Inktense Pencils… Finally!

Ok, here’s the post I’ve been promising for a while about my new Inktense pencils.  I bought them from Scrappy Craft because they were the cheapest I could find.  The transaction went great – quick shipping and the product was packed nicely and got to me in perfect condition.  This is how I have them out, sitting right next to my work area on top of an Iris cart:

One of the first things I did when I got the pencils was to make a color chart:

So far I’m in love!  They blend out with water so easily and can be really nice and soft looking or super strong and vibrant, depending how much pencil you put down.  So far I’ve mostly been just playing with the softer look (kind of like Distress Inks), but I’ve seen some really neat stuff online with the stronger colors (like this post from Jennifer McGuire, who did such beautiful Inktense art that I just had to buy a set for myself!).

Here’s the latest card I’ve made using the Inktense pencils in the softer range:

I did her face with Distress inks because I still haven’t found the right shades of pencil for the skin tones I like to do.  All the rest was done with the Inktense pencils.  You can also see other images I’ve colored with the Inktense pencils here.  This card is also for the Sugar Bowl challenge – Anything Goes with a Sugar Nellie Image (I used Blossom).  The sketch is from Tuesday Morning Sketches and the sentiment is from the Talk Bubbles 2 stamp set.

One of the things I like best about the Inktense is that once you hit all the pigment with water and it fully dries, it’s permanent.  What that means is that if I accidentally paint over an already colored section, it won’t mix with the previous color and ruin it!  I can just wipe off the second color and the first color stays as pristine as it started – perfect for me since I tend to make this mistake a little too often!

One other thing is that you don’t really *need* to use watercolor paper.  I’ve done some of my simpler coloring on just plain old Georgia Pacific cardstock from Walmart!  The colors also show up really nicely on colored cardstocks, like my favorite Kraft from Papertrey Ink!

Of course you don’t need to buy the full set, but I fully recommend these pencils if you like to watercolor – they’re just so much fun!  TFL!