I first saw Colour Shapers being demonstrated at an Arts Materials Exhibition in Birmingham when they first came out several years ago. "Do they work with pastels?" I eagerly asked. I tried them, and they did! I at once bought one firm taper point (size 2) and one soft flat chisel (2) .

They have been essential in each of the many pastel portraits which I have done since. Parents and grand-parents want lifelike portraits of the children they ask me to produce for them, so my pastel style is as lifelike and detailed as I can make it. Both rough texture (hair) and smooth texture (skin) are needed.

I use soft pastels and pastel pencils and they respond equally well to the gentle firmness of the Colour Shaper. The material of which the head is made is just right. I have checked with a magnifier that over the years the texture of the tip has not deteriorated at all. However badly the head gets covered in colour it can be perfectly cleaned in seconds with soap and water.

Because Colour Shapers are indispensable to my serious commissioned work I determined to keep them to myself and not let my young pupils use them!

For smoothing large areas I can use the tip of my little finger, but for accuracy in detail, both in smoothing and delineation, in small complex areas then a Colour Shaper is just essential. Eyes, nostrils, mouth and ears and some clothing details require the push and pull of a fine pointed but not hard tool.

For example, round every iris there is a dark line, usually black, which is very well defined on the outside but on the inside blends in with the colour of the iris. The tip of the Colour Shaper is indispensable for achieving this detail. In my life size portraits there are many such delicate operations.

However, I relented when, working with hard pastels, which are especially suited to feathers and fur, their enthusiasm to get it right required delicate manipulation of the rnedium and I allowed them the use of the shapers. I need not have worried! The children used them effectively and satisfyingly without the least detriment to the tools!

My portraits are usually life size, but sometimes I am asked to do a group of smaller heads or I include a small figure drawing of a gymnast or dancer. Then the Colour Shaper is needed everywhere, for example, to get the sheen on a leotard.

For detailed work on other pictures, for example, of magpies, Colour Shapers are indispensable.