UPDATED: May 26, 2020
Have you got a set of Derwent Inktense blocks? You love the colours but don’t know which ones belong on the colour wheel? This post will show you the colours of the 72 blocks in the Derwent Inktense range.
The colours have been sorted into colour wheel colour family groups and neutral colours. This has been done to help you create your artwork. Please read this disclaimer about how this analysis was undertaken.
This vibrant range of water soluble ink can be used to draw, and as an ink wash on paper or fabric. If you’d like to know how to draw on fabric, Derwent shows you how with Inktense blocks and with Inktense pencils.
Following a series of ‘closer looks’
Recently, we provided a series of closer looks at the colours in a variety of ranges of coloured pencils. This was the wax-based Prismacolor Premier, both lightfast, and non-lightfast pencils in this range, Prismacolor Art Stix; Caran d’Ache Luminance, and Derwent Drawing coloured pencils. The series included the oil-based pencils Faber Castell Polychromos and Caran d’Ache Pablo. Finally, it included the water soluble coloured pencils Caran d’Ache Supracolor and Caran d’Ache Museum. This post will expand that series to include other mediums that can also used with coloured pencils to create artwork.
This post will help you save your time and your energy. It will show you what colour wheel family colours and neutral colours are included in the Derwent Inktense blocks range.
Let’s start…..
This post has images that includes the colour name, lightfast rating together with a colour swatch for each pencil in the range. For your convenience, the left hand side of the swatches shows the block used dry. The right hand side of the swatches show the dampened block colour.
When looking at the set as a whole, all colours (including in the colour wheel family colours and neturals) are shown clockwise in the chart below.
The chart represents a total of 72 blocks, of which 9 are neutral, and 63 are colours that belong to the colour wheel colour families.
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 blocks are shown clockwise below:
The Colour Wheel Clock
| Clock Position | Colour Family |
|---|---|
| 12.00 | Red |
| 1.00 | Red-Orange |
| 2.00 | Orange |
| 3.00 | Orange-Yellow |
| 4.00 | Yellow |
| 5.00 | Yellow-Green |
| 6.00 | Green |
| 7.00 | Green-Blue |
| 8.00 | Blue |
| 9.00 | Blue-Violet |
| 10.00 | Violet |
| 11.00 | Violet-Red |
Of the color 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
Starting with red at the 12.00 o’clock position, the image below shows that the 72 Inktense blocks set includes 6 red colour family colours.
Red-Orange – 1.00 o’clock
The next colour family group is red-orange at 1.00 o’clock. This shows that the 72 set of Inktense blocks includes 4 red-orange colour family colours.
Orange – 2.00 o’clock
The next colour is orange at 2.00 o’clock. The set of 72 blocks includes 3 blocks that belong to the orange colour family.
Orange-Yellow – 3.00 o’clock
Orange-Yellow sets at the 3.00 o’clock position. The image below shows that the block set of 72 includes 2 orange-yellow colour family blocks.
Yellow – 4.00 o’clock
At 4.00 o’clock sits yellow. The range of 72 blocks includes 4 blocks that belong 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 set of 72 blocks includes 9 yellow-green colour family blocks.
Green – 6.00 o’clock
The colour family of green sits at 6.00 o’clock. The Derwent Inktense range of 72 blocks includes 6 blocks that belong to the green colour wheel family.
Green-blue – 7.00 o’clock
Green-blue sits at 7.00 o’clock. The image below shows the 3 blocks that belong to the green-blue colour wheel colour family.
Blue – 8.00 o’clock
Blue is at the 8.00 o’clock position. The range of 72 Inktense blocks includes 10 blocks that belong to the blue colour wheel colour family.
Blue-Violet – 9.00 o’clock
Blue-violet sits at the 9.00 o’clock position. The image below shows that the set of 72 Inktense blocks holds 4 blocks that have colours belonging to the blue-violet colour wheel colour family.
Violet – 10.00 o’clock
Violet sits at the 10.00 o’clock position. The image below shows that the set of 72 blocks includes 6 violet colour family blocks.
Violet-Red – 11.00 o’clock
Violet-Red sits at the 11.00 o’clock position. The set of 72 blocks includes 6 blocks that belong the violet-red colour family.
Colour wheel colour family – Summary
As you can see from the above images, the Derwent Inktense range of 72 blocks has pencils in all the colour family colours. Additionally, the yellow-green and blue colour families have 9 or more blocks in each colour family. (see the bar chart below).
Let’s now look at the neutral colours included in the Derwent Inktense range of blocks.
Neutral Colours
Of the set of 72 blocks, 9 are neutral. These are shown in the pie chart below.
The breakdown of these blocks are as follows. First there are the 6 neutral-black colours.
Next is cool-brown with one block.
Next is neutral-warm brown with one block.
Next is neutral-white with one block.
The chart below shows a breakdown of the set’s neutral colours.
As you can see, the Derwent Inktense set of 72 blocks is made up of a variety of colours and neutrals.
As noted above, the selection of colour is subjective and the reviewer has chosen colour by looking at the actual block swatches. Nevertheless, you may find that particular colours belong in different groups or families.
An almost complete lightfast set of blocks.
The text below is from Derwent’s inktense colour chart. It shows that Derwent uses the Blue Wood Scale (ISO 105) to evaluate lightfastness. It states that 3,4 is fair, moderate. 5,6 is a good to very good lightfast rating, and that 7,8 is an excellent lightfast rating.
Of the 72 set of blocks, six blocks have a lightfast rating of 6. Thirty-two blocks have a lightfast rating of 7. Thirty blocks have the highest lightfast rating of 8. Four blocks have a mixed rating of 4 or 5, 5 or 6, 6 or 7, and 7 or 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 Inktense blocks. You will then see how your blocks perform on the papers that you use for your drawings, paintings or fabric work.
But sometimes making a chart can take time. It’s something that we don’t get around to doing. But, regardless of whether you’ve made a chart or not, you sometimes need information when you are not near them.
Interactive Inktense Colour Chart
To help you find the information you need about the Derwent Inktense blocks, we have outlined the information available in the images above. We have created an interactive chart. You can access the chart by clicking the image below. This chart should help you choose your colours. It will also help you get a better understanding of the blocks in the range.
We hope this post will help you. Save it for later to your ‘Inktense blocks’ board on Pinterest.
