Sophia Swift is the office manager here at Jackson’s and an acrylic painter. She specialises in cityscapes and is a big fan of the Montana acrylic spray paints and the Posca acrylic marker pens.
Sophs did some tests of our Conte Carre products and below are the results.
(Click on her sample swatches to see a larger version of the image.)
Conte Pastel Pencils
Very strong pigment.
She used a lot of pressure when she drew with these and at the beginning there was a lot of pigment dust. She liked that she was able to build up layers because each layer didn’t remove the layer underneath. They blend very nicely. Highly recommended.
Using Conte Pastel Pencils
Conte Pastel Pencil 48 Assorted Set
Conte – The Sketching Box
This would make a great present.
The orange bit is a Conte stick, it is square and a bit harder to control.
The black and white bits are Conte pencils. These are suited to more controlled lines.
It was the first time she had used a blender tortillion and she said she could see it being useful for detailed work. She was pleased to find the Conte rubber can rub out most of the colour, not just smudge it around.
Using the Conte Sketching Box
Conte - The Sketching Box
Conte Carre Crayons
Solid pigment, very strong.
In this sample she used a lot of pressure for the strokes. She liked the clean, crisp lines she got with the edge of the square sticks.
Using Conte Carre Crayons
Conte 18 Coloured Carres - 3 Drawer set
Conte Soft Pastels
Strong pigment, lots of dust, good blending. Beautiful ++++
Additionally, she later tried blending out the edges with water, to see the solubility, the watery edges of the test sample show the result of that.
Using Conte Soft Pastels
Conte Soft Pastels 48 Assorted Set
Conte Graphite Pencils
These have a lovely feel to them. There is a great selection of grades for a professional sketcher.
Using Conte Graphite Pencils Conte Graphite Pencils Esquisse Sketching Crayons Using Esquisse Sketching Crayons Conte Carre Crayon Set
Great layers. No scratching! Smooth and solid.
I like these tests -have helped me a lot. To decide what might do well for me.
Thank you for doing them.It would be good if you did it for more things.
Thanks Jonathan, it is good to know it is appreciated 🙂 I will let Sophs know.
We do have other tests and demos of art materials on our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/jacksonsartsupplies
and we have some on the blog here and have plans for doing more.
I have conte carre sticks and am
wondering about the numbers on them. I
have blacks in two different numbers for
example … 2340 and 2460. They feel
different too. Any ideas? Thanks
Hi Melanie
Conte separate their carre crayons into two groups. The coloured and the sketching.
The 2340 is now called the 09 and is the black in the coloured group.
The 2460 come in 3 hardnesses like graphite pencils – 2B, B and HB – and is in their sketching group.
I expect the black in the coloured group is a general black and the one in the sketching group allows more variation in greys by switching between hardness of crayons.
I hope that helps.
Here is their colour chart for the two groups.