Derwent Drawing Workshop

Cult Pens was lucky enough to team up with Derwent and artist Jess Pritchard for an exclusive, free, one‑hour drawing session.

Expect bite‑sized demos covering curly fur, sleek and shiny fur, a realistic nose and most importantly, how to add soul to the eyes.

You’ll pick up techniques in layering, drawing white fur on white paper, working light over dark, and controlling pencil pressures for laydown effects, tonal values, leaving with all the skills you need to complete it confidently afterwards.

You can watch the full session on our YouTube channel. While you are getting set up, scroll down to see what products Jess uses, and you can download the outline of her drawing here.

Watch The Workshop

Jess Pritchard

Jess Pritchard is a self taught, award winning artist from the UK. An ambassador for Derwent she is the designer and artist behind the artwork on the Derwent Drawing range of pencils. From a young age she has had passions for both art and the natural world which were fuelled by holidays in the beautiful Lake District with regular trips to the Derwent Pencil Museum.

Jess specialises in creating realistic wildlife artworks using both graphite and coloured pencils. She has exhibited her work up and down the UK and has collectors all over the world from as far as Australia. Through her art, she hopes to bring the beauty of the natural world to the forefront of peoples minds and how essential it is to preserve it.

After gaining a University degree and a short career in Graphic Design, Jess realised this wasn’t the path for her so in 2016 dusted off the pencils and began her professional career. Since then she has won multiple awards such as the Derwent Pencil Award at the Wildlife Art Society International exhibition and Best In Show at the UK Coloured Pencil Society Keswick exhibition held at the Derwent Pencil Museum.

What You Need (and 10% Off)

The basic things you'll need are a selection of coloured pencils, paper to draw on, a graphite pencil for the outline, and an eraser.

The colours that will be used, from the Derwent Drawing range, are: Champagne, Sunflower, Apricot, Bistre, Polar Ice, Light Sienna, Woodland, Warm Earth, Light Ochre, Yellow Ochre, Brown Ochre, Dark Brown, Olive Earth, Mars Orange, Sepia Red, Ivory Black, Mist, Warm Grey, Arctic.

Derwent recommends a Derwent battery operated eraser, and Derwent Graphic 2B pencil, and 300gsm smooth paper, ideally off-white. Our hot-pressed watercolour pad should work.

You don't have to have these specific things, but the closer you have, the better.

If you are looking for some new supplies, then we are offering 10% off all the products in this collection. Just use the code JPWORKSHOP at checkout. Offer ends on the 9th March.