Caution:Artist at Play-Artwork by Shana Rowe Jackson

   If you follow my YouTube channel, you know that in the past year I had the joy of trying the Holbein Artists' Colored Pencils for the first time. Along with the pencils I was also given the Holbein Meltz Colored Pencil Blender (thanks Holbein!)    I usually use Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits (OMS) to blend my colored pencils. However, OMS is poisonous, so I was really intrigued to find out that Holbein Meltz is a water-based formula that does not give off any harmful fumes!    While using the Meltz, I also discovered a trick that I could not do previously with OMS! I could make my pencils act like watercolor! That is, I could scrape pigment off my colored pencil onto a different surface, dip a brush into my Meltz, then pick up the pigment and paint it onto my surface! This is something that is not as easy to do with OMS because of the way it stains the paper. Typically speaking, you need a lot of layers of colored pencil down on your paper before blending with OMS because it