Stones and Wood in Enchanted Forest - Episode 32 - Finished!

  

After 32 episodes, I finally finished this beautiful drawing from Johanna Basford's Enchanted Forest!

The first episode was uploaded in April 2016. So it took me more than 2 years to finish this project.
I used many different pencils brands and together they gave this wonderful result.
Projects like these give me the opportunity to use all my pencil brands and learn about their characteristics.

Faber Castell Polychromos

My Faber Castell Polychromos pencils did a great job. I love how they layer and I also love their subtle nature. They are a little translucent which make them perfect for sublte layering.

I also pick these pencils when nieces or nephews want to colour along. Polychromos pencils are so sturdy, they won't break, so I trust them in the hands of a toddler!

I also used my Bruynzeel Design pencils for layering. These pencils, although wax based, feel very similar to the oil based Polychromos pencils. At least, for me they feel quite similar. 

     

Sometimes however, a more bold pencil turned out to work better. For colouring the darkest shadows I turned to other pencil brands like Caran d'Ache Pablo, Caran d'Ache Luminance, Prismacolor Premier and Derwent Procolour.
I also used these other pencils brands when I wanted to make stronger accents.

I also discovered that harder pencils like Derwent Procolour and Tombow Irojiten do a great job when you want detail and subtle layering.

And there is this other thing about harder pencils that I'll try to explain:
Soft pencils give a lot of colour, but they also seem to give a lot of waxiness/greasiness. When I combine them with a harder, dryer pencil like Irojiten or Procolour, it seems like the harder/dryer pencils are absorbing the grease/wax...sounds strange, right? But I love combining softer pencils with these harder ones.
The harder pencils also pull everything together in a very sublte way. I love that too.

People often ask me if I can give them advice about which pencils they should buy.
Because all these beautiful pencil brands have their own characteristics it is very hard to give the right advice.
The best thing you can do is treat yourself on a trip to an art supplies store where you can try different pencils brands.

I put all 32 episodes of Stones and Wood in Enchanted Forest in a playlist. You can watch all episodes here:

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