Art Supply Review: Derwent Artbars

As an incurable art supply addict, I was excited when UK pencil company Derwent released their latest product, the Artbar. Available in 72 colours, they are a watersoluble wax crayon.

You can use them in the same way as traditional wax (or oil) pastels; drawing and blending colours, or layering to use sgraffito techniques. The colours can also be painted over to create anything from a light watercolour-esque wash to a dense opaque coverage, or you can use the brush to take colour directly from the bar. Wetting the bar and using it to ‘stamp’ on the paper can also create some interesting textures and patterns. Though I’m fairly amateur when it comes to pastels or crayons of any type (I generally work with pencils, watercolours and acrylic paint, and even with those mediums I’m intermediate at best) I was eager to give these a try. I ordered my set from the UK, but I believe they’ll be available in Australia in July (according to Derwent’s Facebook page). Here is a colour chart I did for the Artbars on Canson watercolour paper (click image for full sized version):

One thing I quite like about the Artbar tins is that they have divided the colours into different subsets; Brights, Pales, Earths and Darks. This means that if you’re working on a piece that has a fairly restricted palette (say, a muted landscape), using one subset can help you find the right colours quickly. The Artbars are also triangular, preventing them from rolling off your table.

Used dry, the colour lay down is quite rich and layering the colours produces vibrant mixtures. Blending can be a bit difficult unless you breathe hot air on the coloured area, though this gets a bit tedious; using a heatgun or something similar would likely be an easy alternative. Once you warm the colours up, they blend beautifully into a smooth layer, allowing for subtle gradated effects. The paper I was using was quite rough, so using a smoother paper would probably have made blending easier (if anyone has suggestions for a good quality, thick, smooth paper, I’d appreciate it).

When used wet, I found that most colours (especially the Darks and the Brights) produced a vivid wash, though a few colours needed to have more pigment laid down to produce a similar intensity of colour. Also, some colours seemed to take a bit more scrubbing with a brush before the pastel marks dissolved completely, but mostly it was easy to get a nice wash. When I put aside a few wax crumbs and mixed them with water in a small plastic tub, I ended up with an almost gouache-like paint which spread thickly and evenly on the paper; since the Artbars are pretty crumbly, you do end up with a lot of scrap bits, so keeping them aside to turn into paint is a good way to avoid wasting any of the pigment. Unlike Derwent’s Inktense blocks, these will not dry permanent after a wash; after I used a dry crayon over a washed area of a different colour and tried a second wash, the two colours ended up mixing. This might be a good or a bad thing depending on what you’re doing.

There are also a few accessories available for the Artbar. I just got the Scraper (a dog-shaped metal tool with a variety of edges to create different sgraffito effects; see below), but there’s also the Spritzer (a small water sprayer for creating a fine mist to dampen colour and create interesting effects) and the Shave ‘n’ Save (a little tub with a sharp-edged opening in the lid, to collect pigment scrapings and mix with water for paint in different consistencies).

Below is a small drawing/painting I did of a vase of tulips using the Derwent Artbars. It is fairly simplistic since I was pressed for time (and since my few past attempts at pastels/crayons have been fairly laughable), but I had a lot of fun using the Artbars and I love the vivid colours. I think it will take a while for me to get used to the new medium, but I’m looking forward to making more art with them in the future.

And another drawing of different vase on its own:

Edit to add: After looking over the lightfastness ratings on the colour chart from Derwent’s website, I should also point out that quite a few of these colours fall below 6 on the lightfast scale. If doing work you intend to display with the Derwent Artbars, be sure to check that you use only colours that rate 6 or more, or you run the risk of having your artwork fade.

Art Supply Review: Sakura Koi Watercolour Pocket Field Sketch Box

Modified version of review originally submitted at Jerry’s Artarama Art Supplies.

I bought myself the 24-colour set as an early Christmas present and it has been one of my best purchases. The variety of bright and vivid colours means that I can mix any colour I want, and the waterbrush is a great innovation, removing the need to carry big jars of water or long brushes. The detachable mixing palette can be attached to the box on either side or at the front, allowing for easy access no matter how you hold it. You can also keep a pencil stub and eraser in the brush compartment if you like to draw outlines before laying down colour.

Here is a colour chart I did for the Sakura Koi set in my Moleskine watercolour journal.

The pans aren’t replaceable, but once you’ve used up all the colours, you could easily remove the little plastic tray and insert pan colours in the brand of your choice, or simply pour a little tube colour into the empty colour slots.

I mainly use this at home but often take it along when I visit my nan or go to uni; keeping a pocket-sized pad of watercolour paper with it lets you paint anywhere (the smallish brush size means you can’t really paint bigger than this unless you do bring another larger/wash brush). The 24-colour set is a little big to go in a pocket, but since I keep mine in a bag most of the time anyway, I decided to trade off compact size for more colours, and it is still quite small compared to other paint boxes. Also available are an 18-colour set or the truly pocket-sized 12-colour set.

Whether you’re a novice watercolourist or an experienced artist who wants something portable for the field, this set will not disappoint.

Here is a small picture I painted of a rainbow lorikeet in the Sakura Koi Water Colours (the real one isn’t this dark; my scanner is a bit rubbish):

Rating:

(legalese)

Belvedere – My Illustrated Children’s Book

A month ago I was rambling and raving about how much hard work it was to plot, illustrate, write and publish my children’s book for uni. Back then I wondered how I would ever get it finished in time, and I was convinced I’d either end up submitting something rushed and dodgy just to avoid a late penalty, or I’d still be working on it a month after the deadline because my inner perfectionist couldn’t leave well-enough alone (I’ve been guilty of both of these extremes in the past). As it turned out, I was given an extension because of serious illness (which may seem like a big help, but painting and drawing when you constantly feel like you want to pass out or be sick is no fun no matter how much time you’ve been given to do it), so I was still working on it up until last week.

I am happy to say that, last Thursday night, I finally finished and uploaded my book! Bask in its cute, dragon-y glory:

Blurb from back cover: Belvedere isn’t like the other dragons. After being shunned by his own kind, he leaves the forest and goes on a journey to find new places and meet new friends. In doing so, he discovers that being different isn’t always a bad thing.

I am really quite proud of what I have created. And even though while I was doing it, I was constantly whining about how time-consuming and difficult it was, I really enjoyed the process of painting the backgrounds and creating the environments out of various cut-up materials. I loved drawing the characters and using scanned and digital textures to bring them and their story to life. In a fit of exhaustion after uploading my book for print, I declared that I would never again commit myself to such a feat as creating an illustrated children’s book from scratch… But one day, just maybe, I will The feeling of actually completing a creative work of this scale (this is from someone who has at least five unfinished novels languishing on her hard drive) is like winning the lotto, and it’s motivated me to try harder to complete one of my larger writing projects.

Belvedere is available for a 15-page preview (or purchase in hardcover, paperback or eBook format) here.

UPDATE 8th Nov: My hardcover copy arrived in the mail today! Yay! It looks even better than I thought it would:

Rex may not be excited about it, but I certainly am

Writing a Children’s Book is Easy…

At least that’s what I told myself at the start of the semester, when I chose to do Designing and Producing Illustrated Children’s Books as my non-IT elective for my post-graduate studies. I’ve always been a creative soul, writing and drawing since I was old enough to hold a pencil without thinking it was something to chew on. I have two novels at 25,000 words. I’ve churned out 2,000, 3,000 and 6,000 word papers for uni. Writing a 32-page illustrated children’s book should be a walk in the park, right? … Right? Yeah… no.

Coming up with the idea was one of the hardest parts. I think I went through about 6 different ideas (some of them more than once), before settling on my final concept (it contains dragons; are you surprised?).

It’s usually recommended that an illustrated children’s book contains 150-300 words. My first draft of the text came in at more than 600. The freedom of writing descriptive novels and the necessity of padding out academic papers with pointless waffle appeared to have broken my ability to write concisely. After much text-wrangling and hair-pulling I managed to get it down to about 200 words, and then started trying to work out which words would appear on which page, and what images should accompany them.

While writing the story, I also started playing with different background styles. I quickly settled on doing simplistic background with acrylic, since they were bright and bold and could be reused in several scenes (also experimented with watercolour, but it wasn’t quite vivid enough, and the acrylic gave me more control). The fact that they were simple meant it was fairly easy to redo them after many of them – along with some character sketches – were destroyed in a freak red lemonade accident (don’t ask). I’ve made some trees out of random bits of cardboard/felt/tissue paper, and I also created some nice fire and bubble effects by scanning bits of painted gossamer ribbon and vandalising them in Photoshop.

The character designs proved to be much more of a challenge. Since the originals (which were ruined) were more detailed, they had taken much longer to do; there was no way I’d have time to redraw all of them. To adapt, I had to change to a more simplistic illustrated style (the characters’ features are almost manga-ish), but I’ve still been able to have fun with the colouring, scanning in different materials or creating textures in Photoshop and using them to bring the characters to life (though there are some bits I’ve just coloured in with the good old paintbrush tool because I’m getting to the stage where I care more about getting it done quickly than getting it done to a high quality).

At this stage I’m still madly trying to get all my dragons drawn before tomorrow, when I’ll draw the children. Once that’s done I’ll more or less have everything I need to start putting together the final book layout with all the text and pictures. I have to send it to the printer by the middle of next week, so I’m on a pretty tight schedule. I also have to find time to keep working on my fantasy eBook prototype for my thesis, as well as keeping up with other assignment and tutoring commitments. No idea how successful I’ll be, though, since I seem to have come down with some sort of nasty virus and it keeps getting worse I’ll try to post an online version of the book once it’s completed for those who are interested.

Anyway, fortified by chocolate and energy drinks, and I shall continue to scribble away through the day and night, nursing the somewhat vain hope that I might actually complete this thing before the deadline (and that afterwards I can descend into the sweet, sweet oblivion of sleep).

I just hope I don’t end up like Bernard and Manny.

Magic Mushrooms

I first came up with this recipe more than a year ago, while foraging for something, anything to eat because there was no quick and easy food in the house and I was too busy (or lazy) to walk up the street to get something. After finding these random ingredients in the fridge, I decided I’d experiment, and it was one of the few times something I’ve cooked (other than instant meals that you just stick in the microwave) actually turned out really well. When it comes to kitchen wizardry, I tend to take after my dad; for every nice meal we produce, there are tens to hundreds that aren’t even fit to feed the dog (and Rex will eat anything, so that’s saying something). Since this has now become one of my favourite ‘study snacks’, I thought I’d share it with the Interwebz…

Ingredients (to serve one person):
6-8 small cup mushrooms
30-40 grams cracked pepper cheese
1/6th red capsicum (chopped into roughly 1cm long strips)
1 teaspoon butter
1 tube garlic paste

Preparation/Cooking Instructions:
1. Lay a sheet of aluminium foil on a baking tray and fold up the sides, forming a foil ‘box’.
2. Pull the stalks out of the mushrooms, leaving the cup intact. Put the mushrooms hollow-side up on the baking tray and lay the mushroom stalks around them.
3. Slice off small wedges of cracked pepper cheese and stuff one into each of the mushrooms. Then take pieces of capsicum and poke two or three into the cheese in each mushroom. Any spare capsicum can be sprinkled over the mushroom stalks.
4. Take teaspoon of butter and mix with garlic paste in a small microwave-safe cup (I used a ratio of about 2 parts butter, 1 part garlic paste, but you can use more or less, depending on how strong you want it). Microwave it for 30 seconds or so until melted, then drizzle it over the mushrooms and the stalks.
5. Preheat an oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and then bake the mushrooms for 15-18 minutes.
6. Serve on a small plate and eat immediately.

Alternative extras:
-Fill the mushroom cups with spinach before stuffing them with cheese
-Sprinkle chopped chives or parsley over the mushrooms before cooking
-Use different varieties of cheese
-Add slivers of tomato
-Decorate it with one of those little coloured toothpicks or mini-umbrellas.

It makes a nice savoury snack or side meal, and it could also be ideal for a party/special occasion platter. Enjoy

Cogs of War – Interactive Steampunk Story

A month or so ago, I made an interactive steampunk story for my Multimedia Narratives subject at uni, based on some steampunk character designs I’d created for an earlier assignment in the unit. For anyone who is interested/bored enough to play it, here it is:

Cogs of War – Interactive Steampunk Story

Though the characters and setting will be used for a steampunk novel trilogy I’ll be writing at some point, the story will be completely different (this one was quite sparse/cheesy for the sake of brevity; less text meant less programming ). So far the story is only at a vague outline stage, and it will probably stay that way until I’ve finished my work in progress.

As stated in the credits in the game ending screens, the five main characters, story/text and interface graphics are my own work, while the minor characters, environments and props were sourced and arranged in Google SketchUp.

Ideal Features in a Fantasy eBook

As much as I would love to keep mucking around with my writing and drawing until I go back to uni (middle of July), it will soon be time for me to start working on my fantasy eBook prototype for my thesis.

I want it to address some of the problems people commonly have with fantasy books. For example, some readers of large fantasy books complain that it is too difficult to keep track of different characters, especially if they have similar names (though this is probably more of an issue with the actual writing than with the format itself). Others find themselves lost in the fantasy world, unable to follow where the characters are travelling (some fantasy books provide maps, but it can be annoying to have to flip back and forth between the map and your current chapter, so many readers don’t bother and choose to simply “go along” with it). There are also those who have trouble imagining what the places and characters actually look like (again, this is sometimes more of an issue with the writing), and wish for at least some visual representation of the world they are exploring. Since eBooks have the capacity for interaction, it should be easy enough to come up with features to reduce or remove these problems. Some features I’ve already come up with include:

• Pop-up glossary.
• Ability to click and hold a character name for more information, eg. click for name, pronounciation and picture, hold for brief description.
• Ability to click and hold a place name for a pop-up map, eg. click for basic map showing borders, towns and landmarks, hold for more detailed view of terrain.

I’m aiming to have it ready for user testing by week 1 or 2 of second semester, so I’ll be spending the last three weeks of my mid-year break working on it. I suppose there are heaps of awesome features I could potentially include in my prototype – and would, if I had more time – but I’d rather it have a few well-implemented features than a bunch of features that are a bit buggy or don’t really add that much to the reading experience.

Anyway, now I shall throw it open to anyone who happens to read this blog. What problems do you have when reading printed fantasy books, if any? Are there any features you would like to see in a fantasy eBook that you think would make reading it easier or more enjoyable?