I have been keeping my funky brain busy with some cartooning and some art over the last week or so, call it relaxation in the run up to Christmas and all the excitement that is literally lifting the roof of our house! Yep the mini Funky's are well and truelly excited for the man in the red suit and our house has gone from a tad untidy and in need of storage to a WINTER WONDERLAND and even more untidyness. Lametta and tinsel have it in for me, im sure they wait until i have put the hoover away and then throw themselves off the tree! And what is it with the Blu tak these days? It couldn't hold a piece of tissue paper up let alone a card, i'm forever picking them up as they fall off the doors! I remember when i was little i would use blu tak to hang my posters from my favourite magazines and my Mum would go nuts because it would pull the wallpaper off! Not a chance of that now, its as good as cellotape after its been ran along a hairy pair of jodphurs!
It's all worth it though, because on a night when those lights are twinkling and the tinsel and toys show their pretty colours it just makes you feel all gooey like a ginger bread just out the oven :)
I love my tree ~
So what have the pencils been dancing to? Well certainly not Christmas songs, i still consider it too early for those! Ive been enjoying some nice remixes of the chart hits going into my own little bubble and thinking of Funky ways to express Christmas with the GeeGee's. Ive done quite a few which i have been sharing on my Instagram and Facebook, I hope they make you Giggle ~
I love cartooning, i really, really do! It is so much fun and the only limit is my imagination . . . Which it seems has no limits, so limitless fun is what my creations bring me :)
Last blog post i talked about my favourite pens, for this blog post i'm going to talk about my favourite pencils that just LOVE TO DANCE!
I need a pencil that does the tango, the salsa and can street dance, they need to be hard wearing as i am terrible for dropping them or pressing too hard. They need to be BRIGHT, FUNKY, and let me express the FUNKY-NESS that i need to express without any limitation. And to add to that they need to be within my tight budget. I cannot afford the expensive top of the range brands i see advertised, I like my brands but i have to go midway on quality to stay within my budget. And as i use so many i also need pencils i can restock quickly.
I started working with watercolour pencils a couple of years ago and over this time i have tried out many and some i loved and have stayed faithful to, others were handed down to my children to scribble with as their pigments - or lack of, meant i couldnt release ANY FUNKYNESS. Not good for Miss Funky, but mini Funkys? Well they think they are well cool budding artists like mum!
SO, What are my favourites that i use regularly?
Reeves watercolour pencils, they blend beautifully and their colours are POW! they have a slight glaze to them when they are layered on top of each other. Remind me alot of the good old crayola pencils. They are also good price at around £10 for a pack of 12 and so far hey have handled my constant drop test i seem to put the poor things through! They also sharpen fab and are really comfortable to hold.
Also i use alot of Derwent watercolour pencils. I can only afford academy grade but i find that they work fabulous and layer really well. They range in price depending on what size pack, I recieved my last batch as a gift. They are readily available in most arts and craft supplies.
How i use them ~ I layer them up, starting with adding in my shadows i then build up my colours towards the lighter tones which layer o top. I tend to only use a damp brush if i want to blend the colours, sometimes i dont i just layer them and blend on top of each other. It really depends on the mood and how i want the finished cartoon to look. Whichever i choose Derwent watercolour pencils hold up to both, along with my small collection of Reeves which are so vibrant and soft so ideal for layering. Derwent pencils however don't seem to handle been dropped very often and i have broken the leads in many of them meaning they can be tricky to sharpen. The wood casing is also not very strong when it comes to sharpening them so i try and get Mr Funky to sharpen them with a knife for me when the edges get a little splayed. What i love most about the Derwent watercolour pencils is their huge variation of colours, I have so many colours to choose from that they really do give me the opportunity to add extra Funky-ness to my cartoons as i can add in many different tones and streaks of colour. They aren't as vibrant as some of the colours in the reeves set though and i especially love reeves red pencil which is so rich it jumps off the page!
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| Illustration in progress using a mixture of Reeves and Derwent watercolour pencils. |
Here is a picture brought to life using a mixture of Derwent and Reeves watercolour pencils and then brought to life with the Uniball Eye and Posca. The effect of layering and using a tiny weeeeeenie bit of water on a brush has transformed a picture into FUNKY GeeGee's and well a couple of Funky goats :)
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| Afternoon stroll ~ Watercolour pencil and Ink. |
I'd love to hear about your favourite brands of pencil and what you love most about them.
ALSO . . .
. . . DO YOUR PENCILS DANCE?
Well i'm off to create some more FUNKY-NESS as i watch my Christmas tree glisten. I will be back soon with some carole singing GeeGee's who are off around the North East of England singing so loud their little fetlocks are shaking and their forelocks are waving!
Catch up soon ~ Miss Funky and the GeeGee's xxx
