A Clowder of Cats in Pencil Crayons

One of the things that I love to do when trying out a "new to me" product, is to draw a cute group, or clowder of cats and color them in!  So far, I've tried it with various watercolor products, Distress markers and I'm currently working on a large piece with my Faber-Castell Gelatos.

Here is my favorite clowder so far using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencil and Gamsol on 11x14 Bristol paper.  I've tried other "high end" pencil crayons before, and wasn't very successful; the leads kept breaking when I was sharpening them, and most are all down to nubs after using them for only a short time.

The Faber-Castell Polychromos pencil crayons are a dream to color with!  They can be sharpened to a nice fine point, and they lay color down smoothly. I'm still learning about shading, and I find these cat collages are great practice.

Gamsol was used to blend the pencil marks with a paper stump. (Be sure to use Gamsol in a well-ventilated area)  It took a few cats to get the hang of using it, but going in a circular motion seemed to work the best.

The paper stumps have to be sanded down after every color, so it does make a bit of "dusty" mess in your work space.  Be sure to have your dust buster handy if that bugs you!

Have you ever used Gamsol?  Any tips/tricks are welcome!
Steph
xo