If someone wouldn't mind, I need help with Prismacolours. I've never used them for an actual drawing, although I've had them for a couple of years. What little I do draw I draw with a hard lead or a pen, so these 'soft, thick lead' pencils are throwing me. That, and the actual presence of colour.

To start, how do you keep them sharp? It seems every thirty seconds the edge is dull, even accounting for rotating the pencil. Am I using them wrong?

Second is blending. I suppose 'can you?' works, then how? If you can.

Thanks very, very much. This is what I'm working on, to give you an idea of the problems.

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Wintermind...basically with sharpening Prismas I suggest you get an electric sharpener or a prismacolor sharpener. As for blending them I think they basically blend themselves as you layer the colors. You don't want to be to hard on them you want to gradually build up. I think you can blend them with a blending stomp but you don't want the color too thick. I haven't really learned all of the tricks yet but what I have done with them I know if the color is too thick its almost impossible to blend. I hope I helped.

Wintermind, coloured pencils take a little practice to get the hang of them. I'd suggest that you do a few test swatches to get a feel for how the colour is applied and how layers and colours change values.

For each cp picture that I do, I create a palette of colours by drawing a sample piece - it may be very tiny but it shows me what colours do what and how to layer them to achieve what I want.

CP is applied with a light hand in many layers. You can 'scumble' which is something like circulism and squirkling together or you can use short straight lines like hatching to get your colours and values in place.

Have a browse around online and see what is available. I'll try to post some links when I get a chance. Ann Kullberg is a good starting point for information and how to's.

When Venus sent me my pencils ....I got a prisma sharpener ..its small and non-electric .. my electric chewed them down too fast ..but they do dull fast ...I am also just learning to draw with them .

Wintermind - I've only had my Prismacolors for a short while and using coloured pencils is pretty new to me but I can still share the little experience I have.

I only use a mechanical sharpener to start the pencil... then I switch to the little hand sharpener that came with the colours. It is the sharpest bladed sharpener I have and does a really fine job. Sharpening Prismas is a little tricky since the pigment is so soft.

Go lightly with the colour as you layer it... don't expect to achieve exactly what you want in just one layer. And although the range of colours in Prismas is vast you would still get a lovelier and more subtle effect if you "build" your colour out of two or three different ones than merely relying on a single pencil.

As for blending - first lay down your colours and then when you're happy with them go over them with some pressure using a blending pencil (I have two, courtesy of Ms Joanie ) or even just a white or light coloured pencil. For instance you could use a pale blue to blend and fix deeper blues. When you do this with some pressure you are not only blending the colours but also burnishing them which gives them a nice almost polished effect and eliminates much of the white spotting which results when the colour does not reach the "valleys" in the tooth of the paper (unless of course the white spotting is part of the effect you want.. like making parts of the picture appear distant and hazy and out of focus) . I believe Prismacolor also make an alcohol based blending pencil but I don't have that.

Venus - You helped.

I only wish I was surprised that they had a sharpener unique to them. When I go next to get art supplies I'll look for it. Better that then using the pencils up in a few pictures. Thanks!


IslanderNL - Test swatches are a very good idea, thanks. I did that before I started but only to test the tip, and what it looked like; testing layers never even occured to me.

I've written Ann Kullberg's name down and will search her and Prisma out in a bit. Thanks for the name and tips.

Kim - I saw the post with the picture you drew for Venus. If that's what your learning curve is, I can't wait to see you further along.

Farfallina - Huh, never would have thought of blending with another pencil. Lot to try here. Thanks!

Thanks for the help everyone!