Review of ART GRIP Aquarelle Watercolor Pencils

I won these Faber-Castell ART GRIP Aquarelle Watercolor Pencils at a Twitter Party held by Faber-Castell & Design Memory Craft.  You can see their review of the product at their blog.

I've played around a bit with watercolor-soluble pencils in the past, and wasn't wowed.  Other than the fact that the pencils are more portable, I didn't see any reason to abandon paint.  I may have changed my mind!

The Artgrip Aquarelle pencils are being marketed in blister packs that are color-coordinated.  I received the 'red' pack, which comes with 119-Light Magenta, 121-Pale Geranium Lake, 123-Fuschia, 124-Rose Carmine, 125-Middle Purple Pink, 126-Permanent Carmine, 133-Magneta, 136-Purple Violet, 251-Cold Grey II and a small brush.  I already had 152-Light Pthalo Blue & 107-Cadmium Yellow, which I haven't used in the art for this review, since I'm reviewing the 'red' set.

I did up a chart, but I don't usually find those very helpful.  My brain doesn't relate what I see in the chart to what happens on the page.  But they are useful when I want to replace a color and need to know what the name and number is.  What I like to do is use the media!  And what better than a zentangle?  I used 140 lb. Strathmore watercolor paper for my experiment.

I wanted to be sure that my string and tangle lines didn't smear, so I used a 133-Magenta Pitt Artist Pen (another win, and an upcoming review, lol!) to do the initial zentangle, and colored in with the Aquarelles.

What impressed me with these pencils is how creamy and smooth the color goes down.  I have arthritis and find it painful to apply the pressure needed with a lot of color pencils.  That isn't the situation here.  Even a light pressure results in an even color.  There were none of the pencil marks that can ruin the picture if not applied with great care.

Another thing that impressed me was the range of the colors.  You may have heard the term 'temperature' used, when referring to colors.  Colors that make you think of sunshine or fire are 'warm, while items that make you think winter or ice are 'cool'.  The theory is that warm colors seem closer and cool colors seem further away.  There is no 'ice' and no 'fire' in this selection of reds, but there is enough warm and cool that you can achieve some feeling of depth just in your choice of color.

I didn't get fancy since this is a first trial.  The watercolor paper has a lot of tooth, and I didn't try to saturate the surface, so there is a lot of white from the paper still showing through.  I used every pencil in the pack.

Then I grabbed the brush to wet the color, mostly intensifying it rather than trying to blend it.  I felt the result was a bit flat, since the intensity of each color was the same, so I added more of the purple violet & magenta. The color was easy to control.  I could blend where I wanted to, yet easily keep color separate where I wanted to.  You can see in the beehive rings where I got 'lines'.  This was done by adding the dry pencil over the wet color.  I could have smoothed them out with more water.

As I said, this is a pretty conservative application--sort a short spin around the block to see how the vehicle handles.  There are many techniques I'm eager to try out and you'll be seeing them soon!