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INTRODUCTION - ONE

These notes take you through the stages of completing a picture in Coloured Pencil.  

Illustrations of the various steps are shown and some indication is given of the colours and the paper used.  It is not essential to use the exact paper - or even the same brand of pencils, though it helps to have approximately the same range of colours.  In each case, artist quality pencils are specified, as these behave in the most reliable way.  If you DO use the same pencils and paper, the end result will still depend a lot on the pressure you apply in completing each stage, so whilst I am sure you will be happy with the result, I cannot guarantee your masterpiece will look exactly like mine

BEFORE WE START  

Some of the exercises use both wax type pencils and watercolour pencils

In many cases I use a method of ‘underpainting’ to provide a basis of colour on the paper.

This is for a number of reasons, and it is best to understand this at the outset.

There are two basic types of Coloured Pencil (CP for short), Dry Point and Water soluble.

DRY POINT pencils are used dry, as they are manufactured with an oil or wax content and do not easily dissolve. These pencils are usually transparent or semi transparent, so the colour layers sit happily over each other and act as filters, progressively changing the colour hue seen.

The first layer on the paper grips the paper firmly and will become the predominant colour.

Put down a Red as the first coat, and then a Yellow layer on top, and the result will be seen as an Orange hue ( depending on the red and yellow chosen, of course ).  Add a further layer of Red and the Orange swings back to a Red/Orange.  These layers build up progressively until the tooth of the paper is filled and no further colour can be taken off the pencil. The paper will now have a polished wax surface.  If a paper is used with a rough or grainy surface, the colour will miss out on the dips in the little valleys of paper and you will be left with a series of white specks.  It is possible to burnish and blend the colour and press the accumulated layers into those valleys, but the result is not always successful.

Some smoother papers will only take a few layers so the colour depth will suffer.

THERE IS A SOLUTION

Watercolour pencils (Aquarelles) are designed to work dry the same way as Dry Point pencils,

BUT ALSO to dissolve with water. In this way they become a very useful tool.  They can be used to grate pigment from the point on to a dish to make a watercolour wash to be applied with a brush, or they can be applied dry to the paper and then moistened with a damp brush to blend and merge the colour.

Some Aquarelles become permanent after wetting so you need to experiment. Some colours in some brands also become very much more vibrant when moistened, and one or two also change colour slightly. It is best to test out your aquarelles dry and wet before you start so you can beware the pitfalls.

BY APPLYING a layer of watercolour pencil pigment to the paper first, we can ensure that the valleys in the paper grain are all filled with colour ( no white specks ) and that we start the application of dry point colour on an already suitably coloured ground. This way we get more layers of colour and deeper colour and the overall picture takes much less time.

THERE ARE COMPREHENSIVE NOTES on the use of Watercolour Pencil elsewhere on this site, but the basics are explained below

Only a small amount of dry colour is required

The Pencil needs a long sharp point

Some colours are much stronger than others

Here you can see Powder Blue on the left is much weaker in pigment than the basic Blue on the right.

Sky blue in the middle contains a lot of white and hardly makes any impact at all. The basic blue on the right is a very strong colour and needs care.  The original amount of dry colour was about the same

If you are painting with a wider range of colours, use a large white plate and select a suitable range of colours for your subject , these can be mixed in situ, or can be picked off the plate and mixed with more water elsewhere.

An under painting needs only THIN layers of colour.  It is better to have and control two thin layers of colour than one thicker one

First layers of colour wash on the paper.  KEEP IT LIGHT

Second layers of wash on the paper, Concentrate on where the greater depth of colour will be needed

Now you can start to add the dry point

FORWARD TO THE NEXT  PAGE   - The ‘other way’ of using Watercolour Pencils     --------

STEP BY  STEP TUTORIALS  Introduction 1

Small STEP BY STEP Exercises

The image here is of a scene in Brittany, though the street itself doesn’t exist as the right hand side and the left hand side of the view are of different streets.  To the left here, is the scan of the early stages where you can see the original under painting which laid down a  tonal wash in blue violet ( the complementary colour to the browns used for the picture.

To the right is the finished painting - Not brilliant, but a useful learning exercise.

The important point is the working of the cobblestones - see below .........

I have blown the scale of this image up so that you can see the detail.

The under painting of the cobbles uses a range of colours and you can see the dry colour where it has not been touched by the brush - the pigment has a granular look.

HOWEVER, you can also see where the damp brush has been used to moisten the pigment and move it into a cobble shape with light at the bottom ( where the wet pigment is thin ) and darker colour at the top ( where the pigment has been ‘snowploughed’ up by the springy nylon  watercolour brush )

What you do have to watch out for is the jump in vibrancy when you add water to dry pigment.  Some pencils are noted for the high strength of colour ( Derwent Inktense for one ).  Inktense are designed to give strong vibrant and permanent colour once the have been wet.

The lower cost student colours can also give shocks as they often use chemical based pigments which are permanent.

The example shown here is of a Robin worked in Staedtler Karat Aquarelles - a very good student quality brand and good value for money.

Note the upper image is of the dry colour

The lower one is of the colour moistened with a damp brush.  The pigment fills the dips in the paper grain and becomes much stronger

INTRODUCTION - TWO

The ‘OTHER WAY’ of using Watercolour Pencils

These pencils can be used dry point, and provided that you have a good layer of dry colour down on the paper, you can apply a wet or damp brush to merge and bed the colour into the paper.

Let me make it quite clear, once again, that it is NOT ADVISEABLE to take the brush to the pencil.

You can do it, but it is wasteful of the pencil and will involve you in a lot of extra sharpening.

Once the pencil point gets wet, the structure of the colour strip starts to break down and it not only changes colour, but it breaks more easily.  The only solution then is to sharpen the pencil down to fresh hard colour, and you have the loss of all that material in the waste bin.

STEP BY  STEP TUTORIALS  Introduction 2

OTHER TUTORIAL EXERCISES