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PRODUCT REVIEW
artistApril 2016 http://www.painters-online.co.ukI
n the autumn of 2015 Winsor & Newton
introduced a new range of Pigment
Markers and, if ever an art material
could be described as ‘sexy’, this must
surely be it. The ergonomic design by the
Veryday design company, who are
responsible for designing many award-
winning contemporary products, makes
them very easy to hold for long periods of
time, they feel very comfortable in the
hand and are easy to manipulate.very smart and minimalist; if ever a
designer, illustrator or artist needed a
marker pen and was buying on looks
alone, these should undoubtedly be top
of the list.Colours and longevity
But most importantly are they any good?
The range, which consists of 108 colours,
gives a good selection of warm and cool
spectrum colours together with an
extensive range of earths, browns, pinks
and a selection of greys, plus there’s a
colourless blender and a white blender.
All of these provide the potential to
create limitless colour mixes and tones.
The White Blender is the first of its kind,
and lets you build, blend and soften
colours in a way that has never been seen
before with markers.
Additionally there are sets of six pens
available in Vibrant Tones, Rich Tones, Skin
Tones, Blue Tones and Warm Greys,
Neutral Greys, Cool Greys and Toner
Greys. The colours are created from
pigment rather than dyes, so will not fade
and, according to Winsor & Newton, offer
‘100 years of lightfastness under normal
gallery conditions’. That claim suggests to
me that Winsor & Newton are hoping
these markers will be used by artists to
create exhibitable works, as opposed to
illustrations that, once photographed or
scanned, are left forgotten in plan chest
drawers.Ian Sidawaytest runs
the new Winsor &
Newton Pigment
Markers and says that
with their great design
and useful range of
colours, they could
easily become his
favourite brand
Good lookers
This colour spectrum was drawn using three markers: Winsor red, lemon yellow and
phthalo blue and demonstrates that the markers behave in a way associated with paintThe cleverly shaped barrel tapers
slightly to a chisel-shaped fibre nib at one
end and a finer nib for detail at the other.
The clear label shows a band of the
colour, the colour name, the code of the
pigments used to manufacture the colour
and the lightfastness rating. The nib caps
will only fit their respective ends, so you
instantly know which is which, and the
colour is shown on the cap that covers
the chisel-shaped nib. The packaging is