Tag: Polychromos

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.

 

 

Updated information : Faber-Castell

Here is the new updated information on Faber-Castell. All the previously listed products are still free of animal derivatives, which includes the packaging. Additionally, I asked about the watercolours in pan format and starter set in tubes, Albrecht Dürer watercolour marker, grip fountain pens, converter, pastel toned and metallic textmarker, notebook A5 and A6– those are free of animal derivatives as well. Unfortunately I do not know whether this includes the manufacturing cycle  just the finished products. Back in 2017, concerning Faber-Castell’s cruelty-free status, I received the reply, that they neither tested on animals nor commissioned animal testing; not in Europe and not anywhere else. A person in the chemistry department  also mentioned back then (2017) for as long as they can look back – 30 years – to their knowledge, there hadn’t ever been commissioned such testing. It was also pointed out to me (again, 2017), that animal testing for painting -, drawing -, and writing supplies was forbidden by law in Germany.

Bearing the 2017 information in mind, I also asked about an update on the company status about the topic but unfortunately, I did not get any information about it this time, so I will place the  cruelty-free status as undisclosed for now (because of lack of new information).

cruelty-free status: undisclosed for now concerning the 2021 update (in 2017, cruelty-free)

Here is my updated ( incomplete) list of products, free of animal derivatives (this includes the packaging; not known whether this extends to manufacturing cycle as well):

  • Gelatos
  • Polychromos coloured pencils
  • Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils
  • regular erasers, kneadable erasers, pencil erasers
  • all Pitt Artis 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
  • tortillon/ 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)
  • Synthetic brushes
  • Broadpen
  • Faber-Castell ink
  • Grip fountain pen
  • Albrecht Dürer watercolour marker
  • pastel textmarker
  • metallic textmarker
  • (ink) converter
  • watercolour in pans
  • watercolour starter set in tubes+
  • notebooks DinA5 and DinA6

All Faber-Castell coloured pencil ranges are free of animal derivatives.

Additional information provided by Faber-Castell – products free of animal derivatives:

  • all pencils
  • all mechanical pencils
  • biros
  • biro lead
  • all coloured pencils (including Albrecht Dürer and Polychromos)
  • the entire Pitt Artist line
  • Fineschreiber 1511
  • Gelatos
  • Creative Studio pastels
  • Creative Studio oil pastels
  • soft pastels
  • Polychromos pastels (art. nr. 128 …)
  • erasers, including kneadable ones
  • textliner 48
  • metallic textliner
  • Grip marker (flipchart, whiteboard, textmarker pens, permanent marker)
  • Multimarkt
  • all Uni-Ball products (attention: Faber-Castell is  the distributor not the manufacturer)
  • sharpener
  • graphite chalk/crayon (Graphitkreide)
  • ruler
  • graphite and polymer lead
  • indelible pencils (Kopierstifte)
  • felt pen and double-sided felt pens (Faserschreiber)
  • T-Shirt marker
  • tortillion / blending stump/ estompe/ Papierwischer
  • all lead for mechanical pencils, including coloured lead
  • sanguine  crayon (Rötelkreide)
  • Jumbo Grip neon
  • all chalk (alle Kreiden)
  • ink
  • watersoluble graphite pencils
  • Art Grip watercolour pencils
  • Pitt Pastel pencils
  • Connector Deckfarben (opaque paint in pans)
  • foldable watercup
  • charcoal (zeichenkohle)
  • Pitt Monochrome
  • Ecco Pigment
  • brushes (art. nr. 481600)
  • Art & Graphic water brush
  • oil paint (tempera)
  • wax crayons art.nr. 122540, 120010, 120024
  • thermoplastic wax crayons art. nr. 122540, 120404, 120405
  • Pitt Graphite Crayons e.g. art.nr. 129902, 129905
  • Graphite Pure pencil art.nr. 1173…
  • natural charcoal art.nr. 129114, 129116, 129118, 129122
  • compressed charcoal (Reißkohle) art.nr. 129906, 129903, 129900, 129913, 129916
  • Creative Studio – watercolour paint in pans

Source: mail contact

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

 

white pens and pencils by Faber-Castell

I am happily suprised by the white Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens in B, 1.5 and C.  Last week I stumbled upon the set containing those three and a black pen in S. A couple of years ago I bought the big white pen with the rounded tip, but it was just too big to do highlights and I didn’t know there were other ones as well. I really do like the 1.5 for highlights. Not to bash the other two, because I  like B and C very much . On my doodle below you can see all the white Faber-Castell pens and pencils on black paper. You can layer them to bring them out even more. I’d pick them over gel pens any day; they can be layered, they don’t scratch of, they go on top of coloured pencils, etc. (without giving up), they apply evenly, they are more reliable (my comparison: white uni ball signo gel pen).

Faber-Castell white pens

How to soften coloured pencils

By chance I found a way to soften the hardened lead of my coloured pencils. Here is how …

What you need:

  • a tin to store your pencils in (preferably not so tall as the one I use)
  • scissors (in case you have to cut the sponge down)
  • 100% cellulose sponge; it is plant based, reusable and machine washable up to 60 ° Celsius ; the sponge is slightly moist/damp; (I layered 3 sponges, so the pencils have a ~3 cm/1 inch cushion)

When you take the sponge out of the package, you will notice it being a bit damp/moist. This is probably what  softens the pencil lead.

If the tips of the coloured pencils are sharpened to the utmost, the  top of the tips might brittle a bit off (not much just a bit) , but they apply so much smoother and more vibrant on the paper. I noticed this especially with my metallic Polychromos. I could practically carve into the paper with Gold, Copper and Silver but I could hardly see any colour on the paper. Now they run smoothly over the paper and the colour is clearly visible without applying a ton of pressure.