Beginner's - ArtTrader Magazine

Art TRADER
m a g a z i n e
fine control you can get with
them, your designs can become
very, very intricate!
Layering of Paint and Other
Media
One of the neatest things
about watercolor pencils is that
since you can use so many
techniques with them, they
take well to layering of those
techniques. So start with a
wash, for example, and then
use a wet pencil for bold lines!
The techniques will complement
each other.
I also encourage you to use
these pencils with other media.
I’m very fond of using watercolor
pencils with ink to create more
contrast. You can also use both
regular pencil and watercolor
pencil in a design—the
watercolor pencil will turn into
paint but the regular pencils will
stay put! Crayons or wax resist
also produce very interesting
combinations. Experiment and
have fun!
end up much brighter or deeper than you intended. If you want
muted tones, only use the smallest amount of pencil—what it
looks like before and after you have added the water can be
strikingly different indeed!
One of the techniques I like to use is to make your edges darker
and your interior lighter. This is something that is more difficult
to achieve with regular watercolors, but is relatively easy with
watercolor pencils. You’ll see it on my finished piece on page
21 — simply add double the pigment around the edges and be
mindful when you are applying your water to the page.
You should pay attention to your brush strokes when applying
the color—different patterns can end in different designs. I apply
color to one section of color at a time, always rinsing my brush
with water before moving to a new colored section.
You have to work very quickly—if you let the paper dry on one
section, you will get a cloudy line or splotch where the wet and
dry sections meet. Its better to keep a section slightly wet as
you go along, or to work your way along a complete section.
This is more of a problem with larger sections of color than with
smaller sections of color.
When you are filling in your color with your brush, you may
also find that the brush has too much paint and the colors are
getting too saturated. Simply dunk your paint brush back into
your water and swish it around and then you will have a clean
brush to work with. If you want consistent color in places, this is
a very important technique. I often dip my brush back into my
paint after every two or three strokes or so to maintain my color
consistency.
Wet Paper Technique
Another technique you can use is the wet paper technique. With
this technique, you begin by wetting a blank piece of watercolor
paper. After wetting the paper, begin drawing with your pencils.
How much water you use will impact how far the watercolor
pencils will spread. This will give you soft lines but still fairly
bright colors.
This technique can be used with the wet brush technique,
but only very carefully and AFTER you have done your wet
brush work. Once you do the “painting” part of the wet brush
technique, your paint is adhered to the paper quite well and
could take on a bit more water. You might get some muddy
results depending on how much pencil you used, however.
-20-