Coloured Media

Which media did you find most expressive?
Lends itself to detailed work and are most enjoyable to me?


For this part of the course I tried coloured pencils, Inktense pencils, oil pastels, felt tip pens and markers, watercolour pencils as well as coloured inks with dip pens and pastels.

Overall I believe it's difficult to suggest that one media is more expressive than another as although something that lends itself to working quickly can produce what I would call an energetic drawing with vitality, it's possible to be expressive with a fine point. It surely depends on the outcome desired.

Very detailed work is made easier with finer points such as coloured pencils and pens where small areas of detail can be achieved.


I enjoyed the conte crayons, as indeed I enjoyed many of the media that can be used quickly. However, as mentioned above detail may be more difficult to achieve. I believe conte crayons can be sharpened to a point but I suspect that this point would soon be lost. Oil pastels similarly soft in texture are versatile as they can be thinned with turps or built up and inscribed into with a sharp point to reveal a colour beneath. I used this 'sgraffito' technique when I worked upon the fruit and vegetable drawings.

Pastels produce lovely effects but look poor if overblended and I am well aware that I have a tendency to overwork many media and know I need to keep guarding against this. Knowing the colour of paper to use is another area that requires more experimentation.

I found it difficult to blend the colour pencil work and have not yet found an answer to problem. Paper quality and texture is important in various ways and I wonder whether I have not found the right paper yet. It seems many US artists use a paper called 'Stonehenge' to produce highly blended work as well as using solvent to dilute the pencil pigment.

Overall it's difficult to name a favourite yet. I must ensure that media producuing broader strokes do not lead me astray into working too quickly and without discipline.
Continuing experimentation is important with mixing media to see what happens. For instance I liked an effect of oil pastels with cheap felt tips as felt tips are very bright and the oil pastel cooled down the colour and seemed to give more depth. Felt tips and fine liner pens was another combination I liked. Again the fine hatching over the bright flat colour worked well.