Testimonials | Icarus Art Drawing Board: Fresh new look at wax based mediums!

Just a note to let you know how happy I am with the icarus board. Colors just melt and blend, makes colored pencil blending easier and the results look great. Am a relative newbie at colored pencils and am happy I bought your board. The price is worth every penny because blending colors is faster and just the look is better to me.

- Carole Arend

PS - I purchased the board in December 2017.

I've been using my Icarus board for 2 months now, and I just love it! It was a very expensive purchase by the time it converted into Aussie dollars and I paid for international shipping. Not to mention my being unable to inspect it or test before buying. I was also concerned about how well it would survive shipping - Australia Post has quite the reputation for damaging and losing parcels... However the packaging was excellent and obviously very well considered. The board arrived in perfect condition. It felt like Christmas unpacking it, even more so when I found all the samples you included. It is always lovely to get little unexpected gifts like that - thank you! I have been having the best time drawing glass marbles and am so glad I waited until the Icarus board arrived. I've dabbled in using solvents with coloured pencils and am not entirely comfortable with it. In contrast I love that I can very tightly control blending using various combinations of applying coloured pencil and a colourless blender hot or cold.

- Carolyn Dennis (http://www.carolyndennis.com)

I must thank you and Mario. I started working on "Garden at Lake Tekapo" several YEARS ago and put it away because I was too overwhelmed with all the detail. Then I thought I would start it over and try to do it on drafting film. I showed the drawing that I had started to a friend and she suggested trying it with the Icarus Board. I used my new paint board and I was able to put all the detail in and complete my painting! Thank you for your wonderful invention!

- Caryn Coville (http://www.caryncoville.com/)

I am JUST LOVING THIS BOARD! It is so, what I needed, to not get discouraged in the process of colored pencil on white paper. It is still time consuming, (as I am use to working in oils) but way less work and now I feel I can successfully continue with colored pencils, without covering the under-layer with gouache. Thanks so Much.

- Yvonne Bonacci (www.yvonnebonacci .com)

I was introduced to you and your invention "Icarus Board". I loved the heat and the comfort. But there is more to this story. I have Essential Tremor - and have had it since age 13 - I am now 71. For years it just gave my work a joyous wiggle to each line...but more recently it destroyed everything I tried to do, because it had progressed. I cannot take the medicine so I just "wiggle' more. I am not complaining - just noticing and learning other ways to do work. I won't go into all my techniques except to say - I used to do work similar to your...realism, portraits, wonderful wild color. Because of your invention...the heat, the colored pencil and Neo Color ll... I have been able to finish my first work in 3 years! I can hardly get over being so outrageously happy. My friends are going to put up with this joy! for awhile. The heat is good for the color and it also calms the "wiggling". Thank you, thank you, thank you.

- Nancy R.

"The Icarus Board is the best tool ever for working with wax colored pencils, hands down! There is nothing like it on the market and I enjoy using it and use it on every piece. I like my colored pencil artwork saturated and solid, leaving no colored pencil lines and no white canvas. Due to the heat of the Icarus Board it pretty much melts the colored pencils onto the canvas or paper and I have to use a lot less pressure to achieve this and hence saving my wrist, which used to hurt after every painting. In addition to this, the Icarus Board allows for many other new techniques with colored pencils otherwise not doable. The fact that one can lift off color without an eraser and without damaging the surface is a life saver for a colored pencil artist. And if this wasn't enough, Ester Roi the inventor of the Icarus Board, also gives away all her tips and tricks on her website or even via classes. It's simply a must have if one is into colored pencils. The Icarus makes it less meticulous."

- Melanie Wallace (http://www.melsart.com)

Hello! I just wanted to contact you and tell you a story about how the Icarus Board saved one of my drawings (I've attached a photo of the piece). As I was just about finished, the layers of color started coming off. The more I tried to fix it, the more it deteriorated. In tears, I almost threw the drawing away, but my husband and daughter begged me to keep it. I agreed and decided to set it aside for a few weeks. As I picked the piece back up it dawned on me.....why not try turning the Icarus Board on the highest setting and then very gently go over the area with a soft pencil such as Luminance? It worked!! Thank you so much for the amazing Icarus Board!! I LOVE MINE!!!

- Michelle Lane (http://www.kellaneartworks.com/)

"I bought the Icarus board thinking it would help me speed up putting in backgrounds and highlights. However it has helped me in so many other ways with my drawing so that now, I have been using the board with all my drawings. It's a huge timesaver. Drawings now take me 1/2 the time they used to take because of the ease of blending and applying color. My colors appear to be richer and more saturated. In the past, if I made an oops, I'd have to scrape the color off, then use the electric eraser, and then hope I could fix the color. With the board, all I do is lightly scrape the layer off with a flat blade and then I'm able to get just the right color on top."

-Arlene Steinberg (http://www.arlenesteinberg.com/)

I have been playing with mine for a couple of months now and you have blown me away, its magical and a genius. I've had the best time experimenting with oil pastels and I've done stuff I would NEVER have done before.

- Shelly Harrison-Morgan, UK

You can read the review of the Icarus Drawing Board by Erica Walker of the Coloured Pencil Society of Canada. These are the link to the English version and to the French version.

"I had a very rewarding time demonstrating how the Icarus Drawing Board works at the Livermore CA Spring Art Show that was held the first weekend in April, 2012. The show had over 300 entries and was well attended by artists and art enthusiasts. It was fun to watch how amazed people were when they saw the vibrant colors the heated board produced. Colored pencil artists were impressed with the time saved when working with heat. I demonstrated colored pencil, crayon, and encaustic mediums and also had finished artwork on the table as examples of what could be created using heat and a variety of supports. It was gratifying to see artists understand the versatility of colored pencil and my method of creating a lovely piece of art using the Icarus Drawing Board. Thank you Ester and Mario for making the Icarus available to artists."

- Maryann Kot (http://www.maryannkot.com/)

"Dear Mario & Ester, you instruction videos are excellent. Breaking them into 9 segments is also a good idea. I have tried the board & immediately find, with it, an ease and range of accomplishment I had formerly not been able to achieve. In essence, I'm happy & will keep you posted."

- Noel Linder, KS

"The board arrived today and I just played with it a few minutes and I am very impressed. I was a full time professional wildlife artist for 6 years before my health caused me to quit,so I have a little experience blending, etc. I am new to artist pencils and crayons.It's a cake walk with the board and I think a beginner could do very good blending on the first try! I was also very,very impressed with the packing!Thank you so very much!"

-Alan, GA

"Out there I'm sure is a community of Icarus Drawing Board devotees and I'm happy to feel a part of that community. I have indulged freely in Ester's generous sharing of excellent teaching videos and tips. My love affair with coloured pencils has moved upward and onward. You are both to be commended on a World Class product and its presentation."

-Grace Ireland Cowling

"I've only owned my Icarus Drawing Board for a little over two months, but I've been very impressed by it. It's quite a time saver, and I love the way that I can achieve a more dense, saturated look with my pencils".

-Carla Deger ([email protected], see "Babuji's Revelation"in the Gallery)

"I just got back from my husband's family reunion in "Nowhere", Arkansas.... Anyway, I took all of my colored pencils and a couple of pieces with me to work on. But having been used to the Icarus Board, I found it a challenge to return to my old techniques. So being the creative genius I delude myself in claiming, I thought "if I were a cave woman and the Icarus Board hadn't been invented yet, "what would I do"? I used a heating pad with an illustration board on top. It worked pretty well! (Don't tell Ester.) Actually, I love my Board and I would recommend one to anyone. The heating pad just kept me sane until I could get home to mine".

- Kathy Lally

"I just wanted to say that I love the drawing board! I finished one piece with it and I know it's helping me move my work to the next level, at a much faster pace. It really helped with blending the colors and the tutorials that you gave helped tremendously!... Thank you so much for inventing this board, I love it so much. It was such a worthy investment for me and I've been recommending it to other artists."

- Erica Vojnich (see "Looking Forward" in the Gallery)

"...using the Icarus drawing board is becoming every day more interesting. In particular I used it with Derwent Artists and Caran d'Ache Pablo colored pencils. On the cool side of Idb I can get superior control, whereas on the warm zone I obtain a soft and creamy touch... All my best and once again my congratulations for Icarus, your wonderful creature."

- Mauro Serra - Italy (see "Sublimating Cherry" in the Gallery)

Just wanted to let you know how wonderful your invention is. I can now do skies without spending hours and hours as I used to with colored pencil alone. The Icarus is well made, easy to use and very versatile. It has added a new dimension to my work using it with neocolor 2 pastels along with colored pencil. Thanks for a great product.

- Elmer Hewitt ( see "Windswept" in the Gallery)

"I've been a Faber Castell pencil fan, but I'm not beyond using Prismacolors from time to time. I was working on a drawing and needed to do a large, dark silhoueyye area in the front . I figured it would take me an hour or more sawing away with my Faber Castells. So I put it on the Icarus Board, used my black Prismacolor - and I had my black silhouette in maybe two minutes! It looks great.

- Karen Rhiner (http://www.rhinerart.com)

"I love my Icarus Art board! It has made blending colors enjoyable and exciting rather than a chore. Drawing has always been my first love in art and I rediscovered my love of colored pencils a few years ago. Last year I purchased an Icarus Board out of curiosity and quickly fell in love with the ease and expansion it provided in blending techniques. I especially prefer to use it with my larger pieces."

- Heather Mewis (http://www.featheredfriendsmementos.com)

"Love-Love-Love my board!"

- Christine Goldman

"The background area in "Pride and Joy" (see it in the Gallery) was done using Neocolors II and the Icarus Board. I really love the way the Icarus Board works for this type of background. It helps to do a very large area very quickly. I just love using that board."

- Gemma Gylling (http://www.glassgems.net)

"I love working in this medium. When I was doing this piece it just flowed and I didn't want to stop working on it. You know when you are in that zone and things are melding. I was on a high with the way it was flowing together, I was really excited. In one area one flower petal wasn't right and I was able to correct it easily. I was surprised, thought I'd maybe ruined my piece. This technique is amazing and fun. I really started this piece as just learning how to work with the oil pastel, pastel, crayola and colored pencil all together and the piece I sent you just evolved. I'd love to sing your praises. I've been an artist for over 30 years. I started in oil, have worked in acrylic and two years ago attended a workshop with Ann Kullberg in Colored pencil. My interests are still life and portraiture. The Icarus Board has got me excited again. When I do a portrait in colored pencil, I intend to do the clothing and background in the wax medium. But right now I'm excited to start another still life. I reside in Great Bend, Kansas."

- Sherry Goeller (see "Tranquility" in the Gallery)

"I had to have your invention for the love of the art but also because I have been plagued with such chronic tendinitis in my right elbow for the past 15 years that I have been resigned to getting shots into it every 6-9 months so I don't lose the use of it (I am right handed). Of course the constant movement involved in blending and burnishing colored pencils is a major aggravation. So I could not resist your invention. But I must add that your resulting display of colors is exactly what I work so hard for and your invention looks like it will give it to me with a lot more ease. I am thrilled. I spent 5 seconds with it and could already tell it is exactly what I need and so desire in my own form of using colored pencils as a painting medium. WOW! I cannot express my sheer thrill of hope with your Icarus Drawing Board and what I think it is going to mean to my health and my future art work.

Thanks So Very Much for inventing such a wonderful tool and then for sharing it with the rest of us".

Lori Zachwieja (www.LZFineart.com)

"The Icarus Drawing Board makes it fun to experiment with the wax based mediums....it is the perfect marriage of wax pastels and colored pencils".

- Deb Mason (see "Petals Amongst the Bovine" in the Gallery)

"I am so appreciating the marvelous drawing board! Did your husband build and patent it? I had become quite discouraged over my art, because my arthritis had limited my ability to lug stuff around and go to classes to learn oils or go plein aire/alla prima painting with friends. I had always been better at water color, graphite, and colored pencil and put myself down because of friends doing oils. A group I am now in is doing 12 trading cards for mid February's meeting. I had not worked small in a long while. Your board came and I started out with my Prismacolors on those tiny works, only to catch on to how the board works, plus how easily I could add my Sennelier oil pastels on top, and Ifeel replenished! A retired maternal child RN, I have written two little kid books and originally went to a JC to take art to learn to illustrate them. After trying to take an 8 hour art academy course in soft pastels, I'd given up on both those and oils, as well as illustrating my books. Between the board and the small works for the trading cards, I am feeling it is a possibility! So I feel my middle of the night exploration on the internet and finding your work has helped me accept my arthritis, my age, my possibilities, and given me back a thankful, happy heart."

- Sally Boyd