Amylee’s Colour Shaper Review

Colour Shaper: A New Generation of Brush

When tradition is combined with innovation, one expects amazing ideas. And what could be more amazing than creating a hairless brush!

This original tool, with a silicone tip, allows you to paint, mix and play with colour. All technique are possible with colour Shaper: graphite pencils or coloring pencils, pastel, charcoal, acrylic, oil, gouache, watercolour, engraving, sculpture and much more.

A brush without hair

The characteristic of colour shaper is to have a single silicone tip, that is more or less flexible, allowing you to create lines which are more full and sharper than brush. The colour shaper wears much less quickly, and importantly does not lose its hair.

To vary the effects, the colour shaper can be used in different ways: like a brush, but also as a spreading knife, a scraper, a pencil, a chisel. The colour shaper is an excellent tool to learn how to measure your gesture. The more pressure on the tip the more colour shaper moves the matter. It’s easy, you will see!

Cleaning is very easy as well. Personally I always have an old cotton rag or a piece of paper towel to clean the tip regularly and avoid the burrs during my tracks. Before storing them, you can use water and soap.

3 tip colours for 3 levels of hardness

Colour is a good indication to differentiate the between the tips. The darker the tip, the stiffer it is.

The 3 colours of the tips can be used in many techniques however it is good to know:

1- IVORY TIP “Flexibility & Movement”

• Tip usually used for fluid textures and pigmented powders.
• Recommended for ink techniques, watercolour, dry pastel, charcoal, chalk, pencil and for applications with masking fluid.
• NOTE: Also suitable for removing matter.

2- GREY TIP « Nervousness & Balance»

• Tip usually used for soft to heavy body textures.
• Recommended for dry pastel, oil pastel techniques, gouache, acrylic or engraving.
• NOTE: This tip is also very handy for fine smoothing on clay. It is also suitable for applying glue because it does not adhere to silicone.

3- BLACK TIP « Stiffness & Precision»

• Tip usually used for thick to compact textures.
• Recommended for relief techniques (oil, acrylic), modeling, engraving, sculpture (clay, wax)
• NOTE: Also suitable for painting texture and impasto (oil, heavy body acrylic paint).

5 tips for infinite applications

• CONICAL TIP: Ideal shape for sketching, blending, smoothing, contours or applying details (charcoal, pastel, pencil, painting).
• CONCAVE ROUND TIP: Ideal shape for impasto, removing or correcting, mixing, blending, modeling, creating intense lines (painting, sculpture, monotype).
• CONCAVE CHISEL TIP: Ideal shape for correcting or digging matter as you would with a wood chisel (sculpture, engraving).
• FLAT CHISEL TIP: Ideal for applying paint, mixing, glazing or melting, placing lights and shadows, drawing, engraving, scraping, creating lines with sharp edges (painting, engraving, sculpture).
• SLENDER TIP (or candle flame): Its long and precise sides are used as a brush. Ideal shape for sketching and drawing finely (painting, sculpture).

5 sizes of tips = number 0, 2, 6, 10, 16

DRY PASTEL: My Colour Shaper time.

Even if painting techniques remain pleasant with the colour shaper, I really enjoy it with my dry pastels. It is a real delight to create gradients, fades, stretch the pigment, draw finely and make original effects less obvious, to follow by blending with fingers.

Note: After cleaning, pastel pigments often remain on the silicone tips, but this does not deteriorate its properties.

If you want to make the tip as new after use with pastels or charcoal, then take a clean eraser for pencil and erase the silicone tip. The tip will return to its original colour (especially if the tip is not too old).

I sometimes moisten the tip of the colour shaper with water and a bit of acrylic medium to allow the powder to adhere easily to the tip and stretch the colour for longer (hair, grass, etc.)

Find all these products at GreatArt Online or in their new art supply shop in London Shoreditch.

Discover our full range of colour shapers here!

Information for this article was provided by professional fine artist, Amylee Paris. You can visit her colourful portfolio or follow her on Facebook and Instagram. 

Find all Amylee’s posts published in GreatArt online Magazine by clicking here!

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