Pencil LOVE - Derwent Coloursoft Pencils.

I've loved all sorts of art my entire life--and coloring  and sketching with pencils is just one of the many things I like to do. Recently, I was going through my big box of various types of colored pencils that I accumulated over the years and found some Derwent brand amongst them. I remembered that I got them many years ago, (I won't tell you exactly how long ago that was) when I was in high school art class.  I picked them up and started using them on some art I was doing and "LOVE" happened all over again. These were all so well used that I decided it was time to get some more.  So I went on a hunt from professional colored pencils--preferably the same brand.

The world seems to be in love with the Prisma Color brand. They are nice--and I have some.  But to me, nothing can compare with the velvety smoothness of my Derwent brand.  A search found that the exact set of pencils I had from long ago were no longer made, but I found a lot of references to Derwent Coloursoft brand.  The reviews were all very favorable and many preferred them over Prismacolor brand.  I found

a set of 36 on eBay for less than half the retail price (new and still wrapped in their tin) so i instantly bought them.  

I've had them for over a week now and have used them many times. I was NOT disappointed. They are wonderful pencils. Wow.  I love how they blend and layer so smoothly.  I like to hold my pencil vertically and use tiny circular strokes and shade.  I sometimes fill larger areas with a bit of "cross hatching" to give it the hint of color. The above "Home Sweet Home" is a Currier and Ives lithograph that I found on the internet. It was only in black and white, so I decided to give it some light tinting with the pencils. I think it came out lovely!

So I had to have more colors. Luckily, Dick Blick has open stock on them, so I was able to get some more shades of green (how many greens are there?) reds and purples.  And I know I'll eventually get all of them! (Which isn't such a bad thing!)