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Derwent Drawing Coloured Pencils – a closer look

10 February 2021 by Louise

Pinterest image of Derwent Drawing pencil colour swatches. Text says 'Find the colour families of the Derwent Drawing range of coloured pencils - Artnitso.com - Derwent Drawing colours. - Artnitso.com

The small range of 24 Derwent Drawing Coloured pencils is a pleasant surprise. The colours are muted and the leads are soft.

By knowing more about the pencils, you will have better knowledge when using them, planning your artwork, or simply deciding if you would like to buy this range.

Following a theme

We completed a series of posts that take closer looks at various ranges of coloured pencils, soluble ink, oil pastels, and artist crayons. These sets are the wax-based Caran d’Ache Luminance 76 and Prismacolor Premier 150 (including the lightfast pencils and the non-lightfast pencils); the oil-based Faber-Castell Polychromos 120 and Caran d’Ache Pablo 120. This was further expanded to have closer looks at the oil-based 100 Derwent Lightfast range of pencils, and the Derwent Procolour coloured pencils.

While the original series was in response to a question about the differences between wax-based and oil-based coloured pencils, it is worthwhile to continue to explore other colour mediums.

Therefore, we also looked at water colour pencils – Caran d’Ache Museum and Caran d’Ache Supracolor. Other mediums analysed are the water soluble Derwent Inktense blocks, and Caran d’Ache Neocolor II art crayons. As well, we looked closer at Caran d’Ache Neocolor I wax art crayons.

Read this disclaimer regarding the analysis.

Derwent Drawing Coloured Pencils

When looking at the set as a whole, all colours (including in the colour wheel family colours, neutrals and metallics) are shown clockwise in the chart below.

Derwent Drawing 24 - All colours pie chart - Artnitso.com
Pie chart showing a count of all the colours in the Derwent Drawing 24 coloured pencil range.

The charts represent a total of 24 pencils, of which 5 are neutral and 19 are colours that belong to the colour wheel families. There are no metallic colours available in the Derwent Drawing coloured pencil range.

Derwent Drawing 24 All colours bar chart - Artnitso.com
Bar chart showing the count of all the colours in the 24 Derwent Drawing coloured pencil range.

Now to get a closer look let’s separate these colours into two groups – the colour wheel colours, and the neutral colours.

The colour wheel colours

The 12 colour wheel family colours available in the set are shown clockwise below:

Derwent Drawing 24 - Colour Wheel colours pie chart - Artnitso.com
Pie Chart showing a count of all the colour wheel colours available in the Derwent Drawing 24 coloured pencil range.

The Colour Wheel Clock

The colour wheel moves clock-wise around the wheel. The image below shows the colour family positions on the clock.

Colour Wheel showing the colour wheel family colours in clock positions Artnitso.com

Of the colour wheel colours, the make up of each colour family is outlined below. While the colours are of varying shades and tones, the predominant base colour belongs to the colour wheel family in which it has been placed.

Red – 12 o’clock

The Derwent Drawing range of 24 coloured pencils does not have any red colour wheel family coloured pencils.

Red-Orange 1.00 o’clock

The next colour family group is red-orange at 1.00 o’clock. The image below shows that the coloured pencil set of 24 includes 6 red-orange colour family pencils. These are all earthy tones.

Derwent Drawing Red-Orange - Artnitso.com
The 6 Derwent Drawing coloured pencils that belong to the red-orange colour wheel colour family.

Orange – 2.00 o’clock

This range of 24 coloured pencils does not have any orange colour wheel family coloured pencils.

Orange-Yellow – 3.00 o’clock

Orange-Yellow sits at the 3.00 o’clock position. The image below shows that the coloured pencil set of 24 includes 4 orange-yellow colour family pencils.

Derwent Drawing Orange-Yellow - Artnitso.com
The 4 Derwent Drawing coloured pencils that belong to the orange-yellow colour wheel colour family.

Yellow – 4.00 o’clock

At 4.00 o’clock sits Yellow. The coloured pencil range of 24 includes one yellow colour family pencil.

Derwent Drawing Yellow - Artnitso.com
The 1 Derwent Drawing coloured pencils that belongs to the yellow colour wheel colour family.

Yellow-Green – 5.00 o’clock

Yellow-Green sits at 5.00 o’clock. The image below shows that the coloured pencil set of 24 includes 4 yellow-green colour family pencils.

Derwent Drawing Yellow-Green - Artnitso.com
The 4 Derwent Drawing coloured pencils that belong to the yellow-green colour wheel colour family.

Green – 6.00 o’clock

The Derwent Drawing range of 24 coloured pencils does not have any green colour wheel family coloured pencils.

Green-Blue – 7.00 o’clock

Green-blue is at 7.00 o’clock. The image below shows that the coloured pencil set of 24 includes 2 blue-green colour family pencils.

Derwent Drawing Green-Blue - Artnitso.com
The 2 Derwent Drawing coloured pencils that belong to the green-blue colour wheel colour family.

Blue – 8.00 o’clock

The Derwent Drawing range of 24 coloured pencils does not have any blue colour wheel family coloured pencils.

Blue-Violet – 9.00 o’clock

The Derwent Drawing range of 24 coloured pencils does not have any blue-violet colour wheel family coloured pencils.

Violet – 10.00 o’clock

This range of 24 coloured pencils does not have any violet colour wheel family coloured pencils.

Violet-Red – 11.00 o’clock

Violet-Red sits at the 11.00 o’clock position. The coloured pencil set of 24 includes 2 violet-red colour wheel family pencils.

Derwent Drawing Violet-Red - Artnitso.com
The 2 Derwent Drawing coloured pencils that belong to the violet-red colour wheel colour family.

Derwent Drawing Coloured Pencils – Colour wheel colour family – Summary

As you can see from the above images, the Derwent Drawing coloured pencil range holds muted colours. Derwent calls these pencils the “Fur and Feather” pencils. It does not have pencils in all the colour wheel family colours. It has colours in the tertiary colour wheel colours (excluding Yellow). These colours are: Red-Orange, Orange-Yellow, Yellow, Yellow-Green, Green-Blue and Violet-Red.

Let’s now look at the neutral colours included in the Derwent Drawing coloured pencil range.

Neutral colours

Of the 24 set of coloured pencils – 5 are neutral. It holds no metallic colours. These are shows clockwise in the pie chart below:

Derwent Drawing 24 - Neutrals Pie Chart - Artnitso.com

The breakdown of these pencils is as follows. First there is neutral-black.

Derwent Drawing Neutral-Black - Artnitso.com
The 1 Derwent Drawing pencil that is neutral-black.

Next is neutral-cool grey with 1 pencil.

Derwent Drawing Neutral-Cool Grey - Artnitso.com
The 1 Derwent Drawing pencil that is neutral-cool grey.

Neutral-warm grey follows with 2 pencils.

Derwent Drawing Neutral-Warm Grey - Artnitso.com
The 2 Derwent Drawing pencils that are neutral-warm grey.

The last neutral colour is white with one pencil.

Derwent Drawing Neutral-White - Artnitso.com
The 1 Derwent Drawing pencil that is neutral-white.

The bar chart below shows the breakdown of the set’s neutral colours.

Derwent Drawing 24 Neutrals Bar Chart - Artnitso.com

As you can see, this small coloured pencil range is made up of a range of muted tertiary and neutral colours.

As noted above, the selection of colour is subjective and the reviewer has chosen colour by looking at the actual coloured pencil swatches. Nevertheless, you may find that particular colours belong in different groups or colour families.

Lightfastness

Of the 24 set of coloured pencils, all are lightfast with a lightfast rating of 7 or 8. One pencil has a 7 rating, and 23 have the highest lightfast rating of 8.

Make your own colour chart

For your knowledge, it’s advisable to draw up your own colour chart so you can get to know the actual colours of your coloured pencils. You will then be able to see how your pencil performs on the papers that you use for your drawings.

However, it takes a long time to make your own chart, and it usually is something that we don’t get around to doing.

Join our email list and get immediate access to a library of slim interactive colour charts (including for Derwent Drawing pencils).


Colour Wheel Colour Harmony Products
We have created products about Colour Wheel Colour Harmony. Use these products to help you create lists of your art and craft supplies sorted into colour families. Use it to create lists of your Derwent Drawing pencils. You can find information about them here.

This post was originally published on 10 February 2021, and last updated on 16 August 2021.

Filed Under: Coloured Pencils, Drawing Tagged With: Derwent Drawing, wax-based coloured pencils

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