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Water soluble drawing pencils

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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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I have used water soluble pencils a couple of time recently on sketches for the January daily sketch. I’m not to sure of them and need to use them a bit more, what Im unsure of , is there use in a large area. So far I’ve used them for shadow and shading in small areas, I did try a sky wash that’s when I became unsure      Has anyone used them for a complete sketch, as in a landscape. Any comments would be useful.

Margaret Nisbet

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I've used them as well Dixie, and liked them, but again I used them for small scale sketches.

Linda Drury

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Paul I use watercolor pencils but mainly for small flower and wildlife paintings along with watercolor and sometimes gouache, I haven't used them on anything big scale.
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Alan Beresford

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Paul, I use watercolour pencils, Inktense pencils, and water soluble graphite pencils a lot. I find they come into there own, when going out walking for the day. You can put 6 basic colours (or your favourite colours) in a bag, with some paper a couple of brushes that have a reservoir for holding water. You can easily capture the moment quite quickly without the fuss of traditional equipment. As Linda says they are great for small drawings, flowers etc, where you can get quite a lot of pigment down in a small area. On larger pictures, you can try blending your colours on a spare piece of paper, and using this like a pallet you can transfer the resulting colour onto your picture, this helps to get stronger colours, without getting your painting over worked.  In fact looking at my profile picture this was painted with water soluble graphite pencils, light medium and dark.

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by Alan Beresford

IMG_6882

Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Thank you for your comments, it’s the graphite pencil I was wanting to know about. It seem that I had come to the same conclusion as you all, small seems to work or small areas.  I like the idea of taking then out to use along with a drop of water, would be good for tonal sketches I would think. I have three that I use light wash, medium and dark so quite a variety of tone could be achieved I would think. The idea of a paper pallet is very good Alan, particularly as it would be light and easy to carry along.
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Alan Beresford

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Sounds like the pencils I have Paul, are they made by Derwent? I have attached another drawing I have completed using them.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Drawing looks good Alan, yes they are Derwent. Quite nice to us but take a bit of getting use to the idea of wetting the drawing, I find a small brush very useful. Still debating whether to try a large scale sketch, not sure if it will work so well.

Linda Drury

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Alan, do you mean you can use water with  Derwent graphite pencils, I didn't know this, you learn something new every day 👍😁 Paul, inkbrush are also good to use for your outside painting as well, 
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Alan Beresford

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The pencils I am talking about are Derwent sketching pencils, and they come in three types light wash, medium wash, and dark wash. According to the packet they are graphite. I don't know if graphite pencils are water soluble.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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I have had water soluble graphite sticks, but cannot remember the make there were quite good despite being easily broken. I will try to find out who manufactured them and add to the post.

Linda Drury

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Thanks for that info Alan, I only have the graphite pencils then. 😀

John Humber

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I do a lot of work in graphite and never use the traditional wooden pencils. There are woodless pencils—a 3(ish) mm diameter stick of graphite with a plastic coating. Bit of a faff to sharpen but good for bold broad marks but they break easily if dropped. There are bigger hexagonal graphite sticks—excellent for bigger work—and small (2 inch) x quarter inch square graphite sticks. These are also good for broader strokes but a bit fragile for me as I tend to be quite vigorous. All of these are water soluble to varying degrees; none are water proof.
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