I have been doing more space art sketching lately. I use graphite, colored pencils and black ink. At first I used Polychromos colored pencils by Faber Castell and although they are nice to draw with they are expensive for doing sketches so I started looking for a cheaper alternative.

First I tried the Norris Club 144 Colored Pencils by Staedtler. They have very good covering power on different papers, but unfortunately they are not pigment rich so the colors are on the weak side. Furthermore, only 12 of the total 36 colors are available as open stock. They are very inexpensive though.

Later I tried the Polycolor Colored Pencils by Koh-I-Noor. They seem to have just as much pigment as the expensive Polychromos and yet cost about 70% less. They don't break, and all colors are available as open stock. They are smooth to draw with and they don't smudge. So I draw with the Polycolor pencils at the moment and enjoy using them.

I have done so many sketches during the past year or so that I decided to put some of them online in a new space sketching gallery. Hopefully I'll have the time to further explore at least some of these sketching ideas as digital artwork.