The Results of Using Derwent's Blender Pens

  Back in January, I made a review of Derwent's blender pens. (Click this link if you'd like to see it. Don't worry. I'll wait here for you until you've finished reading it...)

  I loved the blender pens so much that for my April 2015 Giveaway, I chose them as the giveaway prize.

  It then occurred to me that I never showed a before and after photo of me using the blender pens... So without further ado, allow me to show you why I feel that these pens are magic and that every coloured pencil artist should have a set.

  This is a drawing of a bird that I've been working on in my sketchbook:

As you can see, the colours on the bird look rich and properly blended whereas the shades of brown on the tree stump look speckled and the colour of the paper is showing through.
Let's use the Derwent blender pens on the tree stump, shall we?

Voila! The speckling is almost completely gone.
I did not add any other layers of coloured pencils from the previous picture.

  The more layers of coloured pencils you put on the paper before using the blender pen, the richer the colours will be. I feel that right now, the tones on the tree stump aren't saturated enough. But you know what? I can always go over it again and add more layers, then use the blender pen again after. That's how I got the yellow on the bird to be able to fully cover the blue of the paper and still look so bright.

  The blender pen is amazing, I tell you. And I bought three sets just because I can't really tell when the pens will dry out, and I don't want to be stuck with not having one... I mostly use the thicker 4mm nib, but it's good to have the 2mm nib for finer details. The only complain that I have would be that I actually would want a thicker nib than the 4mm one for larger areas... But other than that, I highly recommend it. :)

April 2015 Giveaway

  I can't believe this will be my fourth giveaway already. ˆ-ˆ

  If you recall, I did a review of the Derwent blender pens before and loved them. They're really great for coloured pencil artists who are looking for a smoother "look" to their drawings. (Link to review here.)

  Since then, I've bought three more packs of Derwent blender pens and have also decided to give you one of you lucky readers a set!

Rules:

• You must live within Singapore to join this giveaway. I'll cover the postage fee so you don't have to worry about that.

• Giveaway starts on 6th April 2015, 10:00, Singapore time and ends on the 4th May 2015, 10:00, Singapore time.

• Please provide an e-mail that I can contact you with if you win the giveaway. The winner will be contacted by email within 48 hours after the giveaway ends.

• If you have any additional questions, feel free to send me an email- stephanie_jennifer@ymail.com

Other than that, you can join via the widget below. Anddd~ Good luck!

Update: Here's a post with proof that I sent out the prize to the winner ---- (click me)

Try Out Thursday: Derwent Blender Pens

Review of Derwent's Blender Pens that I bought from Art Friend..

  I actually had these blender pens for a while now but never got around to using them....

  They come in this pretty yet simple packaging. Nothing fancy. The back of the pack says, "Derwent Blender pens are designed specifically for use with pencils, allowing the artist to blend away pencil lines for smooth and even colour. They are effective with both colour and graphite pencils. ... Pencil can be layered over the top if required. Use the smaller nib for fine detail."

As you can see, the pack comes with two pens- one 4mm and one 2mm.

The smaller nib is a brownish tone, whereas the larger nib is white. In the picture, the larger nib is slightly blue because of the colours I used it on. However, even though the nib is stained the colours don't transfer if you take care to wipe it on a piece of scrap paper after each use.

  The pens smell kind of like whiteboard markers which might bother some people. I think you just have to use some common sense and keep the room well-ventilated (even pastels are harmful... so.)

  My only grief is that I think a bigger nib would be so useful for coloured pencil artists cause some of us work large scale. A flat and broad nib would be really useful. This would really speed up the time taken to finish a drawing, and I loved how you could still layer more colours on top of it.

I drew a jellyfish and then layered Coloursoft pencils as a background.
The colours dissolved very well. The black ink is from Derwent's Graphik line maker pens, and they didn't smudge. I'm really happy about that cause I now know I can ink the things I draw first, erase the pencil markings, and then colour in the background without worry.

  You might think that the gradation isn't very smooth, but this was from my sketchbook and I didn't lay the coloured pencil strokes down very well, plus I didn't add a second layer to it. But I can tell that the blender pens would work really well for my future works.  I'll definitely be using the blender pens more often in the future.

  Update: To see a before and after comparison of using the Derwent blender pens, click this link to see the magic.

  Now, I need to get my hands on Derwent's blender and burnisher pencils to try them out....... ^-^