I'm sure I am not the only one waiting for Christmas to finally get my hands on some Derwent Procolour! I decided now was a good time to seek advice from someone who has had a lot of experience using Procolour. Judith Selcuk has very kindly shared her experience.

Judith first explains that it takes a couple of days getting used to using Procolour. Sounds like it is time to get out the sketchbook or scraps of our favourite papers and start playing! Judith also says it is important to keep the pencils super sharp and use lots of light layers. Procolour layer better than burnish as they are quite hard. Judith uses lots of light layers like glazes. Good news for those like me who love layering colour over colour!

As a pencil Procolour come closest to Polychromos, both being quite hard. Judith tells me that they are extremely pigmented, so like the intensity of pigmentation of Prismacolor but with the consistency of Polychromos. Procolour come with a colour chart that is very well matched to the pencils. A very useful tool to tape to your desk as you learn the new colours.

Procolour are suitable for a variety of surfaces. They work particularly well on drafting film, hot pressed paper, smooth and vellum,uart 800, Pastelmat and regular laid Ingress paper.

I am sure that has whetted everyone's appetitie! Bring on Christmas!

Head over to www.ukcps.co.uk to see our first ever online exhibition. This is a taster of the winners and highly commended. As well as these superb paintings there are lots and lots of other equally wonderful paintings to view!