http://www.painters-online.co.uk SUMMER 2019 63
I
magine sitting under the shade of
a tree and confronting the most
paintable view, only to realise you
hadn’t brought paints with you, because
there wasn’t room in your luggage. Then
consider another possibility: watercolour
pencils. Admittedly, they do not replace all
the effects achievable in watercolour, but
they are versatile enough to allow you to
make paintings with very little equipment.
Put together a good-quality sketchbook,
a brush, a small bottle of water and a set
of watercolour pencils, and you have the
materials to help render what you see.
Watercolour pencils are extremely
versatile, possessing the ability to create
colour washes and vibrant line, adding
energy and variety to paintings. The pencils
are created by a mixture of water-soluble
pigment, wax and a hardener. The colour
is encased in wood, although sticks without
wood are available, and called aquasticks.
In this article I want to explore the ways
in which watercolour pencils can be used
and I chose Caran d’Ache Supracolor Soft
Aquarelle to illustrate my techniques, as
they comprise reliable and smooth colours,
which are well colour saturated when
wetted. I love the cobalt blue and range
of greens in particular.
Two of the most useful qualities that
these pencils possess are the ability to flow
when wet, and to render texture when dry.This allows the artist to create washes and
surface texture. If you are a watercolourist,
you will be aware of the difficulty of
creating texture in watercolour alone.
I always include a few watercolour pencils
for this purpose in my watercolour kit.Top 10 uses for watercolour pencils
1 They work well wet or dry.
2 They can be used dry then wetted,
or applied to damp paper, which
dissolves the colour into paint.
3 They can be wetted with a brush
then applied on dry paper.
4 Use them as a palette by scribbling
intense squares of colour on thick paper.
A damp brush then picks up colour from
the square and is used to create washes.
5 Grind colour onto wet paper to create
interesting speckled effects on a painting,
for example, texture on stone walls.
6 Use them to sketch rapidly then
moisten to create colour or tone.
7 Traditionally, watercolour pencils areassociated with botanical painting,
and are an ideal medium for this subject.
8 They are not confined to one genre
only, but can be used for a variety of
subject matter, including landscape and
portraits.
9 They work interestingly with mixed-
media techniques. Try them with acrylic
when dry, pen and ink, as colour added
to line, and as an addition to watercolour.
10 Being controllable in a way that
watercolour isn’t is an advantage when
creating sensitive subtle colouring.What do they not do?
1 It is difficult to create the freedom
of a wet-in-wet loose watercolour.
2 There can be difficulty in laying tone
without drawn lines appearing after
wetting. Practice and experience can
overcome this, or if you wish it can
be a vibrant linear part of a painting.Your surfaces
Watercolour pencils work well on
paper. The ideal surface is a heavyweight
cartridge paper or Bristol board, a smooth
card. Generally I find them unsympathetic
when used on most watercolour papers,
except Hot-pressed paper, which is
smooth, but changed my mind when
I tried a really rough Khadi paper. The
paper suited the rugged subject perfectly.
To make the most of these pencils,
however, a smoother paper works
better in general. LPPart 8Experiment with wet and dry watercolour pencils
to add interest to your artwork, with Linda Birch
Let’s start with art
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
nPractise a variety of techniques
for watercolour pencils
nChoose the right surfacesTOP TIPS ON TECHNIQUE
If you have never used watercolour pencils,
please spend a little time exploring their
characteristics. Here are a few things to try:
1 Work from light to dark as you would
when painting in watercolour. This applies
if you are working with dry pencils then
wetting them, or working on a damp surface.
2 Sharpen the pencils so they can be used
on the side and not the point. This allows
you to lay even colour when required.
3 Use pressure to increase the strength
of colour.
4 If working wet, two or three colours
can be blended together dry then wetted
to mix the colour.
5 An atomiser is a useful tool. Apply dry
colour to paper and spray to dissolve
the pencil into paint.6 If building colour intensity, either
increase pressure before wetting, or
develop intensity by allowing one colour
to dry before adding more colour and
wetting again. You will find that wetting
the colour alters its strength.
7 Always draw the subject with a grey-
coloured pencil as graphite pencils are
not suited to coloured pencils and the lines
may be hard to remove once all is wetted.
8 If wetting the pencil, try not to leave
it resting in water. Instead use a small
shallow jar lid to dip the pencil in,
to create a soft line.
9 If frustrated by the lines left on the paper
when trying to lay a wash, consider using
a palette of dry colour scribbled heavily on
a piece of paper or card. Use a wet brush
to lift the colour off the card palette.tHave fun with your watercolour pencils!Dog and Ball, Caran d’Ache Supracolor on
heavyweight cartridge paper, 5x 412 ⁄in. (12x11cm).
Watercolour pencils are an ideal sketching tool.
They draw easily and are expressive. I used a
combination of wetted finger and grey, black
and lemon pencils to sketch this dog.tWatercolour pencils
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