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1.
When I was young, I was babysat by my grandma, together with my cousin sister. She would spend the day with us, teaching us how to be proper ladies. I wasn’t any good at being a lady, but the nice thing about days with Po-po was that we always got a present that was some kind of stationary. She would buy two different things, and then we had to choose. One time, the choice was between this awesome pencil case (like seriously, it was blingin’) and a small box of Luna Staedtler colour pencils. It was the one with a boat on the cover and 12 barely 10cm-long pencils inside. My cousin got the pencil case (much to her delight), which left the colour pencils to me. It was my first box, and I loved them. These pencils have a very rough texture, but their pigment is intense. They are great for frottage, which is a technique where you put a piece of paper over something and rub a a pencil/crayon over it. I used to do this with coins so that I had my own multi-coloured paper money.
Image source here.
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2.
In primary school, the thing to have was a big box of Colleen colour pencils. What made them so desireable was that each pencil consisted of two colours – one at each end. This meant that even though the box only contained say, a certain number of pencils, you actually got double the colours! An obnoxious boy in my class had the Shangri-La of Colleen colour pencils: 30 pencils/60 colours. How I coveted them – sinfully, lustfully. I was the fat kid, pretty uncool, so I never got invited to touch them. Eventually, I harassed my mother long enough for her to buy me the downscaled 12/24 set. It was heaven. Colleen pencils come to you unsharpened, and I remember doing each one lovingly – twice, because of the double ends. These pencils are waxy and smooth, very pleasant to handle. God knows how much surface I’ve covered with a Colleen pencil – I always had a set up to and throughout university. When I was 10 or so, they helped me win consolation prize in a Bangsar Shopping Center colouring contest (before it became the glasshouse monstrosity it is now). The first prize was a trip to the UK. I think I got a bar of chocolate.
Image from www.colleenpencil.net.
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3.
In Form 3, part of your PMR examinimation requirements was that you had to do ‘projects’ – one for Geografi and another for Sejarah (History). You had to pick a topic (from a set list, of course), do ‘research’ and make a spiral bound ‘report’. Amongst the more overachieving students, artistically decorating your ‘report’ was de rigeur. I have no recollection of what I wrote in my ‘report’ (I’m certain 90 percent of it was cut n paste), but I remember having a field day with colour pencils. One afternoon, during recess, my best friend at the time introduced me to Crayola pencils. Then, you could only find them at Toys R’ Us, because, of course, Crayola is quintessentially American. I tried one out, and it was a revelation. Crayola pencils are fat, smooth and intense. I never got attached to these like I did the Colleen ones (I keep a box to this day), but my two ‘projects’, even if factually useless, were rather easy on the eyes. That about sums up my secondary school experience: kulit penting, isi tadak. (important on the outside, nothing on the inside)
Image source here.
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4.
There was less and less need for colour pencils during college. A good friend did sent me a rainbow pencil from the UK. We wrote each other real letters in those days. The pencil was black, while the lead itself was made up of 7 different colours. Almost 8 years on, I still have this pencil. There is about 7cm of it left.
Image source here.
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5.
In 2007, I did an exhibition about banned books. I really admired William Blake’s watercolours of hell, and wanted to do a series of mythological monsters in the same vein. After spending a disgusting amount on some tubes of paint, I discovered that one does not master watercolour painting in a fortnight. I wrestled the medium for weeks before giving up in humiliating defeat. In the end, my gallery of monsters was completed with a deluxe 72 set of Derwent watercolour pencils. I’d embraced the limit of my skills. Not to say it’s too late to learn how to paint, but I think I’ll always go back to what I know best. The Derwents have served me very well – never was there a better investment! I went on to complete another body of works with them. They are a professional grade pencil with exceptional smoothness and pigmentation.
Image source here.
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6.
Recently, someone close bought me a beautiful set of colour pencils from design house Muji (it means ‘no label’). They’re housed in a handy cardboard tube. Being half-length, they remind me of the first box I ever owned. But these are elegant and grown-up. I like taking them with me when I travel.
Images from www.muji.us/store
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So, that is the story of my colour pencils so far.
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Beautiful! I remember the steel-cased Luna colour pencils best, but being the nerdy nerd that I was/am, most of my pencils were only black. 2B. Staedler :D
I remember the first time I noticed the labels that differentiated the pencils: 2B, HB, etc. And how the 2B graphite/lead was better/smoother/richer than HB.
Can write summore!
Haha. Same as Fahmi. We would always use the 12 colour pencils for regular, everyday work – then balik rumah admire the 60 batang one in the steel case. Luna was always the best, one would scoff at those who brought the Faber Castells :) 2B always for exams, you will rue the day you mistakenly bring the HB on exam day. Sure telinga kena tarik one. Oh and Buncho paints. LOVE BUNCHO!
Aww. This brings tears to my eyes! D: I adored Luna. Can’t imagine how people lived with Stabilo and Faber Castell, man. Beautiful stuff. Memories of people stealing your red pencils, and then retaliating by stealing their orange ones… Sweet childhood pasts are made of these. :P
:) reminds me how much my color pencil set meant to me when i was little… so precious that i actually still have one box in mint condition…
Oh my heart swells looking at that Luna set.
I also tried my hand at water soluble colour pencils, heh heh.
I had a Luna set up to secondary school, I think. The pencils were half-length or shorter, and I think there were some Faber Castell replacements. The sheath had been re-taped time and again, and its cardboard had the texture of rough cloth, you know, like how worn cardboard feels like.
Luna was the best for me, very ‘kau’ pigments on paper. Looking back at the packaging now, I realise the graphics are so endearing! The little men in the boat.
My favourite colour back then was the warm pink/red tone, sort of peachy (never liked the magentaish red too much! seemed like a rude angry colour to me). I never got the larger sets which included ‘rare’ pastel/subtly pale tones – including the coveted BEIGE (!) (most perfect for colouring people’s faces and skin)
I remember using the water soluble pencils too, but the results never looked as good as the ‘parrot painting’ in the advertisements…
OMG i used to be so stingy, I bought all the rainbow-lead colour pencil at kinokuniya whenever i went there.
i didn’t want anyone to own one, f-f-f-t.
i so sayang that pencil, i use once or twice only.
luna is awesome. i too, dont know why people settle for stabilo and faber castell.
sounds like everyone is really attached to their LUNA’s. ARTERI should have a contest where you can win a big box of Luna color pencils… Poor Faber Castell… chucked to one side.
Jun: BEIGE. I so know what you mean. That one was so special. It only came with the big boxes.
Dill: wow, color pencil confessional. Thanks for sharing, heheh.
Awww. I adored my Luna Staedtlers! That luminous image on the box, and the stripes on the pencils themselves, is still so magical to me.
I haven’t lived in KL since 1985, but on my first return visit in 2000, a box of Luna Staedlers was the first thing I purchased.
Did Damian Hirst visit this site?
My father used to work at Faber Castell when I was young and he would bring home metal boxes of color pencils. I loved them for their pastel tones, especially the pale green. The metal boxes had images on them such as the pyramids, meadows, a forest, etc and they made the pencils seem ‘imported’ and exotic. Then when I went into primary school, Luna was THE thing. I thought only cool people had Luna and in a pathetic attempt at being cool, I took took my worn Faber Castells and inserted them into a Luna box.
Hi Sharon, thanks for writing this, lots of memories kept flooding back. A girl in my class probably hates me till today, because I refused to loan her my precious Luna..my mummy says I could only have a box a year, thats all she could afford, so I was mighty stingy with them, and didnt experiment as much as I wanted to.. I now have a weakness for half-used boxes, all bought from the flea market I frequent.. to make up for all the deprived times..
Hope to catch you soon.
Hi See Ming,
Thanks for your comment. When writing this I had no idea Luna color pencils meant so much so many people when growing up.
Care to share which flea market you dig around in?
I never knew Luna was so expensive till college :-S
Bought a 24 piece set in those zipper bags for Rm60-ish.
No wonder masa tadika my teacher scolded me in my face because I kept on sharpening my mini-Luna colour pencils.
They dont know what it’s like to be a perfectionist. I like my pencils sharp.
I loved oil crayons too :)
Did you?
Ya, of course. The Buncho brand especially.
I liked doing this project where you covered a piece of paper with random wax crayon colors.. then colour over the whole thing with black oil crayon. And then you take something sharp and scratch the black oil crayon surface – the line will be the colourful wax crayon underneath.
The Luna colour pencils remind me of my best friend’s collection which were always kept neatly whereas mine were always in disarray. I still remember my first set of Derwent pencils encased in a box, they were quite the rage when I was in primary school. I still like carrying 2B pencils around, they come in handy when you least expect it.
i really need to buy two sets of colleen colour pencils for my kids. Do you have any idea where should i get those?
Oh yes…. I live in Kuala Lumpur ,Malaysia.
WHERE CAN I BUY COLLEEN PENCILS IN THE USA ?
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