In January 2014, Peter sorted out the pencils he uses regularly into a new set of zipped cases and prepared a small card to remind him of the performance of the contents of each set. The card for Inktense is presented here to show the vibrancy of the colours. They are a good option if you work with bright or strong colours. A number of professional artists like them for underpainting the paper before adding dry colour. It speeds up the painting process a great deal. There is quite a major step up in colour strength when wet, and you need to know what the effect of water is going to be before you set out on a picture. You will note the very strong colours involved and the high pigmentation. Most colours show up much stronger after the addition of water. The first column of the chart shows the colours in their dry state. The second shows the addition of water, first in concentration and then as a sweep of a small amount of the wet colour off into a paler, less concentrated form. Although suitable for all coloured pencil artists, they are aimed particularly at students and hobbyists, for whom price is a determining factor. Chromaflow pencils offer a good quality of creative experience without breaking the bank, and are a great option for beginners to experiment with and build on their skills. This doesn’t mean that professionals cannot use these pencils, it just means that you will need to factor in the lightfastness of some of the pencils ahead of using them. I for example would use them for creating a piece to make prints from and would keep the original if I had used any of the lower lightfast rating pencils in the mix.

Pencils | Derwent Pencils | Derwent

These are water soluble pencils which erase as a dry medium, but once water is applied they are permanent on the paper. We use different woods in the manufacture of our pencils and sometimes the wood may change during the lifetime of a pencil range. Chromaflow is made using fine grade pine which is perfect for the slightly slimmer barrel of the Chromaflow pencils. They especially work well with Derwent Coloursoft Pencils. Chromaflow pencils are also erasable so you can use this to an advantage to create highlights in your work. Chromaflow is a great value starter range Starting with the range that has been around for the longest and those are the Drawing pencils. The Drawing range has a distinctive velvety finish and come in a limited but beautiful natural earthy colour range. These are ideal for wildlife drawings, nature studies and creative atmospheric, evocative landscapes. They are also used for portraiture.Its important that you understand the prices I am listing here are prices put forward before Derwent have even officially announced the Derwent Chromaflow 36, 48 and 72. The reason I am highlighting this is because traditionally, when new products are released the prices shortly reduce.

Chromaflow | Derwent

The two issues I had with this style of marketing were as follows, if the Chromaflow were to be a replacement or at least near as dam it replacement to the Prismacolor for UK based colored pencil artists, why release them first in the US, when they are supposed to fill a gap in the UK market? My second issue was, if you are going to try and fill in for a product that sports a palette of 150, surely releasing only sets of 12 and 24 is way off the mark.Derwent released a new line of coloured pencils called Chromaflow in the Spring of 2021. As a relatively big fan of Derwent products, I was curious to try these pencils for myself. There seemed to be a lot of anticipation amongst coloured pencil artists for them, but who are they really best for and do they live up to the hype? This type of card is invaluable to keep with all your derwent pencils. Watercolour pencils tend to become much stronger on the paper when wet with water, so this guide will help you spot areas and colours to take care with. Don’t confuse permanence with lightfastness, there are still a number of lower rated pigments here, though not too many. I think it is important to note that Derwent did not create the Chromaflow to be highly lightfast and aimed at professional colored pencil artists, if you are looking for a highly lightfast product from Derwent there are plenty of other pencils in their range that will cater to your needs. One of the things I think Derwent excel at is providing pencils for certain groups, every group from young artists, crafters, adult colouring book artists, Professional Colored Pencils artists and many more are all catered for under the one banner.