Working with Wax-based Colored Pencils
Not all coloured pencils are alike but there's nothing wrong with combining several types and brands. Oil-based pencils are hard, making them suitable for fine detail. Pencils like Colorsoft and Prismacolor Pencils are wax-based, making them softer and easily blended. Colorsoft and Prismacolor also make a solvent in a pencil form but you can also blend them using a liquid solvent like Winsor & Newton Sansodor or Art Spectrum Odourless Solvent. This method allows the blending of several colors, quickly.
Concept drawings, like the knight on the horse, can be done on a heavy weight tracing paper, with tones created quickly, using a solvent. You can also use this method on any heavy weight paper that takes wet media. If you'd like to painstakingly render form, like the sphere example, this can also be achieved with patience. This sphere was rendered on the new Art Spectrum Colour Suede paper which has a velvety tooth.
le Stig was made by mounting a graphite drawing onto double weight, hot press illustration board. The surface was then sprayed using an airbrush and Liquitex Matte Medium to create a light texture. The airbrushed surface creates the perfect tooth to take a light 'dry brush' effect.
How to repair your wax pencils if the leads break on the inside:
Place your pencils on a baking sheet, lined with wax paper, in a cold oven. Bake for 2-5 minutes at 120 degrees centigrade. Let the pencils completely cool before removing. Your pencils should be repaired!