The Albrecht Apple

Since I enjoyed comparing apples to apples with my Crayola and Museum pencils, I continued through my pencil collection using the same Kanzi apple. This sketch was done with Faber-Castell (F-C) Albrecht Durer Watercolour Pencils.

The quick take away (in case you don't want to read all my thoughts):

• Soft, creamy, heavy pigments with large cores (but not as soft as Caran D'Ache [CdA] Museum pencils)
• Great artist grade pencils, a little less pricey than CdA Museum pencils
• Fine details in watercolor pencil sketches can be retained by using hard, dry colored pencil under the watercolor pencil.
• Beware of auction fever when bidding in an online auction 

F-C Albrecht Durer are considered top tier artist grade colored pencils. What that means is I should expect more pigment, creamier application, and better light fastness. I'm not really concerned about lightfastness, how much the colors fade when exposed to light, as I am not displaying my sketches. These pencils have a hexagonal barrel that is painted to match the lead color. The barrel and leads are larger diameter than the average pencil, I have to move up one hole on my manual rotary Titanium pencil sharpener to fit the barrel in the sharpener.

Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils
Primary triad: Middle Purple Pink; Light Ultramarine; Chromium Yellow

The 3.8mm leads compare in size to the leads in the CdA Museum Aquarelle pencils. You might not think that extra 0.5mm diameter, when compared to a 3.3mm lead as in Crayola colored pencils, would make a big difference in color application. It does when the lead is soft and creamy because a larger amount of color can be quickly transferred to the paper. However, if fine detail is needed, a harder and smaller diameter lead works better than a big creamy lead. In comparing this sketch to the quick sketch I did with CdA Museum pencils, this sketch appears have sharper edges, more detail. That is expected, as the Albrecht Durer pencils are a little harder and retain their points longer than the Museum pencils. I also felt a little more "drag" when applying.

I received one F-C AD pencil in a gift box from my favorite enabler (you know who you are!) and I liked the strong pigment and the feel of the bigger barrel. So I got excited to see a used 36 pencil set in an online auction from shopgoodwill.com. This was a classic example of auction fever on my part. I calculated the cost of my bid based on what individual pencils would cost me from Blick but didn't look at the price for a set. Duh! I ended up paying the same price for a set of lightly used pencils at auction that I would have paid for a new set at Dick Blick art supplies. I'd like to say I will never do that again, but no guarantees.

Swatch test: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer
watercolour pencils, 36 pencil set (+1)
The shadows on the upper left column are
transfer from swatches on page two.
page one

Swatch test: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer
watercolour pencils, 36 pencil set (+1)
page two

One advantage to getting a 36 pencil set is I had several choices in yellows, blues, and reds to make up triads. As a comparison with my previous apples, I tried to select three colors closest to Magenta, Cyan, and Yellow (the triad used in printing and recommended by John Muir Laws for nature journaling). Oddly enough, the pencil labeled Magenta did not match as well as Middle Purple Pink. In swatching, Light Ultramarine looked most like Cyan. Cadmium Yellow is a warmer tone than Light Yellow Glaze. I get dizzy thinking of all the primary triads I could test from this set!

Kanzi apple sketched with Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils.
Yellow lenticle spots were added with dry pencil applied before watercolor layers.

The triad swatch shows how much pigment is picked up by the waterbrush and moved to the adjacent paper. I added a technique with this pencil to try to retain in the sketch the tiny yellow lenticles (if that's what they are called) that apples display. Somewhere it was suggested to use a dry pencil to lay down fine details in a sketch before using watercolor pencils for the color. The watercolor pencils will not cover up the waxy dry pencil marks, especially after water activating. I used a vintage Sanford Verithin pencil in Canary Yellow to get the tiny yellow dots to show. After applying several layers with the watercolour pencils, I used a Pentel waterbrush to lightly stroke the apple, which brightened and blended the color. The lenticles were visible before water activation, and more so afterwards.

The cast shadow looks too yellow to me, from the experience I've gained in sketching more apples it would have been more balanced if I had followed with another layer of blue, then red.

Next in the comparison is a set of Caran D'Ache Supracolor II soft pencils. More apples up on top! (a Dr. Seuss book club reference).