Working with Prismacolour Premieres

I've been longing to try two of the recent lessons on LIFEBOOK (Willowing, one by Jane Davenport and one by Jane DesRosier. I had to get supplies for both and for Jane D's had to wait for delivery of some Prismacolour Premiere pencils and some Adirondack matt acrylic paint dabbers. They came and so yesterday I had a go. I found it really hard especially as my paint dabbers were really dried out and very hard to use....found out now I can water them down again.... My main problem though was I couldn't get hold of an alcohol solvent to blend the pencils anywhere here in the UK and without that, it was really difficult. I tried using a bit of neat gin....ha ha....thought it might work but all it did was lift the colour completely off. Still I learnt something that could be quite useful there! Anyway I spent four hours on this painting and was pretty disappointed with it. Mainly that was because I usually find something really appealing in the faces I paint and it is missing in this one. I can't really relate to her. Still it was a really good learning experience. I decided to make it into a journal page as I was dissatisfied with her and for that and for all I learned it was worth it.