I did two small portraits of Sadie Sink as Max on Stranger Things with Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils and Derwent Graphitint. Spoiler alert: more Derwent love ahead. Read on for my honest review of Derwent Graphitint (12 set).
60% Off!
Not that these pencils were not on my radar, but I did not plan to purchase these until they were 60% off at Amazon.ca. I paid CAD$17 for these water-soluble graphite pencils; the regular price is close to $40. What a steal!
For the review, I swatched the 12 pencils dry and wet, with dry on the top row. I didn’t even use the best paper; it was just a 110 lb white cardstock. Nonetheless, the pencils performed beautifully both wet and dry. The colours were intense both ways!
Can You Tell I’m A Max Fan?
I drew Max with Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils, followed by Derwent Graphitint as background in this drawing of Max (Sadie Sink) from Stranger Things.
I used all 12 pencils in this background. It’s a bit of an overkill, but I got carried away. 😛 The colours dissolved in water completely, leaving no lines or contours. For this first portrait, I used Strathmore 400 series watercolour paper.
Encore!
Graphitint impressed me so much, I used them again wet in a second small portrait right after I finished the first one. This time, however, I used Fluid hot press 140lb watercolour paper:
After it dried, I added in the finishing touches with Prismacolor Premier over the Graphitint. It was effortless and my coloured pencils met absolutely no resistance.
Overall Review
Colour me impressed! Derwent Graphitint was a joy to review. When dry, these pencils go on the paper like butter. When wet, they dissolve beautifully. These are lightfast too, with the shade Port having the lowest lightfast rating though.
There is a larger set of 24 Graphitint pencils available. However, You will get duplicates of these 12 in the 24 set.
In conclusion, I highly recommend Graphitint. They are essentially watercolour pencils, but somehow they perform better than watercolour pencils when used dry. The colours are darker and work great as backgrounds.
