Amy Shulke 3/29/25 Amy Shulke 3/29/25

Vanilla Beans: Questions?

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We’re working through my list of Signs of a Quality Colored Pencil. Just incase you missed the first three points:

Is it available openstock?

Is the laydown generous and colorful?

Is the pencil hard or soft and do you have a balance of both?

Before we move on to point #4, let’s answer a few of the questions I’ve been getting.

Q&A

1 . Holy smokes! The whole oil and wax thing doesn’t mean anything?

Wax and oil isn’t completely meaningless but it doesn’t mean much for you personally…

Unless you’re in the chemistry stage of developing your own brand of pencils.

Not inventing your own pencils? <sigh>

Just because someone writes “oil” on the back of the box doesn’t make it valuable information.

The thing is, some of us have been saying this from the beginning. But it was more fun to go on a wax witch hunt, wasn’t it?

If the pencil weighs more than a duck, it must be oil-based?

via GIPHY

While we’re at it, let’s knock down a few of the Pro-Oil supporting arguments:

a. “Oil-based” is not a sign of quality. The colored pencil jar in a kindergarten classroom is full of oil-based pencils. Using more oil than wax can reduce costs.

b. Oil-based pencils are not more archival than wax-based pencils. In fact, they’re often less durable, especially if you blend them with solvent.

c. Oil-based pencils do not make realism easier. Realism and chemistry have nothing to do with each other.

2. What about Gamsol blending techniques? I’ve been told that solvents only work on oil based pencils.

Ahhh yes, the random internet expert strikes again, so wise in the ways of science!

Now remember, I’m an artist, but in terms of Science for Artists (tm):

A solvent is a liquid which can dissolve or dilute another art supply.

Gamsol is not a category of solvent, it’s a brand name. It’s really just odorless mineral spirits. The Gamblin Company repackages OMS as a solvent for their line of oil paints.

Gamsol and OMS in general, just so happens to dissolve the binders in some brands of hard colored pencils.

It’s not terribly effective on soft colored pencils.

Now here’s the thing: The fact that Gamsol doesn’t work well on Prismacolor is not because solvents don’t work on soft pencils.

It’s because Gamsol is the wrong solvent for soft wax.

Methyl Alcohol works pretty darned good on waxy pencils. On the crazy side, hand sanitizer, gasoline, and kerosene also work. I’m not saying every option is practical— but chemically, they’re a better kind of solvent for the soft waxes in soft pencils.

Solvents are like a house key.

Just because a key doesn’t work on your front door doesn’t mean it doesn’t work at all.

If you want to dissolve Prismacolor, whip out a colorless blender pen.

_____

BTW: From the professional perspective, the folks who rely on solvent are usually trying to make hard pencils look like soft pencils. Seems like there’s an easier solution for that… I don’t know… you’re gonna do what you want to do…

It just seems weird to keep begging your hard pencil to act like a soft pencil when they make perfectly good soft pencils.

3. I was told to avoid wax pencils because they develop a film on top.

True.

It’s called “blooming”.

But the people warning you about wax bloom seem to ignore the fact that oil-based pencils also bloom.

The softer the wax, the faster they bloom but all colored pencils contain wax and they all bloom over time.

There’s an easy way to stop blooming entirely

Spray your finished project with fixative.

The irony is, sealant is something you should be doing to every colored pencil project*, all the time, no matter which brand of colored pencils you use.

Fixative prevents blooming.

Problem solved.

*I don’t typically spray mixed media projects because fixative contains alcohol which can damage exposed alcohol marker layers. Bloom mostly happens where the pencil is heavily layered or in pressure burnished areas— two things we don’t do often in mixed media coloring. Regardless, bloom can be easily wiped off with a soft microfiber cloth if it becomes an issue.

4. Sorry, I’m going to stick with my oil pencils because they last longer.

You’re correct. You don’t have to sharpen hard pencils as often as soft pencils… but why is that?

What I notice about students who pick up a soft pencil after months or years of using hards is that they all have extreme pressure issues. Think about it, if a pencil is hard, you’ve got to press a harder to get the pencil to laydown.

Pressing hard becomes normal.

Then you switch to a softer pencil and press the beejeebus out of it.

The people who constantly break leads and blow through soft colored pencils fast are the people with a skewed sense of normal pressure.

Now yes, I sharpen my pencils a lot— all of my pencils. So I lose more color to the dust bin than average. But that’s my choice. I sacrifice some longevity for the efficiency of a lethally sharp point.

But if we’re measuring the depth of color applied to paper, I don’t notice a gigantic lifespan difference between my hard and soft pencils. Hard pencils take more layers and soft pencils fewer but I use the same amount of pencil for both.

Yes, I go through more soft pencils every year but that’s because I use soft pencils about 80% of the time and I use them over larger areas—

You know, the way soft pencils were kinda intended to be used?

If you don’t like sharpening your pencils, you’re in the wrong hobby.

5. I can’t afford to work with soft waxy pencils when half the pencil goes to waste just trying to sharpen it properly.

Want to hear something funny?

People will spend hundreds of dollars on colored pencils.

Then dig through the junk drawer to find a ratty old pencil sharpener from 1962.

You don’t have pencil issues, you have pencil sharpener issues.

I sharpen soft waxy pencils about twenty times a day and I can’t remember the last time I lost half a pencil to the process.

Think for a minute:

How many times do you shave your face or legs before before switching-out the blades?

Now be honest:

When was the last time you changed the blade on your pencil sharpener?

They both use razor blades. One shaves teeny tiny hairs. The other hacks through solid wood.

Which blade’s gonna go dull first?

And which one have you NEVER EVER even thought about changing?

Like I said, you don’t have pencil issues, you’re delusional about pencil sharpeners.

Next week, we’ll get back to the Big List.

The Quality Test so far:

Is this pencil available openstock?
Is the laydown thick, smooth, and generous?
Is the pencil hard or soft?

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RETHINK WHAT’S POSSIBLE

We get these ideas into our heads…

Oh, markers are fun but they’re just for cards and cute stuff.

And ideas become mental barriers…

Someday I want to color with complete freedom but I’m not good enough to work without tutorials.

What would you color if you weren’t stuck treating every coloring project like a child’s Paint-by-Number kit?

The Underpainters is your first step towards independent coloring.

Every month, we focus on a new aspect of realistic or artistic coloring. But it’s not just “I mentioned a lesson but distract yourself with this fun project and totally ignore the lesson part…”

Nope, in The Underpainters, we help you make your own decisions.

In March, UP’ers are learning about animal portraiture.