Site Map

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Our Shop 
​at kofi.com
​About the tutor
www.karenmberisford.co.uk
News/Blog
ko-fi Store & Community page
What is ko-fi?
Contact Us 
Landing page

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Articles

ARTICLES FOR ARTISTS
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A GUIDE TO STARTING OUT WITH...
- Coloured pencils
- Graphite pencils
- Acrylic paints
- Soft Pastels
​- Oils (Guest post by Chris Chalk)
​- Oil Pastels (In progress - to follow)
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COLOURED PENCILS:-
- NEW UPDATE - Coloured pencils Comparison
- Blending with Coloured pencils
​- Coloured Pencil Range Checklist
- NEW UPDATE - Caran Dache Luminance
​- Caran d'Ache Luminance - New colours 2020
​- Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle
​- Derwent Chromaflow
- Derwent Lightfast
- Derwent Drawing
- Derwent Coloursoft
- Derwent Inktense pencils
- WH Smith Colouring Pencils
- Faber Castell Polychromos
- NEW UPDATE - Royal Talens Van Gogh pencils
​- NEW - Lyra Polycolor Profi-Plus Grey tones set
- Prismacolor Premier 
- Berol Karismacolor pencils

​ACRYLIC PAINTS:-
- Winsor & Newton Galeria Paints
- Acrylics product requirements
- GOLDEN Polymer Varnish update 

​​GRAPHITE PENCILS:-
- Derwent Graphic pencils
- Derwent Onyx Graphite pencils
- Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black review
- Derwent Graphitint pencils Review
- 5 must-have accessories for the graphite artist

SOFT PASTELS:-
- Unison Pastels
- Faber Castell Pitt Pastel Pencils 
- Stabilo CarbOthello Pastel pencils
- Derwent Pastel pencils
- Prismacolor Premier Nu Pastels
- 10 great tools for blending soft pastels

​WATER-BASED:-
- Ecoline Brush Pens
- Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle water based coloured pencils
​- Derwent Inktense pencils

​OIL-BASED:-
- Artisan Oil paints
- 12 Misconceptions About Oil Pastels
​- NEW - Mungyo Gallery Oil Pastels
- Paul Rubens HAIYA Oil Pastels 
- Sennelier Oil Pastels
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ART ACCESSORIES:-
​​- Ergonomic Arm Support
- Blending with coloured pencils
- Sharpening Pencils
- Handmade Pencil Storage Chest
- Zest-it 'Pencil Blend'
- Derwent Blender Pens
- Ghiant Transfer Spray
​- Loxley Fixative
​​- 10 great tools for blending soft pastels
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SUPPORTS:-
- Ampersand Board ranges
  - Gessobord
  - Pastelbord
​- Art Spectrum Colourfix paper review
​- Art Spectrum Colourfix smooth paper review
​- Bockingford hot pressed watercolour paper
- Bockingford Tints (NOT) watercolour paper
- Black papers - comparing 12 brands
- Canson Mi-Tientes 'Touch' Paper 
- NEW! - Canson Moulin du Roy Watercolour paper
​- Clairfontaine Pastelmat 
​-  Jackson's Uncradled Gesso Panel
- Legion Stonehenge
​- HP Watercolour papers
- Somerset Paper
- Strathmore 500 Bristol paper
- UArt Premium Dark Pastel paper
- Ursus paper
- Working With Tonal Papers
- Working with Textured paper for coloured pencil artists

​- Acid-Free vs Archival: What You Need to Know About Paper Quality for Your Art

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​Vegan Art Products

Information about environmentally and animal-friendly art products is essential. Each article addressing art products also indicates whether the product is vegan. This page serves as a comprehensive source of all such information, convenient for those seeking quick access.
Click the image to access the page.

Art Tutorials
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WRITTEN TUTORIALS

COLOURED PENCILS:-
- Watermelon -  UPDATED
A tonal layering, blending and burnishing exercise for beginners
- Snow Leopard Eye - UPDATED
Learn how to create fine detail in your pencil art
- Blueberries - How to successfully build pencil layers
- Creating waves - Indenting & blending to create high realism
- Glass jar - UPDATED
Create a 3D drawing using just 5 pencils
- Peacock feather - UPDATED
Creating feathers and layering vibrant colours
- Northern Lights - How to create an effective drawing using just 6 colours.

SOFT PASTELS:-
- Tonal Skies - NEW TUTORIAL
The basics of layering & blending with soft pastels
​- Autumn Leaf  - Building up layers and applying detail
- Swallow - A full length tutorial for all pastels artists
- Violet flower - Learning how to blend and achieve realism
​- Poppy fields - A simple pastel tutorial for all artists
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GRAPHITE PENCILS:-
- Layering & Erasing - The basics of application, layering and blending
- Dogs Eye  -  The importance of indenting & layering to achieve realism
- Facial features - A concise tutorial showing you how to draw human eyes, nose and mouths
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ACRYLIC PAINTS:-
- Tonal Backgrounds - Create seamless backgrounds with just a paintbrush
- Pink Orchid - Learn how to apply translucent washes for great effect 
- Weasel - Follow our tutorial outlining how to create a weasel in fine detail

OIL PASTELS:-
- Juicy Strawberry - UPDATED
A 10 minute tutorial for those new to oil pastels
- Wildflower Meadow - A simple, but effective tutorial for all artists..

VIDEO TUTORIALS

We plan to introduce video tutorials in the near future. As we are new to this, we ask that you please bear with us whilst we learn the basics.
We hope to bring you a few short samples and mini tutorials before we concentrate on full length tutorials.
We have a YouTube page ready to go and will be posting short videos there. We will also be uploading to our ko-fi page and may begin a Patreon channel in the near future depending on interest.

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STEP BY STEP TUTORIALS IN COMPANY MAGAZINES AND ART BLOGS

Ken Bromley art store - An Introduction to oil pastels
Colored Pencil Magazine - Blueberries in Coloured pencils
​Colored pencil magazine - Peacock feather in Coloured pencils
​Colored pencil magazine - Hare in coloured pencils
Colored pencil magazine - Northern Lights in coloured pencils

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Help & Advice for Artists
​​

- Working With Tonal Papers
- Working with Textured paper for Coloured pencil Artists
- Blending with Coloured pencils
​​- 10 great tools for blending soft pastels
- 5 must-have accessories for the graphite artist​​

- The art business - A beginner-friendly guide to the industry
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GUEST ARTIST ARTICLES:-
Chris Chalk Art - Starting Out With Oils