ãCopyright Graham Owens 2006
Below are reviews of materials I use to create my drawings. Hopefully these will help you when choosing your materials
Crayola Colour Pencils - My personal favourite, great quality colour pencils and really great value. Crayola pencils are quite firm and are great for details. When used on rougher paper they blend together very well
Score: 10/10
Faber Castell Pencils - great pencils too. They are more expensive then Crayola pencils but do have a great range of vibrant colours. Faber Castell are also available as singles, meaning you don't always have to buy a full box, if there are a few extra colours you need.
Score: 8/10
Canson Paper (textured) - very high quality paper, equally as good for colour pencils and pastels. Canson paper comes in a great range of light, earthy colours. This textured paper is great if you are looking to blend colours in your drawing and really stands up well to blending with cotton buds. Coloured paper also allows you to make use of your white pencils for skin/hair highlights, etc.
Score: 9/10
I'll be adding more reviews soon so check back for updates!
Cartridge paper is also excellent for colour pencil drawings. It is widely available, I think all major brands produce pads of cartridge paper. Go for thicker types - 170GSM - 190GSM since thicker paper holds multiple layers of colours very well.
9/10
I sometimes use watercolour paper if I want my drawings to look textured and a little raugh. It is harder to produce finer details on watercolour paper but I still find raugh,sketchy drawings quite interesting.
Score: 7/10
Lyra Rembrandt colour pencils are excellent, I use them in combination with Crayolas and they blend together very well. Of course, they are also great on their own, I just like to experiment and mix different brands of pencils and found that Crayolas and Lyra are a perfect match. And I love a handy metallic box!
Score: 9/10
I sometimes use watercolour paper if I want my drawings to look textured and a little raugh. It is harder to produce finer details on watercolour paper but I still find raugh,sketchy drawings quite interesting.
Score: 7/10