I recently bought myself a set of 36 Derwent Art Bars. They sounded like they would be fun and effective and I had seen them in action on Create and Craft. Since diving in and giving them a go I have really struggled. I have tried all kinds of paper from rough to smooth and cartridge paper but that does not take much water. All of my papers are very good quality so I know that is not the reason. I am getting reluctant to go any further as I really do not want to waste any more paper. I have watched the Derwent tutorial on you tube and a couple of independent videos that people have uploaded too but I just cannot get the Art bars to behave in the same way. Any articles that I have read seem to be very positive and featured artists examples look great.
I feel a bit like I wish I had not bothered and saved my money, which is a real shame as I do enjoy trying new techniques and mixing things up a bit. Also I have noticed that they do not seem to look as though they would last very long.....or that just me now getting pernickety?
Can anyone offer any advice as to how I could get the best out of my Art Bars? I really do not want to consign them to the 'scrapheap' as they did look so promising.

If you are using the artbars and crayoning onto the paper try using a large brush and lots of water to make the colours bleed and blend. I think this is the secret, if you are using a small brush it doesn't let the pigment flood into the bumps and hollows of the paper. Hope this helps a bit.

Hi there, when we have trialled Artbars at the SAA, we actually used Bristol Board and the thickness of the card meant that you could use as much water as you liked and the surface did not ripple. I used the Artbars much like pastels to do the background and used several colours, then used a large wash brush to blend it with water. The effect was beautiful. If you didn't want to use Bristol Board, you could try a heavy watercolour paper such as Saunders Waterford 640gsm. This would probably work much the same as the Bristol Board. I hope that helps.

Happy Painting!
Elizabeth
(SAA)