Colours of Nature: Luminance Pencil Swatches

Of all the art supplies that fill my heart with joy, Luminance pencils must be right up there with the most uplifting. I wanted to dislike them, mainly because they're so expensive, but using Payne's Grey and Silver Grey over my ink sketches was just too good an experience to ignore and I had to buy more when finances allowed. I recently invested in a selection of colours that I thought would go perfectly with my ink sketches of nature on the Isle of Man, so join me as I swatch them and investigate their usefulness in my artwork.

Luminance coloured pencils by Caran d'Ache

Ink and Luminance

When sketching in ink, I often find that I want to add something extra, such as a highlight or shadow, that I can't achieve in the ink medium. This is often because I've worked too fast or too freely and with the ink. I have other coloured pencils and white gel pens that I've tried to use in combination with ink, but none has worked as well as Luminance pencils. There's something in the consistency of the pencils, which means they hide the ink marks underneath with a minimum of effort on my part and I can even use my fountain pen to make marks over the pencil once it's been laid down (although I doubt this is really advisable for the health of the pen nib!) The poppy drawing below is a perfect example of my use of this combination of coloured pencil and ink.

Poppy drawing in water-soluble ink with luminance pencil added for shading (Payne's grey) and highlight (silver grey).

Luminance Swatches

As I've enjoyed using these pencils so much, I recently bought some more colours that I thought would be useful when sketching nature. I bought my pencils from CraftyArts but they are available at Jackson's Art and many other retailers, both in sets and open stock. I wanted to focus on colours that would work well with ink sketches, and that could act as accents, highlights or lowlights in my drawings. These are the colours that I selected, swatched as their pure colour and over the Diamine Earl Grey ink to give an idea of their covering power.

Luminance pencil swatches. I included a wash of Diamine Earl Grey ink to draw over as I often use these pencils over ink sketches.

Testing the Pencils

I love trees with purple foliage and am lucky enough to have one near to where I live. One day, I was out walking and was struck by the beautiful contrast of the green ivy, silver bark and purple foliage of the tree. I had to stop and take a photo and have been meaning to create a painting of it ever since. I thought this would make an interesting subject for testing out my new pencils so I can see how I get on with a wider selection of colours and to give me an idea of colours I may need to add in future.

I decided to begin by sketching the tree solely in the Luminance pencils, to see how the colours worked together and what effects I could achieve. I didn't have a deep enough purple or a true red in the selection to colour the leaves on the tree, and so decided to see how the rich Carmine Lake and almost black Dark Indigo pencils would work for the foliage. I enjoyed how these colours combined, but they didn't give the purple that I'd hoped for. The combination of Cobalt Green and Green Ochre for the ivy was more successful and, overall, I was happy with the drawing, but I'll look to add more greens and a red in future purchases.

I enjoyed the contrast of the purple leaves with the green ivy. With no purple, I used Carmine Lake and Dark Indigo for the foliage and was happy with the results.

The pencils sharpened beautifully but were worn down quite quickly as I used them. I was able to achieve detail and large coverage with ease, and I found them very comfortable to hold in my hand. I am a little concerned that if I use these pencils for larger coloured pencil works, I may go through them very quickly and need to replenish my supplies, which could be a problem due to their relatively high cost. Combining them with other pencil brands may help to keep costs down if this becomes a problem and the Polychromos pencils that I own already, certainly don't wear down as quickly. I'll have to investigate how these pencils work together in future.

As I hadn't been successful in creating a purple with the pencils, I thought I'd blend the Bleu de Nimes and Genuine Cobalt Blue with other red-like colours to see the results.

The lack of a true red hampered my efforts to create a purple, but the Crimson Aubergine and Bleu de Nimes gave a reasonable deep purple. (There was a greater difference between the mixed colours in real life than is shown in this scan. The results with crimson aubergine were a more purple hue and the others more brown).

Having found a more successful mix of colours in the Blue de Nimes and Crimson Aubergine, I added them to a quick sketch of the tree in ink. The results were closer to the purple that I wanted, but I will definitely be adding a red to my Luminance pencils, when I next get a chance.

Ink sketch of the tree in Diamine Earl Grey ink and Luminance coloured pencils. The purples were much more successful here and I'm very happy at how the pencils work with ink.

I've really enjoyed using these pencils and I definitely think that Luminance are worth the investment. I now have a very useful range of colours that I can use on their own in sketches and with other media. My next colours to add will be a red and a couple of extra greens, but of course, I really want all of the colours, so I'm sure a few more will 'fall' into my shopping basket before I checkout! I can safely say that I'll enjoy using them as I adore the freedom I feel to make marks when I have them in my hand, and after all, that's the vibe we all want to get when making art!

See you next week!

Emma