Topic: Supplies
If you neglect to tell your gift buyers what you really want, sometimes you have to go buy it for yourself. Not to say that the gifts I got were in any way unwanted (because they were awesome), but I just wanted more!
So what did I want more OF? Colored pencils!
I had started out with a set of 72 Prismacolor pencils and have used them a lot. But sometimes I just wanted a slightly brighter red or a green with less yellow in it.
When I saw a link to an exceptional deal on the 132 set of pencils, it went right into my cart.
Now, I've been juggling just three flimsy plastic trays of pencils and knew that juggling 6 would be no fun. So I also ordered myself a case with 4 zippered sections and elastic that secures the individual pencils.
The pencils come in some sort of order but I have yet to determine what that is. They are not entirely in order by color groups nor are they by color number (printed on the pencils) nor color name. Best I can determine they are arranged in the order they were released as colors were added to the range.
So the first thing I did was divide them up into color groups. These were subdivided into ranges of light to dark within a specific family (denim blues vs. navy blue). I determined the order by scribbling on scratch paper.
Then, with the pencils laid out in the order I wanted, I colored a 'key' on large-square graph paper and noted the color number under each.
Neutrals are at the top, divided by warm, cool and 'french' grays.
I stored the pencils in the binder pages following the chart. An empty space in the binder corresponds to where a nre range starts on the chart.
On the left page I stored just the pure white and pure black as well as the metallic silver and gold. After this was taken I pulled out my Crayola metallic markers (a set of 8) and stored them here, too)
All of the pencils are turned with the color numbers facing up so it is easy to pull the one I want from the notation on the key chart.
I am glad I did the color key chart first asit is often difficult to recognize the true color of a pencil from the paint OR the tiny view of the lead.
Some of the aquas were moved out of their chart sequence to fit in the binder in front of the greens.
I knew that I would not be able to remember exactly what section of the binder a particular color could be found so I tied snippets of colored ribbons on the four zipper pulls representing the contents.
While I was at it, I ordered a battery operated pencil sharpener. This is a cross-cut so it is less likely to break the leads than the little hand-held, single razor blade style.
I have colored many projects already and love this new setup - not only the organization but having almost double the range of colors as before.
I retired the old set of 72 to the studio where they will be used for greeting cards and less detailed projects.
Ddd
