Making traditional watercolor jealous: watercolor pencil yawning cat

a month ago 49

The post Making traditional watercolor jealous: watercolor pencil yawning cat appeared first on Sandy Allnock.

Even as an artist who loves traditional watercolor – sometimes there’s techniques that watercolor could never do. Maybe something similar, but there are some ways that watercolor pencil can kick traditional painting in the behind! Let’s look at some ways you can use the power of 14 techniques to create a unique piece of art,whatever your subject will be.

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Tutorial: Making traditional watercolor jealous

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

SUPPLIES

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Watercolor pencils

Caran d’Ache Supracolor BLICK AMZ JACKSONS

Watercolor paper

Arches Bright White CP 22×30 sheet BLICK JACKSONS

Brushes

Winsor & Newton Kolinsky Sable Series 7 Round #8 BLICK AMZ JACKSONS
Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky Sable Round 4 BLICK AMZ JACKSONS
Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky Sable Round 2 BLICK AMZ
Da Vinci Cosmotop Spin Brush (Mottler) – Flat Wash, Short Handle, Size 30 BLICK AMZ JACKSONS

Brushes

Jokari Tea strainer

14 techniques with watercolor pencils

Powder painting on wet paper: lay down an area of water and create pencil powder by grating it on a tea strainer, nail file, or sandpaper. (each provides a different result)

Direct drawing on dry paper: the way most people use watercolor pencils, just draw with it and use a brush to melt the pigment into watercolor.

Color mixing by direct drawing: Add multiple colors while drawing – being aware that following color theory rules counts especially if you’ll add water!

Fur – powder onto wet paper: lay down water in the area you want fur, and create as much or little pencil powder as you desire.

Fur – painting onto dry powder: create the powder dust first – then use a brush to paint through them to create brushstroke fur.

Deepening values: concentrate darker values in shadow areas by creating different values of pencil in each section.

Controlling varied value placements: practice targeting exactly where you’ll drop a particular color to create a shadow area vs a soft blended section.

Layering for texture: in a first pass, create light color, then dry it and add powder to paint another layer for the texture of something like the carpet covering on the cat tree.

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Masking fluid to preserve whites: paint whiskers and other small areas of whites to be sure no pigment touches them. Let it dry completely before adding color!

Powdered background with mix of colors: add water to the background and create powdered pigment of hues of your choice – test on scrap paper if you’re not confident how they’ll mix.

Lifting bokeh: with a finger wrapped in a baby wipe, lift soft dots of a variety of sizes and values out of the background. Keep them soft — and uneven in placement too.

Lifting masking fluid: remove the dry masking fluid with a rubber cement pickup. Be careful as the masking fluid will have powdered pigment on it and can get pushed into white areas.

Thinning out lines: if whiskers are too thick, you can try pencil to thin them out, or just use a damp brush to soften the value. Create a blob of pigment to “dip” the brush into if that helps.

Direct drawing final details: the last thing to check: are your darks the darkest things in the drawing? Add those pops of contrast before calling it done!

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