Mayah

8x10 inch LuxArchival paper, Derwent Lightfast, Brush and Pencil blending powder

Ref. Pic: by kind permission of Angela Hill, Photographic References for Artists, thank you very much. I have been an exceptionally lucky pencil swisher recently ladies and gents, because I was lucky enough to be sent some of the new LuxArchival paper to try by Brush and Pencil. So thank you very much Alyona Nickelsen, it was like having a second Christmas morning opening up that special delivery!

For the reference, I was lucky enough to come across a fabulous picture to work on by Angela, who was so helpful when i reached out to her prior to starting this picture. A beautiful young lady featured, plus extra bonus points for the sweetest bunny that ever modelled fluffy fur, it was a picture that was screaming to be drawn. I have to say, receiving top secret parcels with mysterious and exotic new art products from around the World was undeniably exciting and would be a wonderful way to sate an art supply addiction. If I had one, naturally!

My chosen magic wands for this were the Derwent Lightfast, on account of the higher oil content as I wanted to use the Brush and Pencil blending powder for the background. Several shades of blue selected, Frisket film applied to protect the bunny and fair lady, I started the background layers.

Powder to paper, pencil applied, blend. Fix with Brush and Pencil workable fixative. Consume Colombian coffee, stirred not shaken. Repeat. It works quickly, blends well and there is great control using this method. I like how the pencils needn't be sharp for this stage either, lay that side down with even pressure, swoosh about and blend, got to love it!

Bonus tip with fixative, take care to avoid overspray on the film when applying... When it dries it turns into 84.3 billion multicolour particles that go everywhere.

Final layer of background fixed, it is off with the film. At this point I see how white the paper is and in later stages it became really apparent how vibrant colour pencil looks on this surface. It really shows colours superbly well. Moving a pencil near the surface seemed to cause the picture to self assemble, as if by magic. Clearly Alyona designed this in the Hogwarts Special Projects Lab!

Bunny and lass were built up with colour pencil only and i was really happy to see I could get decent levels of detail in despite the size.... It was possible to adjust value and hue with the lightest of touches. So there you have it... Fluffy bunny, lovely lass, Lightfast and LuxArchival, together a match made in heaven and capable of the most wonderful painterly results.

The LuxArchival is an awesome product. It is so uniform, very predictable, tough and suitable for wet and dry plus OMS. To top it off it is so, so forgiving. Pigment lifts with a kneaded eraser nicely and light over dark gives such fine control. I will love using this again and will look to get the larger sizes when they are in stock at Jackson's, I think it will really come into it's own then.

It is pricey, just like Pastelmat which I have really enjoyed using and I remember having multiple wallet seizures when buying that! Still, when spending many hours on a project, the investment becomes a more attractive value proposition for me. Performance wise, LuxArchival takes the crown from Pastelmat for me. Now how does it go... The King is dead, long live the King!