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What kind/brand of Q-tips do you recommend for baby oil and pencils
Hi guys. You have been such a great help with my coloring and baby oil. I am sure that I want to use stumps. Please tell me which Q-tips are the best to use?
Stumps aren't Q-tips. Stumps can be purchased at Michaels or an art store. Don't recall if Joanns has them. There is supposed to be one kind of stumps better than the other but don't recall.
Hi Candie,
I'm not sure if you'll get the result you want from a Q-tip. The blending stumps actually move the pigment around from the colored pencil, whether you use baby oil or Odorless mineral spirits. Either way that substance is breaking down the wax in the pencil (yep, colored pencils have wax) and letting you blend the colors. A Q-tip is too absorbent and won't do the work.
There are two kinds of blending stumps and both are usually available at Michaels or any craft store. The ones from Tiawan are solid clumps of paper pulp fashioned into a pencil shape. They work great and are pretty inexpensive ($3-4 for 4 or 5). The other stumps are pieces of paper wrapped around and around to make a pencil shape. They work fine too, they just aren't as durable. But, they are really inexpensive (3-4 for $2) and will do the job. They are all called tortillions.
If you just HAVE to use a Q-tip, then pull all the cotton off the end and use a peice of sand paper to file the end of the stick into more of a cuticle pencil shape on the end. ((I actually have done this and it's ok till you can get a stump, but not nearly as good as using an actual stump!))
I remember reading on a previous thread that someone else using Q-tips and odorless mineral spirits bought the cheapest brand she could find, because they tended to have less cotton on the ends! More cotton = more fraying and more strands of cotton left behind = yuck. I would check out your local dollar store and see what they have for their "generic" brand.
As for blending stumps from Taiwan vs. from China: I have both and really haven't noticed a difference. I do not buy tortillons. I was told by the owner of a local art store that they would probably not hold up as well as blending stumps.
I would imagine the soft end of the q-tip wouldn't be good for precise coloring. Plus, the need to put pressure on the tip to blend the pigment would probably bend the q-tip.
Stumps are so cheap- I don't bother with that mumbo-jumbo about the Taiwan stumps being best. I got mine at my craft store in the art department and they're made in China. And you know what- they work just fine!
Stumps are so cheap- I don't bother with that mumbo-jumbo about the Taiwan stumps being best. I got mine at my craft store in the art department and they're made in China. And you know what- they work just fine!
I don't either, and I also use mostly tortillions instead of stumps and they all seem to work the same for me. Plus I use Goo Gone inatead of mineral spirits.
I've tried the q-tips (cheap ones with very little cotton) and they kept bending or tearing the paper.
I use the tortillions-both from Taiwan and China-and I've had no problems using them with baby oil. I just saw on a GinaK video to use an acrylic nail file to "sharpen" the ends of them and clean off the color. Can't believe I didn't think of it sooner.
There's a lady that does tutorials on YouTube using q-tips. I tried it before I bought my stumps and didn't like the results at all! She made it look easy and great, but I hated it. It nearly put me off blending completely.
Q-tips work fine with OMS and baby oil. Try to get wood instead of plastic bec. they are sturdier. They are also usually cheaper.
I have some with very pointy tips..got them in cosmetic dept. and also the regular tips. I had a teacher that was at a lss teaching gamosol technique and she used Q-tips bec. they were disposable. Everyone in the class used Q-tips. It was fine.
I too use the q-tips. I bought some at my local drug store that are meant for infants and so the tips/heads are about half the size of the regular size q-tips. They are also wound very tightly and have worked well for me.
Q-tips work fine with OMS and baby oil. Try to get wood instead of plastic bec. they are sturdier. They are also usually cheaper.
I have some with very pointy tips..got them in cosmetic dept. and also the regular tips. I had a teacher that was at a lss teaching gamosol technique and she used Q-tips bec. they were disposable. Everyone in the class used Q-tips. It was fine.
I use these also. I buy mine right at Walgreens or Walmart in the make-up area. One side is a verthin and pointy and the other is wder and works great for larger areas.
What kind/brand of Q-tips do you recommend for baby oil and pencils
