When working on white paper, light colors can be achieved by leaving blank spaces, spreading the diluted colors from the shaded sections across those reserved areas. This set also comes with a white pencil, which can be blended with any color you wish to lighten. There are ways of working around the lack of light colors, just as there would be when working with colored inks from bottles.

Try diluting your color on a palette first until you achieve the proper intensity, and then add to your composition in light layers until the proper shade is achieved. In the very ancient days, when I attended junior high school, I was blessed to have the very best art teacher that I would ever have. She always emphasized that we would never need the color white as one of our paints, as our water color paper was white, and we need only to let it work with us in planning our compositions. Not all colors in our paintings require the same amount of pigment. Some areas will need more pigment--heavier layers, while others will need only a modest amount or even no color at all.

I would love to hear more about the Graphitint pencils. I have also wanted very much to try them! Many blessings to you.

[Deleted by the author on Mar 26, 2013 4:08:29 AM PDT]

I was about to make the same suggestion! My art teacher in middle school (she died recently, so it's been on my mind) taught me so much about technique and composition! And leaving white white was a biggie - in watercolor, anyway...acrylic and oils, doesn't work so well! Of course, when you buy a variety set of watercolor paints, they inevitably include an oversize tube of WHITE!! I'd have preferred another color. Only time I use white is if I want a more opaque effect for pastel type colors (I don't mean actual pastels, but pastel or pale colors which are tints but aren't transparent). Of course, with more and more alternate colors available in watercolor & drawing paper, I think I'll be using my white pencil-on some black paper! :) I'm eager to try the Graphitint, too. One person (can't remember who) said they had 'dull, dark' colors, but I think they probably just have a darker palette of colors because real graphite is that nice dark grey shade, so these would be dark, moody colors in imitation of that (that's my guess, not fact). I love working with dark colors for stormy skies, abstracts, etc., so they sound awesome! If you haven't been to it yet, Derwent's website has info about each type of pencil (my 24 set of inktense came with a leaflet describing all of their "Watersoluble" line of media). The website describes further, and has examples painted (or drawn) with each type, and tips & ideas for experimenting with each type of pencil. I am seriously wanting to get the 72 color set of Inktense, though! I love the qualities which are so different from any other watercolors - whether pigment, ink, or some other formula! And I'm also thinking that if Graphitint is anywhere near the quality of Inktense, it would make the most sense to buy the biggest set instead of a 24 or 12, first time out! I feel like I need to 'use up' my 24 set before splurging on a bigger set, but... I can see these are going to be a big part of my artwork now, and want the expanded palette-decisions, decisions! :)

If I want a lighter color I usually apply my blender pen to the tip of the pencil. If you don't pick up much color you can lay it down on your paper with your blender pen very smoothly.