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Watercolour pencils
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Posted
This seems to have developed as a separate topic on the thread Multiple Postings. As it is developing I thought it would be better as a separate thread, in case I get other helpful suggestions for my new venture into watercolour pencils. Or in case there are other Forum members who might be interested in this medium.
Tao, I have watched the Jonathan Newey video you recommended and found it very helpful, so thank-you very much. I shall also remember your tip about drawing in the same colours that I am going to use for the subject. This could also be a useful tip for outlining in some of my paintings.
Margaret, thank-you for your helpful suggestions of artists to check out: Xaylia Fine Art, Kirsty Partridge, Amie Howard Art, Martines Fine Art, Wild Portrait Artist and Cassandra Hanley. I have repeated them here so that I have them on the relevant thread. They could be helpful to others as well.
I think it will be some time before I post any pencil work, as I am still experimenting and expect to be doing that for some time.
Posted
I have normal coloured pencils (polychromos) but I also have a blending fluid which presumably will allow for some similarities with your watercolour pencils.
I too haven't really had a chance to experiment with these, though I see some wonderful examples of coloured pencil work in the gallery and there was that girl on the portrait artist of the year show who impressed me with her realism.
The concern for me is how to blend good skin colours with a limited selection of pencils, which I suppose is a key to all portraiture in any medium, regardless if I do have a go I will post it... experimentation doesn't have to be on the hush hush, we learn through our errors so shouldn't be ashamed to show them. I look forwards to seeing your work.
Posted
Watercolour pencils take some mastering, I have a small set of inexpensive ones I was given as a gift, I haven't used them yet, but this thread is drawing me closer to opening them up (pun intended) and giving them a work-out. I tried the inktense pencils many years ago for a comp, set by David Bellamy, a waterfall in the Welsh hills - Skwd Isaf, I have no idea where they have vanished to, so lovely to use.
Maybe our Syd will set us a challenge to be carried out with coloured pencils, only.
Keep up the good work, Sandra.
Keep up the good work, Sandra.Edited
by carol
Posted
I should have called this thread "Coloured pencils", and now can't see how to (or whether you can) edit the heading. Margaret, I'd like to ask you about layering. I know that we are using two different kinds of pencil but there must be some similarities how to go about building up an image. Given the rich colour in your paintings I assume that you do layer, could you give me a few tips please? Like how many layers, do you layer slightly different colours over each other? Or different tones of the same colour? I don't have a blender for them, but have tried burnishing some of the shapes with white (or else blend with a little water but I don't want to do that each time).
Posted
I bought some faber watercolour pencils, thinking they would suit me. My first attempt was encouraging, then I did a few duffers. But I'm coming back to them and enjoying it, sometimes I use just pencils, but mostly I'm using them in conjunction with watercolour...which suits me just fine. On a finished pic, after time has passed, I can't always tell which bits were pencil...so far I haven't tried burnishing. For monochrome pen and wash, I now almost exclusively use a black or grey pencil (and a brush with clean water-obviously) for the wash.
Posted
Sandra, I can't get on with watercolour pencils, they always seem not to blend for some reason. I layer loads with my polychromos pencils which are oil based. Usually about three to five layers - some artists go up to 14!!!!!! I start off with a very faint layer and then build up, after about three layers I use zest it (which smells orangey) which gives you more tooth in the paper so you can continue with more layers and yes sometimes I use different colours over one another. I've just been trying Vellum Bristol Board but this doesn't like to be wet so I have been burnishing with a white pencil instead - this makes sure all the white of the paper is blended in.
Try starting with a light layer and then build up, this way doesn't flatten out the tooth of the paper so much. Good luck and happy painting!
Posted
Thank-you very much Margaret for your helpful suggestions, which I really appreciate. I actually hadn't intended to try watercolour pencils specifically, (I don't do watercolour), and had polychromos in mind, except that here they are very expensive. I'd been discussing pencils with someone in the art group I go to, and that person went ahead and ordered a set of Mondelez w/c on my behalf before I'd really made a final decision. As a set of 72 of these cost about a third of what I'd have paid here they seemed a good way to find out whether I like pencils or not. If I do I might branch out into polychromos later when there is a sale on.
Posted
Derwent and Caran d'Ache coloured pencils here, with skintone sets from Derwent and Staedtler.
What I've found is that you don't just use three or four layers; I've got up to half a dozen layers so far without losing count and use the white from the set to blend\ burnish on the page. I've not used the "watercolour" option - give it time. Don't be afraid to layer in different colours either, light over dark over light will work (not always but keep experimenting). You have to layer and blend the skintone sets - nobody's that colour