A Guide to Watercolor Pencils

Watercolor pencils offer the precision of pencils with the painterly effect of watercolors blurring the line between drawing and painting. Watercolor pencils are very similar to traditional colored pencils, however they are made with a water-soluble binder, meaning that when water is added to a dry drawing, the water dissolves the binder to create a watercolor-like paint.

They are soft and wax based, featuring high color pigmentation and are perfect for laying down rich vibrant color, or adding water with a wet brush to create watercolor effects.

Here is a quick guide on how to use the watercolor pencils featured in the Studio Set. PSA: This guide is also included in the Abbreviated Guided Sketchbook included in the Studio Set too!

Getting Started

1. Hold your color pencil with a loose grip, and start making marks or drawing small, quick studies. Experiment with different kinds of mark making - apply varying pressure to the color pencil and create different lines and shapes.

2. Layer different colors - your primary colors (red, yellow, blue) will create secondary colors (orange, green, purple). When you mix dry watercolor pencils, one color is layered over another. While some mixing occurs, the colors can’t fully blend because the pigments are "trapped" within the binder. However, when water is added, the binder dissolves, allowing the pigments to thoroughly mix. This results in a smooth and uniform appearance.

Incorporating Watercolor

3. Fill your water tin with water

4. There are three ways to use watercolor pencils: 

• Use the color pencil to draw a shape or particular subject, and then apply the wet brush onto the paper where your drawing is, activating the watercolor. You can apply dry pencil, add water, and then apply more dry pencil once the paper has dried. You can repeatedly go back and forth between wet and dry applications until they reach the desired effect in the artwork. 

• Similar to traditional watercolors, you can load your brush with wet color and apply it directly to the paper. To do this, apply a heavy layer of dry watercolor pencil to a piece of scrap paper, creating separate swatches for each color you plan to use. These swatches will serve as your watercolor pans. Wet your brush and load it with the desired color from the swatches. Then, apply the wet paint directly to your artwork, just as you would with traditional watercolors. You can also mix colors on a palette before applying them to your artwork.

• You can also load the brush with color directly from the tip of the watercolor pencil. To do this, wet your brush and collect color pigments from the tip of the color pencil to fill the brush with color. This method works better with smaller brushes as it can be difficult to load up a large brush from the small tip of the pencil.

5. Experiment the three brushes - the bigger one can be used to make thicker marks and fill in larger shapes or areas on a composition. The medium and small brush can be used for finer details and thinner lines, shapes, and other marks. 
   

About the Author

Berry Stein

Berry is the founder of Art Life Practice. She's an art educator and has spent the past 14+ years working to broaden access to arts education and daily creative practice.