Spectrum Illustrator Review, First Colouring PLUS Skin Blend

I was very excited to play with the new Spectrum Illustrator pens – in my colouring journey I had reached the stage of beginning to replace the chisel nibs with brush nibs.  So far I’ve picked up all 6 pen sets and the Figure and Landscape 12 pen sets from the launch.  Spectrum Noir has currently released 96 pens (including some new colours) with the launch but is planning on releasing 216 in total.  That’s 18 pen trays for the storage conscious among you.

So what do I think? 

• New colours – I do like the new colours in the AB, VB and AP sets,  There are also dark oranges (BO) which we needed, a new red brown (RB) and medium browns (MB).  Spectrum Noir say that they are filling in the gaps that were identified on the current palate.
• Matching existing colours – one of the first things I discovered was that the new colours DO NOT line up with the corresponding pen on the original Noirs.  That means that most of your old colour combinations will not work!  This is easily noticeable with the flesh tones (FS).  Some of the pale colours are now dark colours, but there is a clear split of pink-undertone colours (FS1 – FS5) and yellow-undertone colours (FS6 – FS9).  In my opinion, you can think outside the box a little more with skin tones.  The colouring below uses a blend I have created and in my humble opinion the result is a much more realistic blend!
• Brush nibs – serious colourists need these.
• Fine bullet nibs – I thought that with a brush nib I wouldn’t need the fine bullet but actually it comes in VERY handy and I was surprised how much I needed the fine tip in the colouring below.
• Names and numbers – the pens have BOTH a numbering system (i.e. YG2) and a colour name (Olive Green) – but either way, the gloves are now off and everyone is encouraged to create blends from all over the colour chart and break all the rules.
• Pen design – the construction is much better solving the main issues of the predecessors.  The end of the pen does not come off when you pull the lid off, the printing of the colours on the lids seems to be more stable and less likely to wear off and the shape of the pen is far more comfortable for different hand sizes (I have small hands so I can rotate the pen and hold it on the narrow alignment)

So all in all I highly recommend these pens.  I am going to retire my Spectrum Noirs as I replace them and give them to my daughter who is also skilling-up in colouring!  You should buy these pens if you are serious about colouring in stamped images.  Skip the original spectrum noirs if you are new to colouring but see yourself investing the time to get good.  Otherwise if you get the noirs and then get good – you will end up buying the illustrator pens anyway.

Digi by Ching-Chou Kuik https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/gjzcck

• Skin: TN7 + MB1 + GB2 + FS7 + FS8
• Hair: TN8 + GB2 + LY1 + FS9
• Eyes: BG6 + BGR3 + IB1 + Blender
• Dress: BT9 + VB2 + VB1 + IB1 + IG6 + IG2
• Cat: BGR3 + BGR1 + IG6 + IG2
• Toadstools: IG6 + CR11 + CR5 + CR2 + GY11 + GG1 + GG2
• Leaves: DG4 + DG2 + LG3
• Trees: YG3 + YG2 + YG1 + CG3 + EB7 + EB2
• Path: GB9 + GB7 + GB4 + GB2
• Sky: TB1 (old) + Blender + IG6 + IG2
• Grass: DG4 + DG3 + DG2 + LG3 + LG1