Second Mystery Sketching Kit Giveaway for 2012

Attention loyal readers! Got another Mystery sketching kit assembled around this hand made blue sketchbook from Sketchbook Central. This giveaway will be open to fellow artist bloggers based on the USA that are willing to try and review this unique and innovative custom sketchbook loaded with 100 sheets of acid free super smooth 32lb paper. You have until midnight EST on Sunday 12th to leave a comment to this thread with a link to your blog or website, and then I'll use Random.org to select a winner and announce it by Monday morning. The winner will have a 48 hour window to claim the prize. Good luck!

Stabilo GREENcolors Set of 12 colored pencils review

Continuing with the next item generously supplied by Matthias from Bleistiff, we'll take a look at the Stabilo GREENcolors pencils. These pencils are manufactured in the European Union and proclaim their FSC certification on their barrels and packaging box (meaning their wood slats comes from properly managed sustainable forests). I have yet to see them at retail or any online shops based in the USA. These colored pencils stand out with their Stabilo trademarked white stripes and feature smooth color lay down. Their texture is on the soft side, so they can create intense color areas quite quickly. Found them to work well in combination with watercolor pencils. If they become more readily available stateside, they would make a fine gift choice for kids and students.

Bic Rondo Select 0.5 mm Mechanical Pencil Spotlight and Caran D'Ache Edelweiss 341-1 3B graphite pencil spotlight

We'll take a look at a couple of neat additions to my graphite collection that hail from pretty faraway places, so they might be a tad difficult to find stateside. This was my first time trying out the Caran D'Ache Edelweiss 341-1 3B pencil that I believe is the student grade offering from one of my favorite graphite manufacturers. It did not disappoint, so I would not hesitate to pick it up as a sketching tool if it was readily available.This Swiss graphite pencil and Swedish mechanical pencil were included in the last sample pack from Matthias. Dave already posted a pretty thorough photo coverage and detailed description of the Bic Rondo Select 0.5 mm mechanical pencil a couple of years ago.
Thus I will simply focus on how this Ballograf writing product handled some light sketching duty. I did not like the HB leads included with it (the lead felt like it receded a bit under my normal drawing pressure and broke a few times), so I loaded it with a 4B Uni-ball Nano Dia lead that felt sturdier while smoothly producing darker marks. Its rubberized black barrel was quite comfortable and seemed to be fused to the the conical fixed sleeve, for I was unable to disassemble it to take a closer look of the clutching mechanism. The Rondo would make an elegant worthy addition to any mechanical pencil collection if you can still find it. After a quick online search for it that yielded few entries, I suspect it might have been discontinued.

Derwent Academy Sketching Pencils Spotlight

Thanks Matthias for sending me this tin with 12 Derwent Academy sketching pencils. This set is clearly marked as "Made in the UK" on both sides of the tin, but that information is not included on the pencils' imprint which is limited to a single line indicating "Derwent - Academy Sketching - and the graphite grade" (Range from 5H to 6B). Personally I would prefer to see the country of origin clearly shown on the pencil barrels themselves as was customary with vintage pencils, but I guess nowadays it might not be as practical with pencil manufacture often being more of a global affair. While making the reference chart above, I noticed that there wasn't much difference between adjacent grade swatches. Yet the light to dark trend can be clearly appreciated when the 12 sample swatches are drawn together on a single sheet of paper. I started sharpening them with the Classroom Friendly crank sharpener that yields a fairly long point. This worked well for the harder H pencils, but resulted in weak tips that crumbled easily with the softer B pencils. For the softer pencils is best to use something like a KUM wedge sharpener that produce a shorter taper with a sturdier point. This tin set of 12 sketching pencils would make a fine introduction for students and hobbyists not yet ready to invest on an artist grade graphite set.

Mystery Sketching Kit Revealed

Congratulations Aisazia! Your mystery sketching kit has been packaged and will be out in the mail tomorrow. If you can not wait to see its contents, you can check this Flickr picture. Thanks again Joshua for providing a special handmade sketchbook for this kit.

Doodling with the General's 588 Sketch & Wash All Surface Graphite Pencil and a couple of other pencils

Still got quite a few pencils to try and review this year, so better get started with the first batch. My nephew already got a head start playing with the black magnetic pencil that resembled a wizard's wand. It retained its point well, featured a fairly smooth lead, and produced fairly clean drawings with a nice tonal range.
Sample doodles drawn with the General's 588 Sketch & Wash All-Surface graphite pencil. Got this watersoluble pencil as a carded 2-pack at the local Jerry's Artarama. Used dry it left a crayon-like texture on the vellum surface of a Strathmore mixed media visual journal. The lead tip wore down quickly and was a bit crumbly. The dry marks quickly dissolved into gray washes upon contact with a waterbrush.
Some test doodles with the Musgrave Unigraph 1200 2B pencil. A pencil manufactured en Shelbyville, Tennesse according to the golden imprint on its barrel. It was fairly smooth and clean to handle for such a soft graphite grade.