Inktense Pencils Review

Derwent Inktense pencils are our best watercolour pencil ever! You can use them dry but mix them with water and WOW! the colour turns into vibrant ink.  Once it’s dry the colour is fixed and you can work over the top of it, and, because it is permanent it’s great for using on fabric such as silk and cotton!
Taken from the Derwent website - www.pencils.co.uk

The 'Box' of Inktense pencils includes the full 72 colours.

A while back I was given the chance to try out the Derwent Inktense pencils (Many Thanks Sam for the loan!) Although a Coloured pencil Artist for over 30 years, my skills using Watercolours are minimal, so wondered how I would adapt to these pencils and if I would rush out and buy my own set as they seem quite universal. My findings detailed below are reviewed purely as a Inktense novice.

The first thing I noticed with these pencils are that the nibs are dark, there are no pastel colours here! It was also difficult to differentiate between certain tones ie - a warm green looked the same colour as a cool green in the box. A good tip would be to create a chart stipulating the pencil number/name and add both the pure colour and colour wash next to each - this is so handy to keep if you choose to use these pencils often.  I chose a simple but vibrant subject, the peacock feather and got to work layering all the colour tones onto a sheet of 300gsm Winsor & Newton Watercolour paper. The colours were rather dark once placed too but went on well - I was also able to apply a strong white over darker colours to create a 'shine' where required.

Creating the 'sheen' using the white pencil

I was rather impressed with the strength and vibrancy of the colours and the blendability of light and dark tones together were relatively easy (which can be challenging in normal pencils) and the outcome so far appeared quite effective.
With 14 greens, 12 blues and 13 browns to choose from (and attempt to differentiate between) as it was only a practice piece, precision was not high on my list of importance and simply selected 3 or 4 of each colour to help aid the realism of the effect.  As you can see in the photo to the left, these pencils give great definition but you may need to keep your pencils sharp (probably best once they are dry) to get very fine lines, as I felt they were a little soft - but this will depend on your own preference, I only state this as I am used to applying very fine details in my own work.

Once I had finished placing all my pencil tones, I took a fine brush, dipped it into water and wiped it over the pencil nib a few times to grab a stronger tone of the colour which now becomes an ink which is waterproof and permanent.
As I always ensure I check the lightfastness of a pencil brand, I noticed that it varies considerably - the Violets, pinks and some of the lighter blues tend to always have the lowest rating regardless of brand or pencil type - Derwent uses the 'Blue Wool' standard to check lightfastness with 8 being the highest.
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Derwent's official lightfast rating chart for Inktense pencils

I had roughly sketched in the right side of the Peacock feather so that I could try out the water layer and see how strong the colours were. Derwent states the dry pencils can be re-applied over the top of the dry ink to build up the layers and so I spent some time doing this, pencil, ink and lastly pencil again to finish.  I left the left side of the Peacock feather alone so I could see the variation between pencil & Ink.

I can see the appeal of using these pencils as the side treated with water becomes brighter and more vibrant than the pencil layers alone, however for me the definition was lost and as a Coloured pencil purist and not a watercolourist, I enjoyed trying them out but personally would not add them to my pencil collection as detail plays a major part in my own work - I would recommend you try a search for 'Inktense Artwork' there are some amazing pieces of work out there created by talented Artists using these pencils!

Which side do you prefer?

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