Everyone Has to Start Somewhere!
A few days later I was rummaging through my drawing/sketching drawer and found Fantasia Artists coloured pencils that I totally forgot that I even had! A great find, and they were just collecting dust in a drawer for years! They're a mid range artist grade pencil and they have a great smooth laydown, vibrant colours and they blended easily. I had the 24 pack, and upgraded to the 36 set that we found at A.C. Moore for $14.88. They're a little bit more on Amazon but not by much and so worth it!
Also, gel pens made a serious comeback because of the adult colouring trend, and I've always had gel pens from scrapbooking. I have Write Dudes brand which have 24 colours (metallic, neon, glitter, and classic) and they're the "cheaper" of gel pen brands but they have a nice application, even ink flow and they don't skip. You can get them on Amazon, or Walmart, where I had bought them in store.
Movin' On Up!
As for pencils, the first post I ever saw about a different brand of pencil other than Crayola (not many people know about Fantasias sadly) was Spectrum Noir pencils. They come in 5 sets- Essentials, Primaries, Floral, Marine, and Nature. I watched some you tube videos on them and from what I saw, the primaries and essentials really were the only ones that were worth getting at the time being they contained every colour and then some. The other three sets are pretty much a bunch of shades of one spectrum (nature being mostly greens and browns, floral being pinks and reds, and marine being greens and blues). So I invested in those two, and honestly wasn't really impressed with the way they performed. The colours are fantastic don't get me wrong, but layering and blending was super difficult with them. I'll be coming back to them one day, maybe once I get a better hang of how to go about blending with them.
Then Prismacolor Premiers were what kept popping up in colouring groups and I loved the results of people's pictures, so I went out and started with a 12 pack to see if they were for me. I liked that you could buy them in single pencils, so I figured since these sets were super expensive, I could slowly build up my collection. The laydown was smooth, and the colours were vibrant, and while it takes a lot of patience I came to learn with layering and layering to blend and reallyyy get into the tooth of the paper, they're nice pencils. Although the constant breaking and having to sharpen will drive even the sanest person crazy lol. Very frustrating and my only beef with Prismas.
HEADS UP! Buy single prismas HERE at www.carpediemmarkers.com.
They're the cheapest per pencil at a few cents over $1 a pencil and you get free shipping at $35, so you can slowly build your collection 35 pencils at a time!
As for my new gel pens-- I invested in Sakura gelly rolls! They're OUT OF THIS WORLD! They do take a bit to dry, but once they do they don't smudge or smear! I only use them for accenting pictures, not necessarily colouring large areas, as the ink would deplete super fast doing that. To get more bang for your buck best to use them for accenting and you can do what I did and buy them singly and slowly build up a collection (I went to Michael's where they sell single pens in the scrapbooking section) or you can buy small sets on Amazon or just go big and buy the whole entire set! It's totally up to you!
Climbing the Staircase to Colouring Heaven
DO NOT BEAT YOURSELF UP FOR NOT HAVING THESE PENCILS!
And frankly, owning them one day IS doable. Put away $10-20 every month and in a year or so YOU could have these IF you really want them :) Always look on eBay before settling with Amazon.
FRUGAL COLOURING TIPS 101!
#1. Blending solutions---you don't need all the jazz of expensive mineral spirits or anything like that. Baby oil or alchohol will suffice. Cheap, easy to find, boom, you have an awesome way to blend your pencils. And there are plenty of YouTube video tutorials on blending with both solutions!
#2. Eyeshadow--yes the makeup. Instead of chalk pastels (which can smear if not set correctly), which can get pretty costly, I use eyeshadow to make cool effective backgrounds. I'm sure everyone has that cheapo eye shadow palette that they received for Christmas from that one relative they never see (I have at least 3 makeup boxes just from that scenario LOL). It pretty much sets on its own and there are SO many colours. Not to mention, they set on their own, and don't smudge to the next page!
#4. Paper stumps/Tortillions- you do not need to buy these. you can make your own paper stumps (tortillions) that are used for blending colours and getting rid of pencil lines to have a seamless blended area! Here's a youtube tutorial!---->https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdMS8fa3VFI
#5. eBay!--I've come to find there are SO many good deals on eBay, better than Amazon. It just takes patience and diligent searching. "Buy it now" items are better than a bidding war because it's easy to get caught up in one, and always look for the free shipping items IF possible! Also, ALWAYS read the product description before buying! It's crucial to know EXACTLY what you're paying for. It would be a bummer to get used pencils in the mail. And make sure the seller allows the return of a product. Otherwise, eBay can be a huge money saver in those expensive items you might want (exactly how I scored my Polychromos)
#6. Slowly build your collection--Putting out a few dollars here and there for a few Prismas, Polychromos, or Sakura pens at a time may be the way to go instead of putting out over $100 at one time. Getting that full set can be accomplished. Baby steps!
#7. Organization--Want to organize your pencils but don't want to spend too much money on anything just yet? Start collecting your soup/veggie cans or even empty 1 quart paint cans that you can get at Lowes, clean them out, decorate them with scrapbook paper, and hot glue them together! Voila!
Colorista Must Haves!
#2. Secret Garden, Enchanted Forest, and Animal Kingdom--there are so many out there now, but these are really nice quality books out at the moment!
#3. Prismacolor Premiers--everyone needs to try these at least ONCE...even if you only buy a couple of your absolute favorite colours, you'll only spend a few bucks and you'll absolutely cherish them! (even though they do break alot)
#4. Fineliners--get in the nooks and crannies of detailed books with a good fineliner marker pen! But be careful of which books you use them in, as some paper is too thin and there could be bleed through!