Tag: Faber-Castell

Luminance and Polychromos – the differences

I was asked for advice about the differences of Luminance and Polychromos coloured pencils. First of all, I would like to say, if you have the chance to try both out, do it and see what fits your needs best.

They have both great lightfastness, the Polychromos range is bigger with 120 pencils. The Polychromos are a harder coloured pencil and they are oil based. The Luminance coloured pencils are wax based, of a creamy consistancy. You also have to check for exceptions with the Luminance range, not all are free of animal derivatives ( exceptions ).

Generally, what  I found was:

for Luminance (Caran d’Ache):

  • creamy consistancy
  • very vibrant
  • practically able to burnish and layer infinitely
  • the white Luminance coloured pencil and other light colours are great for highlights
  • effortless dense burnishing with not much pressure
  • 76 colours available
  • wax based
  • great lightfastness

 

for Polychromos (Faber-Castell):

  • harder coloured pencil
  • oil based
  • 120 colours
  • 3 metallics in the 120 colour range – gold, silver and copper – that do not apply well to not at all
  • allows to sharpen into very pointy tip
  • great for very fine details
  • soft colouring and blending
  • are limited in layering /burnishing layers
  • great lightfastness

 

Luminance and Polychromos apply both well on top of watercolour, with gentle touch on top of gouache (with more pressure the gouache gets grated off) and on top of matte acrylics.

It is truly up to your own preference, what colour shades you need and the purpose you need them for. I use both.

For pencil dust removal, I mostly use a vegan baby kabuki make-up brush , which is great to get the pencil dust off of small areas. For larger areas I use a brush with handle, which is called “Zeichenbesen” in German. It looks like the brush you use with a dustpan (or a short handled toothbrush). If you dust with your hand, you risk smudging.

Another option are the watercolour pencil ranges (Albrecht Dürer and Supracolour Soft are my examples), which apply creamier compared to  e.g. the Polychromos.

 

You find my latest Caran d’Ache blog post here ; and my compendium entry. Remember, not all Luminance coloured pencils are free of animal derivatives, there are exceptions.

My latest blog post about Faber-Castell is over here , and there is also my compendium entry.

 

 

Faber-Castell meat marking pen discontinued

Hello everyone,

I was approached by a reader that Faber-Castell was selling a pen to mark meat and cattle/animals for the meat market.

I contacted Faber-Castell and they answered that they no longer produce said meat marking pen.

I do not know for how long they sold this pen and when they discontinued it.

The reader also raised the concern that if a company sells such a pen it can’t be called cruelty-free.

Please see my next blog post about the term “cruelty-free”. It can be interpreted in a variety of ways, which I will explain more.

Here you find my other latest “cruelty-free topic” post. “Cruelty-free” in its mainly used meaning as “free of animal testing” and its different levels.

 

Source: mail contact

Faber Castell update

Yesterday, I received an update from Faber-Castell. They sent me two statements to publish here: the English Version and a German Version for you to read.  According to those, the vast majority of products is free of animal derivatives.

They are still a cruelty-free company on all levels. They do not test on animals nor commission it by other parties.

I did reach out to them again today, to double check once more that all of the products previously listed in my February 2022 update are still free of animal derivatives and I also asked about the Fude Pens, which I forgot to ask about in December.

 

my Faber-Castell entry in the Compendium

Faber-Castell Vegan Statement 2022

Faber-Castell Vegan Bescheinigung 2022

Source: Mail contact

Faber-Castell

Following new Faber-Castell products are free of animal derivatives – including the manufacturing process:

  •  115210 Pitt Graphite Matt
  •  160701 Creative Marker – white as snow, Creative Marker blackout
  •  160806 Neon Marker
  •  2818.. brush line
  •  2828.. brush line
  •  all brushes that are part of drawing/painting sets

The material used for all brush hair is nylon.

Faber-Castell is a cruelty-free company on all levels; they do not test on animals, neither commission other parties to do so; the raw material chain is free of animal testing

They would like you to know, that animal testing for art-, writing- and drawing materials/ supplies is banned in Europe.

No animal based raw materials are ever used as auxiliary supplies/ additives in Faber-Castell’s entire production.

source: mail contact

compendium entry

Faber-Castell website

new enquiries sent out: paper edition

Hello everyone,

in the last two days I looked into four companies concerning paper products;

I wrote to:

  • 31st of January 2022, Strathmore – for an update (compendium status: March 2017)
  • 1st of February 2022, Hahnemühle – for an update (compendium status: March 2017)
  • 1st of February 2022, Fabriano – for un update (compendium status; March 2017)
  • 1st of February 2022, Moleskine – first enquiry

You will find the 2017 information in this post or in the compendium.

 

Unfortunately, I have nothing new to report from my Mid-November enquiries, I have yet to receive replies from Faber-Castell (concerning new products), Etchr, Léonard and da Vinci/ Defet.

 

 

 

more enquiries sent out

Hello there,

I have sent out more enquiries to companies, concerning updating their profile on here;because they brought out new products . There are also companies I have written to for the first time.

Here is the lot of them:

  • I wrote to Faber-Castell about their brushes (update), their new neon markers and their new white-as-snow marker and their blackout marker.

You find a list of Faber-Castell’s products here.

  • I wrote to Etchr (Etchr Lab) for the first time
  • I wrote again to Mon Marte
  • I wrote to Gelli Arts for an update
  • I wrote to Léonard (brush manufacturer) because they brought out brush sets labelled “vegan”
  • to Coliro (Finetec Pearlcolors) for an update
  • to da Vinci (Defet; brush manufacturer) for an update

I think those are all at the moment that I’ve written.

Although I am working my way through updating all my entries (please bear in mind that if I didn’t attach any date to an entry in the compendium, the information could reach back as far as 2017), I am open to hearing from you any companies you want me to write to. I’ll put them first. I know what time of year it is and if you are looking present-wise for your wishlist or someone else, or just because you need to let out your creativity, tell me about the company (maybe mention what product range as well, if they offer many); of course we need also to factor in the time it can take a company to reply. So the sooner, the better.

You reach me here mail@veganartstuff.info

 

white opaque pens and alternatives

Uni Mitsubishi (Signo gel pens) and Pilot did choose not to disclose information about their products and companies (information on Uni : 2017; newest information on Pilot: 2021)

Faber-Castell is a distributor for Uni Ball and informed me (April 2021) that all the Uni Ball products they distribute, are free of animal derivatives; however, this concerns only the materials not Uni’s status (concerning the cruelty-free topic);

Speaking of Faber-Castell, these might work for you:

  • Pitt artist pen in white (my opinion when I got them when they came out: not very opaque; buildable, for small highlights , best stored horizontally)
  • watercolour pencils e.g. Albrecht Dürer; wet or dry application; of course pencils will last you practically a lifetime
  • gelatos – watercolour in stick form; blendable with finger;
  • oil pastel in white – should be very opaque
  • soft pastel
  • white pastel stick or Pitt pastel pencil; lovely over watercolour and alcohol markers …

Those are just examples (information from 2021); of course you can use any  gouache or acylic paint (or pens, pastels, …) free of animal ingredients; my other brand informations on e.g. Culture Hustle (Stuart Semple), Liquitex , Golden Paints, Qor Watercolors and others are older (2017, 2018) , but you might want to look into them.

It depends also on what surface and other medium you are working with. I for example used gelatos in the past on canvas and like Pitt pastel pencils over watercolour and alcohol marker.

 

Faber-Castell’s ink and broadpen

The broadpen,Faber-Castell ink and their synthetic brush range are  products newly added to my Faber-Castell list of vegan-friendly products.

  • broadpen: document proof, 0,8mm line width, 12 available shades; lovely for writing – my favourites are turquoise, blue and black
  • synthetic brushes
  • Faber-Castell ink : available in four colours: black, blue, pink and turqoise; the shades blue and pink are erasable; black and turquoise cannot be erased; the ink is not document proof; (the waterproof and lightfast alternative by Faber-Castell are the Graf von Faber-Castell inks)

Here is the list of vegan-friendly products by Faber-Castell:

  • Gelatos
  • Polychromos coloured pencils
  • Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils
  • regular erasers, kneadable erasers, pencil erasers
  • all Pitt Artist products
  • Pitt Artist pen and brush pen
  • Pitt calligraphy pen
  • Pitt Artist pen metallic
  • Pitt Artist pen sanguine /Rötel Pitt Artist
  • black lead / graphite pencils/Bleistifte
  • graphite aquarelle pencils
  • Art Grip aquarelle pencils
  • Pitt Pastel Pencils
  • jumbo lead pencils
  • mechanical pencils
  • mechanical pencil refills; coloured and lead ones
  • Pastel crayon Polychromos
  • paper wiper Estompe
  • soft pastels
  • oil pastel crayons
  • foldable watercup
  • Charcoal  natural Pitt/ Zeichenkohle
  • sharpener
  • Pitt Monochrome
  • Ecco Pigment
  • Grip lead pencils and mechanical pencils
  • Grip Textmarker & Textliner
  • Multimark Marker
  • Art & Graphic Water Brush
  • Graf von Faber-Castell inks
  • Goldfaber Coloured Pencils
  • Goldfaber Aqua Watercolour Pencils
  • Oil Colours (Creative Studio)
  • Broadpen
  • synthetic brushes
  • Faber-Castell ink

All Faber-Castell coloured pencil ranges are vegan-friendly.

Find Faber-Castell in the compendium.

Source: Mail contact

 

new inquiries sent out

I wrote to following companies :

  • Prima Marketing (2nd attempt) about their status and watercolours
  • Faber-Castell about there inks and new synthetic brushes; the Graf von Faber-Castell inks  are vegan-friendly.
  • C.Kreul; you can find a list of already verified vegan-friendly products in the compendium or here.