Amy Shulke 3/22/25 Amy Shulke 3/22/25

Vanilla Beans: There’s No Fork

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Spring was briefly here.

Now it’s gone.

Good. I was kinda worried. If I’ve got all the windows open in March, my fear is that summer will only get hotter.

But it’s snowing right now. Whew!

Let’s keep it chilly a while longer, just to be on the safe side.

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We’re working through my colored pencil quality test, The Big List of Things to Look For.

Catch up if you missed the first two points:

Is it available openstock?

Is the laydown generous and colorful?

Now let’s move to a common misunderstanding about colored pencil chemistry.

THERE’S NO FORK

By now, you’ve learned that I have opinions.

But I can’t help it.

I get peeved at bad online colored pencil info— “helpful advice” which results in misery.

See, I figure my job as an art instructor, first and foremost, is to not frustrate you.

Teachers are supposed to knock down hurdles, not pile more in your path.

When you’re frustrated, you tend to fail. When you fail, you don’t enjoy coloring. When coloring isn’t fun, you start cleaning your toilets and alphabetizing your pantry…

Anything to avoid coloring— the thing you once loved to do.

It’s hard to have joy when some rando expert makes colored pencils needlessly hard.

via GIPHY

Ding, ding, ding!!!

OMG, I said the Secret Word of the Day!

HARD

Ahhhhhh! Hooray!!! HARD!

Yes, my friends, HARD is Point #3 on my Big List.

When we’re looking at a box of colored pencils and trying to decide: “Are these pencils worth my time and money?”

You’ve gotta ask:

Are the pencils are hard or soft?

Oh, I hear ya, Amy. We need to know if the pencils are oil based or wax based!

Nooooooooo. I don’t care about that.

Oil versus wax is a total red herring. If you walk into the labratory at any good pencil company and ask someone who knows what they’re talking about…

“Hey, are your pencils oil based or wax based?”

That highly educated person will fumble and mumble, and maybe even ask their boss for permission to answer. They know darned well, there’s no real distinction between oil and wax pencils.

Huh. So the marketing team is very, very sure there’s a difference but the chemists and engineers think otherwise?

Who’re you gonna believe?

The truth is: ALL pencils contain oil. All pencils contain wax.

It’s not like there’s a 50/50 split point where we can say “this much equals a wax based pencil but anything more makes it oil”.

THERE ARE NO STANDARDS FOR THIS, FOLKS.

And here’s the secret all product chemists know: Hard wax makes pencils hard. Soft wax makes pencils soft. Oil does not determine hardness. It’s all about which wax they use.

This is why we shouldn’t take advice from people whose depth of knowledge is reading the back of the box.

If you doubt me on this, I want you to think hard for a minute: Why would adding liquid oil to a colored pencil core make it HARDER? Shouldn’t the oil based, more liquidy pencil cores be softer?

Internet experts created a distinction where there isn’t one.

But the advertising department listens.

If oil is looking trendy, then the marketing team will hype the oil. If wax sounds better, they’ll proudly call it wax.

You shouldn’t care what they call it. It doesn’t matter.

All you need to ask is hard or soft?

Why is the hard/soft question so important?

Because you need a bit of both.

Everyone should own one brand of hard pencils and one soft brand.

If you’ve got a good set of soft pencils, you don’t need more soft pencils. Put the box down and step away from the shelf. You. Don’t. Need ‘em.

And psssttt… the last thing you need is a 16th set of hard pencils.

(Yes, I’m looking at you right now. Stop it with the rock-hard pencils, dear.)

Here’s a glimpse of my pencil drawers. You’re looking at a mix of Holbein and Pablo colored pencils, stored chromatically.

And I know, some of you are huffing into a paper bag right now.

OMG, she crossed the streams! She’s got Pablos touching Holbeins and the Holbeins are rubbing up against the Pablos… The hyenas are working with the lions… We’re all gonna die!

Breathe. It’ll be okay.

Two brands: One hard. One soft.

I’m set for life.

But Amy, I want to know if they’re oil based…

Why? Tell me exactly why you need to know.

Because… well, because…

Yep. I thought so.

You read a blog post or watched a video where someone from Team Edward said all the vampires are sick to death of wax pencils…

It sounded so reasonable at the time.

One pencil to rule them all?

Except now you’re stuck with a bunch of crunchy pencils which barely laydown, look kinda dusty, show every directional mark, and won’t fill the tooth unless you douse ‘em with solvent.

Hooray for Team Hard?

Stop.

You need both for balance.

Forget oil and wax. Think hard and soft.

Soft pencils have a natural richness. They blend better. They spread well and fill the teeny tiny tooth of the paper giving you large uninterrupted fields of deep and luscious color.

But they stink at making fine lines and crisp edges.

That’s when you set down the soft pencil and pick up a hard one in a similar color.

Let one do what the other can’t.

Symbiosis.

You were told there’s a fork in the road.

You’re getting serious about colored pencils so now you must choose: Oil or wax? Which one’s it gonna be?

You went one way.

And honestly, it doesn’t matter which path you took. They’re both the hard way.

Now you’re struggling to make your pencils do something they were never meant to do.

And it’s not fun.

It makes you feel stupid.

It makes you spend a ton of time on YouTube looking for secret tip and easy hacks.

Because there must be a trick to make your hard pencil act like a soft pencil, or a way to train your soft pencil to stop being smudgy.

Nope.

There is no fork. There never was.

You gotta go in both directions.

Some of you are all stocked-up with pencils from one side of the Mason Dixon line.

That’s why #3 on my list is to simply test whether the new pencils feel hard or soft.

If you’ve got soft pencils out the wazoo and you’re looking at yet another soft brand, you’re wasting time and money. More soft is not adding anything to your repetoir.

Take both paths.

Expand your versatility; broaden the map.

Give yourself more options.

And increase your odds for colored pencil success.

To rehash, the Quality Test so far:

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

Next week, we’ll take a little detour.

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PRACTICE YOUR COLORING?

We make a big deal about coloring practice.

“Practice makes progress!”

But let’s get real: WHAT are you practicing?

For most colorists, “practice” means coloring whatever you were going to color anyway— a card for an upcoming birthday or the next page in a new coloring book…

If you’re honest, you’re just ticking projects off your to-do list.

MORE COLORING IS NOT PRACTICE!

Color Wonk pulls you out of your regular coloring routine.

Every month, we focus on a new concept. And unlike your to-do list, Wonk projects are designed to target and strengthen a skill you can’t do very well.

In March, Color Wonks are learning how to color deep dark values.

It sounds simple until you try coloring something with three markers ending in a 9, ACK!!

How do you shade something that’s already darker than every other color you own?
How do you highlight a dark cookie so that it doesn’t look like shiny and wet?

Wonk exercises are small so they’re fast and repeatable.

And because they’re exercises, there’s no pressure. You’re free to experiment, learn, and grow because this won’t be taped to Aunt Janie’s fridge for the next 17 months.

If you’ve been coloring for years but you’ve never made it past the blending stage, what are you waiting for?

Color Wonk is for you.

Learn more about Color Wonk here

And hey, if you’re still trying to master the blending stage, that’s what The Blend is for.