It’s taken me nearly three years and countless studio reorganizations to realize that the best way for me to keep, display and inventory my art supplies is by manufacturer and by product.  When I started drawing, I arranged all my brands of colored pencil by color group thinking that if I were working in yellows, I would want all the yellows nearby.  But after time, and a lot of experimentation with various makers of colored pencil (especially watercolor pencils and pastels), I’ve the learned the hard lesson that apples don’t always equate to apples.  

For example, the Faber Castell Albercht Durer Watercolor pencils (available in 120 colors) are just beautifully designed and a joy to work with.  Made in Germany, the pigment goes on to most substrates very smoothly.  But Faber Castell’s website carries, like most manufacturers, a color chart by standard naming and numbering convention.  And when I first started in my art journals, I tried to translate the colors I have to the chart they supplied.  No big deal, right?  You gotta know what you have and what you don’t.  Well, turns out that the Faber Castell has a NEW numbering system, and the numbers don’t translate always to the current chart (see my handwritten entries on the bottom of the chart).

So what has to happen is you end up making your own color chart (which I highly advise if you’re going to be working with products over a period of time).  Inevitably, it will come time to reorder and you’ll want to know exactly what you need in which line.  I keep a three-ring notebook full of sheets of various manufacturer’s color schemes and I bring it to the art supply store each time I go.  This way, I can quickly look through the binder to see where that perfect yellow is.  

Also, Faber Castell’s numbering system runs along a continuum and many manufacturer’s charts do not.  So for example if 105 is yellow ochre, then 104 is zinc yellow.  Where this is important is for the artist who’s trying to scale back in purchases.  If I need a host of yellow tints, I can order one in the light range, mid-range and deep range simply by skipping a few numbers.  So for example, if I’m buying the 104 zinc yellow, maybe I want to skip down to the 109 orange yellow.  The range of tints between 104 and 109 aren’t that significant to the novice or to the person who is using a lot of various manufacturer’s products.  

It’s also relatively easy to buy this product from open stock if you don’t want to make the investment in sets.  Just be sure that your barrel reads either Albrecht Durer (the watercolor line), Polychromos (the opaque non-water soluable line), or pastel.  Let me also throw in here that Faber Castell’s Pitt Artist Pens (markers) are simply some of the best in the world.  I highly recommend purchasing the entire set (although you will quickly notice that even the entire set does not carry all the colors on the set’s chart on the website, currently the only colors in production are the ones in the large market-available set in the link above).   I do NOT recommend the Faber Castell pastel pencils as I find them VERY chalky.  (I prefer Conte and am in the process of reviewing others).  Disappointing, I know.  What can a girl do?

Shauna Lee Lange Faber Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolor Pencil Inventory

Now, I’ve come over time to think that Swiss made Caran d’Ache is probably THE BEST manufacturer of art supplies on the market (closely followed by Faber Castell and Staedtler [however there are MANY products I have yet to try], but Caran is expensive and difficult to obtain in open stock (especially through Dick Blick or Pearl Paint).  Caran d’Ache has the inventory process right though.  They’ve put all the colors and numbering systems in a chart which also shows you where that particular color is available.  For example, one of my favorites in the Supracolor II soft (watercolor/water-soluable) line is number 059 Brown.  Well, my handy chart tells me that 059 Brown is also available in the Museum line, the Pablo Supracolor, The Prismato, The Classicolor, the Neocolor I, Neocolor II, the Acrylique extra fine, the Gouache Studio tablettes, the Fibralo and the Modela.  All this means Caran d’Ache has a fully integrated product line – all the products work with each other.  Prismacolor is similar, but you simply cannot compare the two.  It’s like the local beauty pageant vs. Ms. Universe. Let me also add that Neocolor II sets are any art journalist’s ultimate dream.  Dream.

The thing I want to close with is that you absolutely have got to come to intimately know your art supplies and materials because they have their own personalities and will interact differently with other materials – and when working with a lot of various materials, you must approach the whole thing like a business.  Keep records.  I also keep a journal showing each product dry on dry, dry on wet, wet on wet, and wet on dry.  (I’m type-A like that).  For example, my Neocolor II’s that I am just crazy about can be difficult to write over when used as dry material (it’s fine when used as wet material).  So you have to come to learn how the products work to be able to accurately order your layering processes.  And this is why I do believe, after all this time, that it’s actually more efficient for me to work within manufacturing groups then it is to work in color families (and I am a color kind of girl, so this continues to be a hard shift).  Next up, I’ll talk about some color-theory books that changed my life, how I see the world, and how I manufacture and produce my art.