Hello, I'm Bonny Snowdon, ex-corporate person and mother turned successful artist entrepreneur. It wasn't that long ago though that I lacked the confidence, vision, and support network to focus on growing my dream business. Fast forward past many life curve balls, waves of self-doubt, and so many lessons learned. And you'll see ignite my thriving online coloured pencil artist community, a community that changes members' lives for the better and gives me freedom to live abundantly whilst doing what I love and spending quality time with my beloved family and dogs,
all whilst creating my best artwork with Coloured pencils and mentoring others to do the same. But this life wasn't always how it was for me. It used to only exist in my imagination. I've created the, It's A Bonny Old Life podcast to help increase people's confidence, share mine and my community's experience, and hope through fascinating personal stories, champion the other amazing humans in my personal, professional, and membership community and create another channel through which I can support others to realize their dreams. If you're a passionate coloured pencil artist or an aspiring one who's looking to create their best work and a joyful life you love, you are in the right place. Grab a cuppa and a custard cream, let's get cracking.
So I wanted to talk this week a little bit about some of the frequently asked questions.
And one of the questions that I'm asked time and time again is, what's your favourite surface to draw on? And it would have to be every single time Claire Fontaine Pastelmat. It's the most wonderful surface. It's absolutely brilliant to draw on. And I, I would say if I was only allowed to draw on one surface for the rest of my life,
it would be on this one. It's made from cellulose fibers. It's an abrasive paper rather than a sand paper. Many people confuse Pastelmat and call it a sanded paper. It's not, it comes in a range of pads. So we've got the, the pads here. They, they, they're, they call 'em numbers. They, you know,
they have them numbered. You've got pads that have got sort of different colours in them. You've got pads that are just a single colour. So this one, the number three is just all white. The number six is all of the anthracite. And then you've got the other 1, 2, 4, and five, which are sort of like a combination of the different colours.
The pads come I think in two sizes, so sort of like a four ish and, and a three ish and are readily available. They come also with like a glassy insert in front of every single sheet, which I think is really, really nice 'cause you can use that to rest your hand on, which I think is brilliant. And then this one here,
this shows you, they have brought some different colours in, but this is kind of, I dunno whether they're already available yet, but these ones are the ones that were, you know, most mostly available. They're all really lovely colours. My preference is to work on white and the dark grey. So I tend to use these two colours the majority of the time.
I'm not a huge fan of the darker colours, the burgundy, the dark green, the dark blue. I really like the anthracite, but that one tends to have most of, if there's gonna be a, a quality issue, the anthracite, that's the one that has the most issues. I think. I've also used sand quite a bit and the brown,
but my preference is the white most of the time. And the dark grey as well. It comes in paper or board. So the Pastelmat paper is sort of like a 360 gram. It's on sort of like if you turn it over, it's got like a bit of a shiny card back to it. The Pastelmat board is actually attached to a,
a 1.8 millimeter board. Now it can be incredibly difficult to work out which side is which sometimes because the Pastelmat board does tend to be smoother than, than it's, than it's sort of paper counterpart. I dunno why there isn't really any rhyme or reason to it. I, I have no idea why it happens, but it does tend to be smoother and I do tend to use the board more often than not.
So I, like I said, I use Pastelmat all of the time. There's a couple of examples of my work here and, and why I've chosen a particular colour for these particular pieces. I love white on white. I think white on white works beautifully really, really nicely. And I think for wildlife pieces, the dark grey works really nicely,
especially if you want to do something a little bit quicker. This was sort of quite a quick piece. And then we come onto my favourite pencils. Now I love all my pencils, but I have to say I do think that the f Castell Polychromos are the ones that are couldn't live without. So this is the 120 10. Now when I open it up,
you're gonna be really disappointed 'cause actually it's got loads of them that are missing. That's 'cause they're all sat in my pots and everything. What I love about the Faber Castell Polychromos is that you've got a really, really, really great range of colours, a really great range of colours. You know, they're mostly lightfast, they're really well made. They keep a really good sharp point and they're just a,
they're just a really great pencil, really. I think the Polychromos have the best range of greys. There's an awful lot of the greys missing here. But you have, I think, 14 different greys in the polychromes range, which is fantastic. You've got all of the warm greys, you've got all of the cool greys, and then you have the pains grey and you have the dark sepia on the top of that as well,
which when you're drawing animals is brilliant to have all of those different greys, you know, it just really, really helps. You've got the, you've got those, the gold, silver, and bronze there as well, which I, I don't usually work use, but yeah, they're a really great pencil. They're, they're, they're claimed as being more oil-based.
But to be honest, every pencil is made with oil wax, lipids, all of that kind of stuff. So I'm not gonna say that they are an oil-based pencil. They're just a, a hard dry pencil. Great for details, great for layering. I use them on all the different kind of paper types and they're just a really, really super,
super pencil. Okay, so onto my favourite eraser. Again, it's a Faber Castell and it has to be the little kneadable eraser. They come in these little clear boxes, which is great because it means that if you keep them in the little clear box, it stops them from drying out and it also stops your dogs from eating them. You can buy them on Amazon under a subscription.
So every sort of, I think six weeks I get a cent for new ones, which is great, is a really soft eraser. And it's brilliant for use on any surface. And I use it as a tool to help create highlights and soften and blend and all of that kind of thing. And it's, it's one of the things that I use all of the time in my work is just the most fantastic little eraser.
I would highly recommend anybody getting one of these little kneadable erasers, even if you use it as like a, you know, a stress tool and you can make it, make it into some kind of a sculpture or something. But it's my favourite, favourite tool I think to use with my coloured pencils is absolutely brilliant. Lifts off the pigment really, really nicely.
Works with the Polychromos really, really nicely and works on the pastoral mat incredibly so. Definitely recommend this one. And then finally, my favourite pencil sharpener. This is the Swordfish Multipoint. Quite frankly, it's absolutely brilliant for a lazy artist like me, literally leaning over, showing you pencil in the hole and within seconds it's sharp. I mean, you,
you know, you don't want any more than that from a pencil sharpener. I love this. I absolutely love this. I wouldn't be without it. I have a little handheld one as well, but this is by far my favourite pencil sharpener. I just love it. I really hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of my It's a Bunny Old Life podcast.
If you did, I'd be so grateful to you for emailing me or texting a link to the show or sharing it on social media with those you know who might like it too. My mission with this podcast is all about sharing mine and my community's experience and hope by telling your fascinating personal stories, championing the other amazing humans in my personal, professional, and membership community.
And to create another channel through which I can support you to realize your coloured pencil and life dreams. If you haven't done so yet, please help me on my mission to spread positivity and joy throughout the Coloured Pencil world by following me on my socials at Bonnie Snowdon Academy or by getting on my list at bonnie Snowdon academy.com. And remember, I truly believe if I can live the life of my dreams doing what I love,
then you can too. We just need to keep championing and supporting each other along the way in order to make it happen. Till next time,
