CHEAP VS EXPENSIVE ART SUPPLIES | Drawing Realism with Colored Pencils

you guys know I use some pretty expensive coloring pencils for my portraits and I always get comments like what about Crayola what about Crayola so today I got myself some Crayola and we'll be comparing them to the super expensive luxurious Karen - luminance set so grab a drink and let's go hey people my name is Timmy if you're new here and firstly I like to shout out the grade Jazza and super a diesel have done similar videos in the past so I'll link those videos down in the description box I wanted to do my take on it during a portrait piece to make the comparison fair I'll pick 24 of the quran - pencils that are most similar to the Crayola set I'll compare the prices I'll swatch both sets and see how all the perform with a series of blending tests and then I'll attempt the drawing you saw in the thumbnail using these pencils the video will be broken down into chapters and their time stamps in the description box if you'd like to jump around so for price we've got the Crayola set of 24 which retails for around seven dollars which is 30 cents per pencil and then we've got the current - luminance set i've got the set of 76 colors and that retails for around three hundred and thirty seven dollars they also sell a set of twenty pencils which retails for eighty two dollars so I'll use that for the comparison which comes serve three dollars and forty-one cents per pencil so I've quickly swatch them side-by-side can you guess which is Crayola and can you guess which is Karen - so pause the video quickly and leave a comment and I'll tell you if you're right so as you can see from the swatches there isn't much difference and firstly shout out to me for the color match because I'm not gonna lie it's pretty similar but if you guess the left side is crazier than you are right I've just added the color names and color numbers for each and as you can see from a close-up they look very similar can probably slightly tell that the Karen - ad is a little more vibrant but honestly you can't really see much of a difference one thing I did notice is Crayola has a harder tip so it almost sharpened to a sharper point it has like a thinner lid and also this is kind of a by the way and it's definitely not that deep but Crayola only gives you a color option so for example this is violet and in comparison Karen - has the name and the so my swatch sheet I only put the number down for the current outside so if you're familiar with my normal work you know that I barely draw on white paper so I've decided to do some swatches on gray paper as well this is the artis or great own paper all the supplies I used are links in the description box now doing these swatches is where I saw the biggest difference the artis of paper is so smooth that the Crayolas did not perform at all the previous paper I used had a textured surface which I think aided Crayola but on this smooth paper you can see that the Koran - side looks so much more vibrant there were a couple of colors that I messed up on my swatch sheet for example the magenta color I accidently swapped and the blue color but I'm sure it's very clear to see the difference in quality of the pencils just on this smooth paper my conclusion with this swatch s is that Crayola will perform better on some sort of textured paper and potentially white paper in comparison to a smooth gray paper and looking at them side by side is clearer to see the the Crayola just seems to look better on this white paper so that's the paper I'll continue with for the rest of this video now I'm going to do a series of tests just to see how old these perform first I've got the opacity test and the purpose is just a layer the pencils and see how well they get to an opaque point from the Crayola side you can see that it forms a really nice single color blend and it gets to a pretty nice point as well for Karen - it was already so saturated the color goes down so saturated so even as I was trying to be very faint towards the end it was very hard but because of that it was easier to get to the darkest point and it was easier to layer the pencils but the thick pencil led made it hard to get to a lighter point so this point goes to Crayola next I've got a complimentary color blend so I'm just gonna do a quick yellow to red blend using a series of oranges as you can see on the screen the blend technique I'm using here is just layering I'm not going to talk through the technique in this video I've got a whole video on that so I'll link that down in the description box so if you're interested in learning how to layer check out that video after you watch this one but with this one I was pleasantly surprised with Crayola you can see that the colors are very vibrant and they blend quite seamlessly I was sure so as I said I didn't use any additional tools to help with this blend and see how seamless the blend came out now for the Quran - side it was quicker there's just something about the Karen - pencils that just made it a quicker easier process of course I've been using Karen - pencils for years so I'm very familiar with how to blend them but if the pencils really just feel like butter it just went down so smoothly and so quickly one problem is that it almost has led shaving / debris that builds up I don't know what the word for that is but I had to constantly blow that off and you can also tell that the edges of the rectangle weren't as clean as the Crayola and that's because of the thick LED that's so current - pencils have so just comparing them the point definitely goes to qur'an - the process which is so much easier the colors came out more vibrant it just made a much more opaque smooth blend next I've got a non complimentary color blend the idea for this is to blend two colors that don't have a seamless and nice transitionary color I'm blending three colors a light green a darker green and the pink so for this one I just tried the layering technique again and I just tried to go in sections to try to ease the blend but the Crayola ended up looking kind of muddy in the middle the middle just came to this Brown point which I guess was the point of the blend it wasn't meant to have a nice transitionary color but I think the blend could have been nicer especially at the point where it gets the pink it's just kind of sudden the Karen - on the other side made of course a nicer blend like that shouldn't shock anyone at this point the Karen - blends like butter so the colors combined really well there's something I've noticed about Karen - they layer seamlessly and they combined so beautifully it almost looks like a navy blue kind of color was used in the middle for the blend and as you can see on the left it's like a brown muddy color but on the right is just a nice seamless transition and again it was using the same three colors with this one it's very clear to see which the superior pencil is so the point goes to Karen - next I'm doing a burnished test so a lot of people like to blend using burnishers or blenders so I'm using the Derwent blender for this one if you're familiar with my channel you know I absolutely hates using blending aids I just think they just come out looking Ashley and ugly so I'm gonna do a complementary color blend just going from a pink to purple and I'm as much as possible before I use the colors now for this one honestly I'm so disappointed it just leaves this really ashy tone I honestly feel like blenders are the laziest way to blend in my opinion and I tried to lay a back over it with the pencils and of course it didn't layer so very disappointed with this blend on the Karen - side is slightly better but still an ugly blend honestly guys do not waste your money on burnishers and finally I'm doing a solvent test so I don't normally use solvents in my personal work so I don't have any and I ordered some after weight in two weeks it's still not here so I'm trying to use this nail polish I have around my house I saw a video by Kirsty partridge where she tried household items were blending and the nail polish was what works the best so I just thought let me try that for this one I'm doing a blue to green blend and I've got the three colors you can see on the side I'm trying to put enough pigment down so that it can stick to something and I put the nail polish in the lid and honestly I just feel like it's a waste of my time to be fair I'm not trying to judge it too hard because realistically I could get very different results using a normal solvent but because I don't have any of this as all I've got to test and this was trash and the current - honestly it was the exact same thing the points go to nobody for the last two tests by the way the final test I'm doing and I said final before but the final final is a layering test with white pencils and nothing really showed up and then with a white pen and the white pen showed up well over it for both brands finally I tried to lay a color pencils over the white pen for both neither of them works well they just kind of chipped at the pen and that's the end of the blend test now let's try a half and half realistic drawings so sketch out this eye on a separate piece of paper this is just normal printer paper that I use for the sketch and I don't like to sketch on my sketchbooks directly because I don't like to erase directly on my sketchbook the sketch part of a process is always a trial and error process so I like to do that on a separate piece of paper i shade the back of the paper using a 4b pencil and then I transfer the sketch using a biro I used a kneaded eraser to just lighten the sketch so that I don't have too many problems with the sketch showing through on the drawing now I've got my Crayola pencils and I'm just starting with the pupil of the eye and I can see already that I can get to a really dark point the black which is fantastic I decided to do an eye drawing for this test because of the limited color range from the Crayola the pack of 20 has a pretty good color range to be fair but with my normal skin tone colors that I do I do a lot of dark skin and they literally had two Browns in the set so I just thought I'd just pick and eye drawing which would have enough colors in the one piece from my blending test I found that the best way to blend these pencils is just by layering so I'm working in very light layers not worrying too much about the white that I can see through the page but just trying to put the colors down and trying to mix the colors with realism a lot of people struggle because if they don't see the color they're looking for in the particular pencil they just think oh my gosh I can't do it but you can actually mix color and pencils just like you can mix paints to make your color so with that you can put down an orange and then put down bits of red bits of greens to change the tone of the color and then you can achieve the color you're actually going for so now I'm going in with a black pen I'm using the faber castell black pen and the Stadler eyeliner for the eye lashes mainly but also to go over the darkest points of the drawing drawings like this deserve as much contrast as they can get and the black Crayola pencil does give me a nice contrast but for all my drawings it's usually kind of mixed media so I'm also gonna use a black marker to aid the process I also did the shine parts of the drawing using a white pen the Sakura jelly roll and that's it for the Crayola side I'm pleasantly surprised with what I can get with it especially with just a layer and technique for blending and now for the current - side so again just going through with the same kind of colors of course this eyes and symmetrical so I'm not actively testing out the same exact thing on both sides but it's the same exact technique with the layering and trying to make the colors that I can see in the reference so the first layer is this very faint layer where you can still see whites through but the more I build up the colors the more opaque it gets and it's clear to see where the current - is a little bit more superior because when I'm blending out the colors it just makes a much more seamless blend but especially in the green area so if you compare that directly to the current - side and I did the exact same thing for the eyelash reflections in the eye just using the marker pens for those the white Crayola pencil so aids with the blending for this section I add the reflections on this side also using the same white pen and I'm pleasantly surprised as a overall with how the pupil came out because I think kweilyn really held its own for this part of the drawing and of course I've got a line of demarkation in the middle but I tried to mimic the technique so that you wouldn't be able to tell that I'm using two different materials two very different materials now for the whites of the eye so I'm sure you know already the whites of the eye aren't complete white there's some Reds there's some yellows there's some Gray's that really come in with the shadows and of course you've got the veiny areas of the eye my challenge with this side was trying to keep it light and I tried to put a layer of the white pencil first and then go over it to lighten things but that white pencil from Crayola is absolutely trashed did not do a damn thing I had to go in very very light layers so that everything still made sense I used purples for some of the shadows and I added some blues and then the regular reds yellows and oranges to make it look good again the blending on this side was kind of hard to do just by the layering technique but I think because I'm drawing on white paper it wasn't too difficult to try to blend into white and I just want to show you this in real time to show how light and how slowly I'm working I think a lot of these pieces it just comes down to patience more than anything else if you're rushing the piece of course it's not gonna come out as good but if you can be patient with it then I'm sure regardless of the art supplies you use you can come out with a good enough piece with the Crayola side it's not as blended as it could be however I think it's still a nice enough effect for this drawing and now onto the current - side so I have the exact same issue with drawing on white and again I tried to do a layer of whites but I don't really think it helps that much so my focus was more working in very light layers to try to give it an illusion where the shadows come in the good thing about this side of the drawing was that there were a lot of shadows and a lot of grays now the problem is I'm only using a pretty dark grey for this piece so my biggest problem came all with limitations of the color range rather than the actual supplies that I was using so I had to go very faintly with the super pigmented dark grey that I had with limited color range and then I tried to go over it with the white pencil to try to lighten it up and try to layer it also with this kind of drawing you want to think about the drawing in layers so you'll see some of the reflections that I put in towards the end so I approached it by leaving some gaps but also knowing that I will come back in with a white pen for the sharpest highlights after I got down what I thought was a good enough grade then I started to add some of the veins into the eye just to add to the realism so I used a brown color and pencil for that I use some red pencils as well and some of the gray as well so again for the eye lashes I use markers for that and overall at this point of the drawing I'm very pleased with both materials I think it's very clear to see that the current - side is just an easier material to use and that's probably what you're paying for along with everything else that's what you're paying for you're paying for ease of use and material with the Crayola side I felt like I had to be firefighting I felt like I really had to struggle now adings or white highlights and this is what really brings the piece together because the sharpest reflections of the sharpest highlights is what just adds to the ultimate realism of the piece and now for the skin I was so nervous to attempt the skin so I gathered all the colors that I thought would be relevant so I've got a lot of reds oranges yellows and then some purples for the shadows and I started with those purple in the crease and even the peach color that comes with this set is just it's just not great is it so I'm just trying to layer the colors and just trying to form a nice smooth base and that's where I faced the biggest problems with Crayola it absolutely will not blend absolutely would not layer using the white pencil she tried to aid the blend was not working either honestly this was a nightmare trying to do this skin so after a bunch of layering I realized that this is absolutely never going to blend so I ended up using that solvent the solvent that I mentioned earlier in the video that never arrived it finally came and I just used it to attempt to blend the colors the good thing about this solvent is the even Crayola layers over the solvent so it was fantastic I just put it down and she tried to make a wash while that was drying off at the top then I did the bottom part of the drawing and again just tried to place the colors so placing the yellow space in res placing the page kind of color and trying to play some why and just trying to blend it with the solvent when the solvent had dried a bit then I layered the piece and just went in with more colors and just tried to make something that made sense after I got to a point I was moderately happy with the piece then I used the Uni Paschal white pen for some skin textures and for some highlights in the skin the good thing about this pen in comparison to the Sakura jelly roll is that it's got a bigger nib and it also dries softer next I attempted to do some eyelashes using a variety of calligraphy pens I even tried the oh-hoo-hoo brush markers at some point and it was a hideous mess everything was just a hot mess I didn't even think I need to describe how much of a hot mess this is and I've realized in the end that that was because the solvent layer hadn't dried properly so anything I put over the top wasn't coming up very well the markers weren't coming through as well it was kind of drying out as I was trying to use it it was kind of like blocking the ink from coming through when I was trying to use it I did find that the uniball waterproof eyeliner was the best one to use but I decided in the end so leave it to dry a little bit more and then come back to fix the lashes adding some final colors and trying to blend out the highlights in the skin that is where I'm leaving that side and moving on to the Karen - side so again the Karen decide it wasn't the smoothest process for me if you're familiar with any of my other work you know that I use pan pastels as a base for color and pencils and recently I started using markers as a base so using neither was just kind of long and honestly I don't know why some color in pencil artists don't use any base because having to completely fill the base with a series of colors and then trying to blend it it's just long but for the Karen - side it was a lot nicer to blend I didn't actually use a solvent for this side at all I just placed on the colors as I saw best and I just went over the sections using the white pencil or the beige colored pencil and everything blended seamlessly again I used the Uni paska pen to add some white softer details into the skin and then I attempt at the bottom of the drawing so I think at the bottom of the drawing you can see the clear difference between the Karen - and the Crayola pencils because of how seamless the current - blends and as I said I didn't use any other blenders it was just the same layering technique but it just formed a really nice smooth skin layer which Cameron - are famous for when I was happy enough of the skin slash tired of the drawing I just added the lashes using the uniball pen and this was a very quick process I wasn't really being Precious about the direction it was just kind of to show the effect and with lushes if you struggle with flushes you just want to make sure that it's thicker at the base and feathers out lighter and that is it for this drawing don't forget to sign your work and here's the final drawing I am pleasantly surprised with how well the Crayolas worked I never thought I'd actually be able to produce a good piece with Crayola I never thought I'd be able to do skin textures with Crayola but what helps on that side was using the solvent so I would say if you're using cheaper pencils that don't blend very well definitely try a solvent it will help the process but in terms of who won this comparison test I guess it's up to you if you're a beginner you definitely don't need something as expensive as the current - there are other cheaper alternatives in fact I've got loads of color and pencil brands and I'm planning on doing a whole comparison test for all of them which might help you make a decision better hopefully this video shows even if you're a beginner the coiler has the potential to produce an amazing piece so yeah that's it for this video I've got plenty of speed drone videos on my channel I've got drawing tutorials so have a look at those videos our links and playlists at the end of this video and thank you so much for watching I'll see you on my next video goodbye [Music]

Channel: Temi Danso Art

Views: 866,017

Keywords: cheap vs expensive art supplies, Do You Need Expensive Art Supplies, expensive color pencils vs cheap color pencils, cheap color pencils, how to use cheap color pencils, drawing with cheap color pencils, cheap vs expensive color pencils, testing cheap vs expensive art, cheap vs expensive, cheap art supplies, cheap v expensive art supplies, testing cheap art supplies, inexpensive supplies, trying cheap art supplies, student v professional, cheap art supply challenge color pencils

Id: 6Bs0rofTHu0

Length: 19min 37sec (1177 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 08 2020