DERWENT BLENDER PEN
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Derwent Blender pens are designed for use with pencils; they allow the artist to blend away pencil lines, creating smooth and even colour and are effective with both colour and graphite pencils.
Taken from the Derwent website - www.pencils.co.uk

For artists who prefer not to use solvents with their coloured pencil work, the Derwent Blender Pens can be an interesting option. Designed for use with wax-based pencils, these alcohol blender pen allow the artist to blend away pencil lines, creating smooth and even colour. Effective with both colour and graphite pencils.

​This review was undertaken to provide an observational account of the pens' performance and is based on how the pens work on a variety of papers rather than on their performance with different pencil ranges. This approach makes the review particularly suitable for other artists who are also new to using solvents.

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• Professional quality alcohol blender pens for use with pencils; perfect for professional artists as well as amateurs
• Designed for use with pencils, for blending away pencil lines and creating smooth and even colour; effective with both colour and graphite pencils
• Creating varied effects thanks to 2 nib sizes: 2mm for precision and 4mm bullet nib for blending away pencil lines

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On Dark, smooth paper - Ursus

I have a few old pieces of artwork that I have stored away that I will use for trials such as this and this self portrait which was completed on Ursus black paper did not quite turn out the way I was hoping because I was unable to get a smooth finish on the skin and so decided that trialling the Blender Pen on it would not spoil it in any way. You can see a slight difference in the before (left) and after (right) images and the pen did smooth the skin out much more than having simply blended with just wax pencils (Caran Dache Luminance range), but it was minimal to the other trials I did found below.

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On light, textured paper - Colourfix

For this example I used an old portrait of a Siberian Tiger that I created on Colourfix paper a few years back for one of my art workshops, I like working with textured paper but I personally prefer a smooth surface as the detail I like to achieve in my own work can be very difficult to achieve on a grainy paper like Colourfix and so I was intrigued to see how the blender would work on this paper. As soon as I laid the pen over the pencil colour (WH Smith brand) the colour strengthened and seemed to become thicker/heavier in appearance - the 'white specks' noticeable in the first image became almost invisible and had I used this type of 'solvent' all over the image, it would create the same effect over the rest of the artwork,  hiding most of the white flecks seen in the paper grain that the pencils could not reach.

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On Dark, textured paper - UArt

Having trialled out an Amur Leopard eye on the UArt Dark paper recently I thought I would see how the Blender Pen would help to improve this drawing and I decided to use it over 4 different areas - those marked with a star on the 'after' image (as well as the eye) The brilliant thing about this pen is that it works brilliantly as a 'base smoother' the layers of loose pencil that are applied can then be thickened up with the blender pen, once it has fully dried, further layers can be applied over the top which appear much finer and offer more effect than before. I do not know if Derwent created this blender pen with this advantage specifically in mind but it's a pretty good selling point and it's a shame that Derwent provide such little information on this product as I'm sure that selling point alone could encourage many coloured pencil artists to add one to their collection.

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Blending Graphite Pencils

Apparently it can be used with graphite pencils also, however as I prefer to use a smooth paper called Ursus for most of my pencil art, it had no effect. 

A simple study on watercolour paper offered little improvement on the effects of the blender pen over graphite. In my own opinion, I would not recommend it's use with graphite.

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The Best Choice - Wax based pencil on Watercolour paper

The blender pen seems to work much better over wax based coloured pencils on paper that accepts water soluble media as it seems to smooth out the layers of coloured pencil far better than a paper that only accepts dry mediums.

I decided to trial the blender pen on the petals of the poppy using the SAA's Trial Watercolour paper - the results were immediate and pretty impressive and I found it quite exciting to see how the colours blended so well together during application. Areas marked with stars are the untreated areas.

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Pencil brand examples

Not all pencils work with the blender pen. I tried it on three coloured pencil ranges and a graphite pencil range and found that the most effective results were with the wax based coloured pencils, especially the Prismacolor Premier range. When applying over the Polychromos oil based pencils, it seemed to lighten the colours, maybe even break some of the pigment down and for this reason I would not recommend them for these pencils, although it may be better to try a sample first. When using with graphite pencils, I found they simply blended all the different grades into one dark, shade - again, probably not really suited to use with graphite pencils in my opinion. The results may vary  depending on the pencil brand you use as well as the type of paper and it may be worthwhile trying out a few samples before using it over a drawing that will be offered for sale.

Hints, Tips, Positives & Negatives

There are always Pro's and Con's with any art product and I have included a few pointers below with photos so you can see how the blender pen effects each one.

AVOID OVER USE
I wouldn't recommend too many applications of the blender, this portrait was saturated with coloured pencil and applying a second layer of blender meant the pencil began to dissolve even more than the first which left an area damaged, there is a possibility it could even be beyond repair.

KEEP THE TIP CLEAN
Using the blender pen on textured paper like this Colourfix, will saturate the nib of the pen as a lot of the pigment from the pencil can sit on the grit of the paper. When blending with the pen, It makes the colour much more vibrant which is wonderful but it means you will need to constantly clean the tip of the pen on a sheet of clean paper to avoid dirtying or mixing colours together.

APPLICATION MARKS
After having used the blender pen over a piece of art, when tilting the artwork and allowing the light hit the image at a certain angle,  you can see where you applied every mark as it shows as a sheen over the top. However, some coloured pencils also leave a bloom that looks a lot like this that can also be viewed under the same conditions and these marks do not spoil the artwork when viewed at the normal angle.

DARK BASE PAPER
This blender pen works in that the solvent inside the pen slightly melts the wax of the pencil layers initially laid down to create a smoother transition of colours, as the solvent is a liquid absorbed into the nib of the pen, working on dark base papers means it will cause the area you overlay to darken too until the solvent has dried. Ensure you take this into consideration as you work. 

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