in. Unfortunately my card is all mixed up so have no idea what make or type of card it is so can't offer any brand recommendations but I experiment on the reverse before I decide what method I'm going to use. I am going to be more aware of my card stock in future ....

I have read, fairly recently, that you should not stamp with Versafine and colour using a solvent as it will smudge the Versafine. All images above were stamped with Versafine but they were not coloured until some days/weeks later. Whether there would be a difference if the colouring was done immediately after stamping I have no idea as I've not tried it but you can see the effect for yourself with these .... no smudging, so I can only say, if the Versafine is allowed to dry thoroughly, it is perfectly safe to colour using solvent.

All stamps are from The Greeting Farm. The owls are from the really cute Forest Friends stamp set and the Anya's are from the Miss Anya Collection, the new Miss Anya Dressy stamp set.

Enjoy!!

5 comments:

Daisycat said...

Colouring looks fantastic Pam.

Anonymous said...

Pam, you're colouring is fantastic!
You've really got the hang of it- well done you!
x Nita

Joy said...

Well done Pam, you really seem to have go the hang of colouring.

Jenz Bitz 'n' Bobs said...

Hi PJ

We've just got these pencils from a class we did at Sir Stampalot the other week. Your colouring looks fab. Don't know if you remember us from the meet in Easingwold last year that Jak took. Paul and I are still enjoying ourselfs crafting and I've finally set a blog up. Keep up the good work. Your a big inspiration. Jenny x

PeeJay said...

Thank you everyone. Jenny, I do remember you and Paul and glad to hear you're still enjoying your crafting. I wish I could do more of it. One day I'll have these images on cards but as yet, they're still waiting for something to be done with them - lol!