Colouring Quest Part 2: My Pencils, Pens & More

I have a confession to make...I am addicted to stationery! Whenever I go shopping I love to spend AGES in stationery shops such as Paperchase looking for cute bits and bobs for my desk or pencil case! Luckily for me (or not so luckily depending on how you see it) it's back to school season so I can find a whole new range of stationery! Since I like stationery, I have tons of pens and pencils so today I thought I would share the equipment I use for colouring and tell you a bit about how/why I use them. Let's get started!

The first thing I have to show you are the gel pens I use for details. Gel pens are fun to use every now and then because they bring a pop of vibrant colour (and maybe a bit of sparkle) to a picture that colouring pencils can't create. They're handy to use in the narrow spaces of lineart because sometimes no matter how sharp the pencil is, it still goes over the lines!  These gel pens are from 'The Works' but they're just generic gel ones that you could probably find in most shops.

 The next thing I have to show you are my Prismacolour pencils, these are probably what I use the most because they are great for blending and creating a variety of shades! Prismacolours are quite pricey but I believe that they are worth the extra money. They are shatter resistant, have a soft lead and the colours really stand out! This particular set (Prismacolor premier-48 pack) has a wide variety of colours and shades to use from. I have several coloured pencil sets and these are by far my favourites. You don't have to have expensive art supplies to colour really well though.

 Thirdly I want to show you my Stabilo coloured fineliners. I probably use these the least for colouring out of all the supplies because I tend to use the gel pens for details rather than these, but sometimes I like to add little finishing touches with these. There's a wide range of colours to use and are kept in a handy container. Although I don't use them as much for colouring, I do use them a lot for other things such as writing happy mail or making colourful doodles!

Last but not least, here are my blending tools! Here I have a Derwent blender pencil and some Royal & Langnickel blending stumps in varying sizes. These are SO useful because before i had blending tools, it took me absolutely ages to create a stunning gradient. But now, with these tools, although it still takes a little while it is so much faster to blend colours! In my opinion, the blender pencil is more effective than the blending stumps and slightly easier to control. However, you may think differently so if you're thinking of buying blending tools, I recommend that you try both. I've also heard that you can use baby oil to blend but I haven't tried it out yet.

So that's it for part 2 of 'Colouring Quest'! If you enjoyed it, make sure that you come back for the next part and follow my blog to keep up to date with new posts! If you're waiting to see my finished colouring pages don't fret! I'm still busy colouring! I'll be uploading some soon but whilst you wait, if you want to see sneak peaks of the colouring, follow this link!

Let me know in the comments what your favourite set of pencils/pens you have and what supplies you recommend for people who love to colour!