Thursday, August 7, 2014

Mont Marte Graphite Earth Tones Review

Mont Marte Graphite Earth Tones 


Mont Marte supports Australian artists.  They used the actual product to make packaging.
Environment- friendly paper box. 
Quality assurance seal. 

The pencils themselves are pretty, round and smooth, so they will roll around.
The pencils are identified by the colours at the ends, otherwise they are uniform in appearance.  There is no pencil name or number.  The lead is presharpened. On inspection, I think the lead is not central within the wooden casing.  But I'm not totally sure.  It's not far off and the lead is very thick.

They cannot be bought open stock. They are not lightfast. There is no yellow version.

They performed better than I expected.  They are coloured pencils in muted shades. The greyed colours make them a good addition to a regular line of watercolour pencils (like the Inktense) which often contain many bright colours and fewer of the near-neutrals. They apply soft but are harder than Derwent (Derwent is supposedly 4b). Their special effect occurs when they get wet. If you don't get them wet, they are not very exciting. Some colours are easier to dissolve (black was hard). Once dry could not dissolve again, I believe this is the same as Derwent. 

Suggestions for use include: 
-fantasy / morbid art (withering plants, skulls, creepy aliens, gothic rose patterns).  This takes advantage of the eerie sheen of dry graphite. 
-fur
-landscape studies (deserts)
-shading cartoons / webcomics
-scrapbook illustration 

-Apply them wet. 
-Use steam instead of directly wetting.  One artists reports that only the green changed into a more vibrant colour. 

Some related ideas from artists: 
-Mix watercolour with soluble graphite for an eerie sheen. 
-Lay down a graduated strip of watersoluble graphite pencil, then colour over with watercolour pencils. Then wash with a wet brush. In this manner, you can get a look like G-tints, except it also works with bright colours.

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