Colour Pencils and Water Colour Pencils Basics

 blade or pin to let the lower layer show through.
Are you a novice in the art? Do you want to learnBurnishing: It is simply layers of colored pencil overlaid
how to get started? Following are some basic colorwith strong pressure so that the tooth of the paper
pencil strokes that will be helpful in your drawing. It isis filled and smooth surface results. This image shows
a good idea to spend some time exploring the colora burnished surface compared with a basic overlay of
pencil medium with small pieces before attempting acolor. With some colors, especially with waxier pencils
major drawing.than the watercolor pencils used for this example, a
As with graphite pencil, there are a range ofquite translucent and jewel-like effect can be
techniques which you can employ when drawing withobtained with careful burnishing.
colored pencil. Which one you choose will depend onAfter the basics of colour pencils, its time for learning
the final effect you are aiming for. The techniqueshow to use water colour pencils. Using watercolor
are:pencils is very similar to using a 'normal' pencil or a
Shading: Using a straightforward side-to-side shadingcolor pencil. You should hold them the same way,
motion, a smooth even layer of color is built up. Asharpen them the same way, and moreover you can
very light touch can be used to deposit the faintestalways erase them!
amount of pigment for graduated shading.It's when you add water into the equation that their
Hatching: Rapid, regular, evenly spaced lines areuniqueness appears. There are different ways to do
drawn, leaving a little white paper or underlying colourthis. For starters, you can do by painting with clean
showing.water over your drawing. Or you can lift the paint
Cross-Hatching: Hatching overlaid at right-angles. Thisoff the pencil with a brush then apply it to your
can be done with different colors, or carried throughpaper, wet the pencil then draw with it, or wet the
multiple layers, to create a textured effect.support you're working on.
Scumbling: This refers to the 'brillo pad' method, tinyBy painting over the watercolor pencil with a brush
overlapping circles rapidly drawn. Again, it can be usedthat has been loaded with clean water the pencil lines
to build up a single color or different colors.dissolves into the watercolor paint. The intensity of
Directional Marks: Short directional lines which follow athe wash produced depends on the amount of pencil
contour, or the direction of hair or grass or otherthat had been applied to paper. The more pencil lead,
surfaces. These can be densely overlaid to form athe more intense the color. Be selective in which
rich textural effect.areas you turn into washes to make the most of the
Incised Marks: Two thick layers of color are overlaid,unique properties of watercolor pencils.
then the top colour gently scratched into with a