Charcoal Swatching

My Jackson’s order finally made it through yesterday so I was almost ready to start using the charcoals but first I set out to the shops.

I headed first to Frances Iles in Rochester, a long standing art shop and gallery that will unfortunately be closing down later this year.  I’d heard a rumour that they were selling off bunches if Derwent charcoal pencils cheaply.  And the rumours were true!  Five pencils for £3 was a ridiculous bargain.  There were four colours that I was keen to add to my collection and I found three of them (I couldn’t find sunset pink) so went for those three plus a couple of others that I didn’t have.

Next I headed for HobbyCraft.  Just for a look around and to see whether they had any open stock charcoal pencils.  They didn’t.  But I did find a set of Derwent XL charcoal blocks for £15.  They’re normally about £25 at Jackson’s, Ken Bromley and Amazon and tend to get smashed up while in the post, so it was a no brainier to buy these.  And I bought some smooth white paper to add to the textured coloured paper that had arrived that morning from Jacksons.

And then I stayed up late last night in the studio doing swatches.  I did two sets.  The one at the top on the white 220 gram Seawhite mixed media paper and the one underneath on the tinted 160 gram Tiziano pastel paper (I chose a light grey page).

So what did I discover?  Well:

– the texture really shows up on the pastel paper

– it was harder to smooth out colours on the pastel paper: they preferred to stay where they were on that paper whereas on the mixed media paper it’s hard to tell where the colour was laid down after it’s been smoothed out

– the XL blocks contain much more colour than the charcoal pencils

– the XL blocks also feel different.  They’re buttery, more like oil pastels than charcoal

– the colours are amazing.  I never knew blacks could be so varied.  And that elderberry colour is so elderberry.

– maybe I should experiment with a bit of colour mixing on some scrap paper before starting my first drawing.  I’ve heard that the white XL block mixes well with the other XLs

– I find myself preferring white paper for its texture and thickness.  After spraying with fixative, the tinted paper is buckling and feeling thinner than I’d prefer.  If they could make smooth 220gsm paper in a variety of tints, then I’d be in there like a shot.

Anyway, time for me to get started properly now.