I’ve seen a lot of sketch artists (not sketchy artists, they’re legit talents, ha!) who’ve been using a really weirdly sharpened pencil; at first I thought they were the purists using knives to sharpen….I remember a friend in art school who insisted on that! But then I went to one artist’s profile link where they liisted supplies -and this crazy sharpener was there. And you know me….I had to give it a try. If that many people were using it, maybe they know something I don’t!
Video
As always, I give my tests a real-world spin, and in this case, I decided to color on vellum. I’d been wanting to try it anyhow, so this seemed a good project to test!
Watch the video or click HERE to see it on YouTube.
Surprisingly, the pencils didn’t instantly break on me! I was using heavy pressure too – just to push the pencils and put the points to the test. I felt comfortable enough after ‘sacrificing’ my first few pencils to go add a few more to the family of long-pointed Polychromos! I’ll have to run more tests with other brands.
I did use a brush with the Gamsol here – with a brush! On the vellum, it moved the color a little TOO easily since it was so wet and the vellum is a bit slick. Here’s the Tiny Tutorial about blending supplies that I talked about. (I post them on Instagram every Thursday if you like that kind of thiing! Find the old ones in the “highlight” (one of the yellow icons) on my instagram page.)
Coloring on vellum is a different beast – be careful not to brush your hand over the color or it’ll definitely move; I’m not sure there’s enough fixative out there to secure it. But – since vellum is semitransparent, you can put the pencil side facing downward! The red flowers then truly POP when colored on the front, too.
For the sentiment, I just stamped it on a square and tied a bow over the top to make it seem like a tag without having to thread it through anything. And the fact that this card has red and green on it – it’ll be a great card to send during my heavy mailing season: thanksgiving and holiday cards sent to all my patrons! I now have *one* done. *gasp* I need to get busy! ha.
Supplies
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- Long Point Pencil Sharpener
- Get the cactus stamps alone or with dies:
- 40 lb. Vellum – 25 pk, Essentials by Ellen
- Jet Black Lawn Fawn Ink Pad
- Polychromos Pencils: EH • BLICK
- Polychromos Hex Chart
- Gamsol Blending solution: EH • BLICK
Hi Sandy, this was the sharpener and the Quietsharp I chose between. My hubby was afraid that my hands would still hurt if I took this sharpener. In the end I went for the Quietsharp and am happy with it, but this one you show still beckons because of its long points.
You say that it does not make pointed points but to give them an extra fine point there is a special piece of sandpaper in the collection tray, did you know that?
I love your gorgeous cactus, thank you for sharing also a lesson in shadowing and what it does to a part of this cactus. Stay safe and have a wonderful day.
Mine didn’t have a special sandpaper but I may try one that I have..
Oké, it shout have. I thought the image above from the pencil sharpener was your sharpener and in the picture you see the littel piece of sandpaper in the collection tray.
I thought it was strange that you had overlooked it, I’m not used to that from you.
Now I know why you didn’t see or mention it.
Have a great day.
Thanks for the demo! I always love learning something new.
Lovely colouring Sandy … but those long pencil points do look really strange !!
So very realistic!!!!