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If you have a question that is not answered within the site, or you can’t find an answer, please Email me and I will post up your query here.  Readers are invited to respond if they have solutions or advice to offer and the help will be posted here alongside the question.

This is the end destination and ‘filing’ page for questions raised by readers, and the answers that have been found .

The queries will initially be sited at the bottom of the Site ‘Home’ page and as they are developed, solved and replaced by newer questions, the older items will be moved here.  Where there is already a relevant section on the Topics site, the information may well be copied across to the logical home to make space here.

Thread 1      Sunday 19th June 2011   Reader in France asks about Fixative Sprays

Having recently come to Coloured Pencils from Pastels, she asks about the use of re-workable fixative

( and brands available in Europe ), to enable the colour surface to continue to take colour when it becomes ‘polished’.  

Her initial question was

‘I have a question about workable fixatives for CP drawing. That is to say a fixative that can be used between layers as opposed to a final fixative. Could you tell me which brands of fixatives would be suitable?’

In a follow up question she asked for information on the use of fixatives ( and brands ) for preventing or curing wax bloom.  

There is an item on ‘bloom’ in Topics but it doesn’t feature sprays as I have no practical experience of the use of fixative with CP myself. I usually use an oil based pencil for choice and this prevents ‘bloom’ anyway.  Not all the USA based fixative sprays are available in Europe.

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July 6th 2011  Information on this thread has now been collated and summarised into a separate topic as ‘Fixatives - 6’  in the Dry Point section.  More information will be added as and when it comes to hand.

Thread 2  -  Black paper - durability and fading of black surface.

It is clear from the feedback that this is  a bit of a ‘black hole’ as far as information is concerned.  There are pads and sheets of black art paper available - both in the USA and in Europe, but very little knowledge on how good they are for archival standard work.

I get a feeling that we are virtually back in the dark ages again, just as we were with CP when coloured pencils were ‘just for children’ and therefore of ‘little importance’ and we ‘don’t need to bother about the colours fading‘.

In response to a report that one particular brand of black paper sold for CP use appeared to suffer fading of the black quite quickly, I started a search to find out more about this surface and how stable black is as a colour in paper.

The results were posted here in Thread 2 but have now been summarised and included in the ‘Coloured Paper’ page of the Surfaces section

There will obviously need to be a test in sunlight to see how the papers respond to fading.  The problem with working a black paper with CP is that if you use black wax or oil based CP on the surface, the black CP will usually be lightfast.  If the paper surface isn’t, then any fading of the paper will upset the balance of the artwork and any corrective black marks defining edges to clean up the image will show up as clear darker marks in time which will ruin the effect of the picture.   Apart from this, there is little point in using a black paper if it turns grey or brown in sunlight.

ANY READERS WITH INFORMATION AND OPINIONS ARE INVITED TO CONTRIBUTE to the item and updates to the topic will be made as and when necessary

July 21st 2011  The notes developed here as a result of the thread have now been incorporated into the Page on Coloured Surfaces

Any further information will be added there as it comes to hand.

Thread 3  -  Saturday August 6th 2011    -   Graphite with Coloured Pencil

My suggestion that we look at Graphite pencil worked with CP in it’s many forms, had a positive response and I opened up this thread to accommodate any contributions from readers who have already tried out this version of ‘mixed’ media.  

We had one or two suggestions and some examples of work

which have now been posted up on the page ‘CP and.....’ In Mixed Media                                                                                       

Thread 4 -  Friday August 11th 2011    -   Black Ink with Coloured Pencil

A UK based reader has written asking for input on an Ink problem.

He writes :

in trying to get the look I want, I've come up against a problem:  I need to be able to create a thin, sharp black line.  Very difficult with a crayon!  My solution to the problem was to use black ink (I know purists will be aghast, but it's the final image that matters to me, not principles!). However, there is a problem with that......

1.    Some ink doesn't stick to the wax surface of coloured pencil

2.    Some ink has solvent that dissolves the coloured pencil underneath!

3.    Some ink works, but when you go over it with a coloured pencil, it just             scrapes right off!

3.    Some ink sticks and looks OK, but when you go over it with a coloured pencil,         it smudges all over the place as if it was still wet!

Alex includes an image of some of the work he is doing ( see left ).

The usual source of information on mixed media with CP - in particular using ink - is the book by American artist Suellen Ross ( ISBN 0-89134-900-6 ) but she tends to use the Ink like I do - as an underpainting, and Alex is trying methods of using the ink at a later stage.  One of the problems (and also benefits) of CP is the impervious wax film that seals off the paper, which is why CP is so useful as a mask, and this will be bound to create a fragile surface for the Ink to adhere to.

If you have any ideas, suggestions etc, please contact me so that the experience can be shared.

Further thoughts :  The waxy /oily surface of most CP will usually resist adhesion of anything other than a similarly waxy/Oily compound on top.  The places I have gone to for information on using ink with CP all suggest the use of the ink first and the CP on the top.

If the need is to apply the fine lines and detail with ink after the colour has been applied, then I would think a colour using minimal wax or oil should be the direction to go.  This would indicate a soluble Coloured Pencil and something like the Staedtler karat brand which has a relatively dry feel.  Similarly, treating soluble pencil with a damp brush to bed the colour down into the paper is likely to produce an even better surface for ink.

I also suggested to the reader that he might try using an acrylic based black ink rather than the traditional variety of Indian ink, as I have found Acrylic media to be quite tolerant of the surfaces it is applied to.  A trial with Acrylic ink proved to be successful and the line went down on top of the CP surface quite well - and would even take further CP on top.  The ink takes longer to dry than on an absorbent surface, but this is understandable.  It therefore looks as if there are two approaches that might work for this problem - using a dry type of aquarelle pencil for the colour and using an acrylic ink.  The only problem may be getting a fine enough line with the Acrylic ink.

I think we have success here