Messing Around With Viarco ArtGraf Tailor Shape Blocks

Viarco ArtGraf Tailor Shape water-soluble blocks

In my “messing around” series, I use a product new to me that I know little about and then show the evidence of my mess accompanied by a few uninformed opinions. I don’t consider this a product review.

When I started last month’s series of “messing around” posts, my preamble explained that although these products that had recently crossed my radar were all watercolor-resembling products (either in their form factor or in their results), they were not technically watercolors. This final installment (for now – obviously not forever, knowing me) is a product that resembles traditional watercolors the least. It’s also not new to me; in fact, I’ve had it for years but never got around to even dabbling with it until now.

I think I first learned about Viarco ArtGraf Tailor Shape water-soluble blocks when I was in Porto, Portugal, for the 2018 Urban Sketchers Symposium. I was going to say I may have received some in my goodie bag, but I looked back at that post and don’t see them in the photo, so I must have bought a few colors at the symposium trade show.

I do remember distinctly how I received several more: Sometime during the interminable, early-pandemic doldrums, a member of the pencil community who works at Viarco found out that I was a big fan of the company’s ArtGraf water-soluble graphite pencil. We had chatted about pencils and Porto (the factory is a short distance away, and to this day, I kick myself for missing an opportunity to tour it when I was there). Later he surprised me with a gift of several colors (as well as various other forms of the company’s ArtGraf products). Touched by his generosity, I really wanted to use them, but since I had been away from watercolors for many years, I just wasn’t sure how to get into them. The ArtGraf Tailor Shape blocks sadly languished in my studio – until this month.

In addition to not looking anything like traditional watercolor pan paints, they also don’t look like the bars or blocks we’ve seen in other products like Derwent’s Graphitint or Inktense. I refer to them as “blocks” for lack of a noun in its official product name, which seems to be “ArtGraf Tailor Shape” in reference to old-school tailor’s chalk.

I received or purchased most colors open stock, but I bought the trays so that they could be stored and used like sets. The shiny one at upper left is graphite. Who knows what the others are?

This lack of clear identity is stumping many reviewers. As I searched YouTube to see what others were doing with them, the titles of reviews often seemed to ponder what the heck these “tailor shape” things are – pigment-based like watercolor? Dye-based like Inktense? Graphite-based? Chalk-based?

I admit, I did my share of pondering, but ultimately, I decided it’s best to do what I eventually did while messing around with Inktense Blocks: Stop trying to figure out what other products they resemble and just figure out what Tailor Shapes do best. And what they do best is explode with amazingly rich colors!

11/23/23 ArtGraf Tailor Shape blocks in Hahnemuhle Akademie sketchbook

The colors I had originally acquired individually included the traditional primary triad and several earth tones. Although the blue is close to cyan, I wasn’t too fond of the mixes I was getting with the triad (above and below). Once I saw what the material could do, I purchased all the remaining colors (except white). Blick and Amazon both carry most colors, but I ordered directly from Viarco because I also wanted the empty cork trays to store and use the blocks in. (Plus it was just fun to order from Portugal and say hi to my friend in the order note!) In addition to open-stock singles, the blocks can also be purchased in various sets of earth tones, primaries and monochrome.

Swatches in Hahnemuhle Akademie sketchbook. Red, yellow and blue were used in the primary triad.

Primary triad using magenta instead of red 

One of the new colors I got is magenta (mixes shown at left), which makes a much better primary triad, as I suspected it would.

Like Inktense Blocks (oops, I said I wouldn’t compare – oh, well), they are opaque and dry with a matte finish similar to gouache. Also like Inktense Blocks, the wet-in-wet sky I tried looks streaky and flat. Whatever ArtGraf is made of does not flow well like watercolors, even on Hahnemühle paper.

Although the basic primary + green palette can be mixed into decent secondaries and grays, I think where the ArtGraf blocks really shine are in the earthtones. Using a block as if it were a watercolor paint pan, I first tried the monochrome rabbit (below) to get a feel for varying values of the dark brown. This brought to mind the effects I got with the Derwent Tinted Charcoal and Inktense Pan Paints, both of which are quite tolerant of overworking without appearing overworked. Perhaps it’s a paradox: Although none of these products flows well the way watercolors do, that lack of flow gives me more time to poke around clumsily without ruining the results as much. Score!

10/23/23 Dark brown in Hahnemuhle Akademie sketchbook (photo reference)

For the two portraits, I used a variety of techniques: applied with a brush like traditional pan paints; applied dry over wet paper; applied dry to dry paper and then activated like water-soluble pencils. In some parts of the hair in both portraits, I left the material dry. I’m impressed by the deep hues I achieved without much effort.

11/23/23 I used a mix of sanguine, dark brown and sepia for both portraits to get these beautifully rich skin tones. (Earthsworld reference photos)

The Tailor Shape blocks have two drawbacks, especially for urban sketching: They are not at all portable, especially if they are kept in the large cork trays (which have no lid other than the flimsy plastic packaging). If I want to use these on location, I’d have to break off small pieces (which wouldn’t be difficult, since several arrived broken anyway). They are also messy on the hands. With a slightly oily texture (like graphite), they leave a residue almost immediately, which gets worse as they warm in one’s hand. Yuck.

All of this is sounding quite a bit like a review, isn’t it? I still feel I haven’t used them enough to legitimately review them, but I like them enough to keep using them, so a review might eventually happen. For now, I’ll just say that ArtGraf Tailor Shape blocks are a unique product with exciting potential (that I’ll likely be confined to my desk to explore, which won’t be a problem during the miserable-weather months ahead).