If you’ve ever wondered what goes into preparing for and making our coloring workshops, here is a sneak peek at some of the processes we go through in an attempt to create quality training content. 🙂
Our next coloring workshop will be dedicated to Pastel Pencils. To prepare for this series of lessons I first needed to wrap my head around some of the odd things that I have experienced when coloring with them. Coloring with them isn’t the same as coloring with colored pencils; nor is it the same as coloring with soft pastels. They’re kind of their own unique medium that needs some understanding before being able to color with them effectively.
This video gives you a peek into some of the preparations I have been making for this new video series. I hope you learn a lot and enjoy it.
Chapter Markers
- 00:00 – Introduction
- 09:05 – Overall Color Test
- 10:45 – Blending Test
- 18:27 – Erasability Test
- 24:05 – Water Solubility Test
- 26:54 – White Pastel Pencil Test
- 28:41 – Layering on Pastel Base Test
- 33:43 – Pencil Sharpening Test
- 43:24 – Fixative Test
- 54:27 – Final Thoughts
Video Images
I knew it was a LOT of work! You work so hard with this, how do you have time to color?
Haha, I know! I was just telling Steve the other day that I really need to take more time to just color for fun instead of for business.
I really appreciate this test. I have the Koh I Noor, Carb-Othello?/Stabilo, and a small set of the General’s brand. I’ve been thinking about picking up a set of Derwent, but not interested at all after this video. I have also been considering the Spectra fix but hesitated due to the uneven spray quality that happens. However, I’m really impressed by the fact that it kept the closest color to the original of them all. One of the problems with the fixatives is that they do darken your work, which is sometimes okay. When you look at the paper on the right side of the page you can see very clearly that the Spectra fix did not darken the paper color and it’s the same shade of blue as the original strip, while the rest of the paper on that side is significantly darker. Guess I pick up some SpectraFix after all 🙂 Thanks again for all the work that you do to inform us.
You’re welcome Patricia. 🙂
Very interesting workshop. Very surprised at the blending comparison, but not surprised by Caran D’Ache. That was the only one that blended really good. The water soluble test also worked out for Caran D’Ache. I thought some of the other brands would be more water soluble. Thank you for doing the fixatives, I have been wondering about getting a fixative and there were some that I think I liked.
Thanks for doing all the work to get all the answers about coloring.
Yes, that was a really good and surprising test.
I am looking forward to this series of workshops with pastel pencils. I have the full set of Stabilos and have not used them much. For posting this video for everyone in the Coloring Bliss family, I think is a good idea and would be good promotion. It would be nice to have people have a better idea how the workshops are set up and the benefits of learning all things coloring.
I was really impressed with how the Stabilos performed–especially considering their cost. And thank you for your feedback on using the video as a promo. 🙂
This is why we love and appreciate your hard work❤️👍
Thank you so much Karen. <3
Hi Jennifer,
The problem that I had with this video is that I could only end up watching it 2 minutes at a time. It had to constantly buffer. That was annoying but the video was good. I enjoyed watching it and may try again at a later time. This is a neat thing that you did. I have some pastels but not in the pencils. I may buy some later just because I love to use pastels from time to time.
Oh no, that’s odd that that happened. If you often have buffering issues like that I would recommend contacting Steve to see if he has any ideas for you. If it was just this video, maybe there were a lot of people watching at one time that caused it? I don’t know. I’m not a tech person, haha.
Excellent video. Learned a lot. By all means, make it public.
I have the Castle Art Pastel Tints. I thought I remembered you getting them and wondered why they were not included.
I have learned alote from this Jennifer.Thanks for putting in the time & effort into teaching us all about the pastel pencils…
So glad I caught this today! I actually placed an order a few hours ago for the Faber Castell 36 count because they were on sale at a ridiculously low price on Amazon. But I just canceled it because I learned that I am not ready to jump into this medium for sure! Thanks, Jennifer, this was a huge help. If I ever decide to take the plunge with pastel pencils I will check out the Stabilio first.
I wasn’t sure how to classify pastel pencils. Now I know. I prefer at this time to concentrate on pencils. I’ve watched a number of You Tube classes. Love them. Since I have only started a month ago I have zoned in on pencils first and add watercolor later. Sharon