My love affair with the Lyra-Rembrandt polycolor premium oil-based colored pencils is not extending to the other pencils that I bought to try, the Stabilo- Carbothello pastel pencils. I'm finding them a bit more difficult to enjoy.
Sharpening pastel pencils is an exercise in frustration. To get the pastel in the right spot, the tip needs to be a point, but each time I had sharpened a pencil to the almost-point point, the "lead" would then snap completely off in the sharpener. Was I supposed to be sharpening with a utility knife?
And then there's the smudging. Where shading with the Lyras was a simple matter of laying down soft layers for color, any touch of the pastel pencil to the paper made a dense mark, and so I was doing some intentional smudging to lighten and shade areas--and dragging my hand over other areas and unintentionally smudging them. (I know. I should have had a protective paper under my hand. Next time.)
All told, Owen did come out acceptably OK, and I'm not completely turned off to the Carb Othellos. I just like the Lyras better.
After the next session, which mainly involved repeated erasing and redrawing of his right eye (on the left.) Which is still canted the wrong way, giving him a slightly Twistyface look.
Sharpening pastel pencils is an exercise in frustration. To get the pastel in the right spot, the tip needs to be a point, but each time I had sharpened a pencil to the almost-point point, the "lead" would then snap completely off in the sharpener. Was I supposed to be sharpening with a utility knife?
And then there's the smudging. Where shading with the Lyras was a simple matter of laying down soft layers for color, any touch of the pastel pencil to the paper made a dense mark, and so I was doing some intentional smudging to lighten and shade areas--and dragging my hand over other areas and unintentionally smudging them. (I know. I should have had a protective paper under my hand. Next time.)
All told, Owen did come out acceptably OK, and I'm not completely turned off to the Carb Othellos. I just like the Lyras better.
After the first session
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