{"id":570,"date":"2007-06-01T14:02:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-01T13:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/?p=570"},"modified":"2022-01-31T14:03:16","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T14:03:16","slug":"watercolour-pencils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/2007\/06\/01\/watercolour-pencils\/","title":{"rendered":"WATERCOLOUR PENCILS<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This month, I’d like to just run through a few techniques for getting the best out of those watercolour pencils you’ve had kicking around for ages and not quite got around to using. It’s a medium that I personally have a bit of a love-hate relationship with, mainly because often when I’ve tackled a picture using watercolour pencils, I’ve only had rough paper to hand. If you’re going to use them, I strongly recommend that you use Hot-pressed (smooth) paper. Rough paper, whilst great for achieving texture effortlessly, is a nightmare when it comes to using water-soluble pencils – the two just don’t mix very well! Here, then, is my short list of techniques for this often over-looked medium:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[1] Hatching and Cross-hatching<\/strong>. Since Watercolour pencils are primarily a drawing tool, basic drawing techniques apply. Hatching (parallel lines drawn closely together to create a tonal area) and Cross-hatching (two sets of parallel lines drawn across each other at an angle) are the standard shading methods we use when drawing with ordinary graphite pencils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2] Frottage<\/strong>. This is the creation of texture by placing your paper over a rough surface (such as wood or stone). Bit like brass-rubbing, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3] Bracelet Shading<\/strong>. To successfully explain, in visual terms, what shape an object is, shading should follow its contours – often referred to as Bracelet Shading (a drainpipe, for instance, should be shaded-in using lines that are tightly curved to give it a three-dimensional effect. A gentle slope, in a landscape would have be made up of broader curves, similar to a contours on an ordnance survey map.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4] Gradation<\/strong>. This is a smooth transition from a dark to light tone, or vice versa, or from one colour to another. Variations in tone can be controlled by altering the pressure applied with the pencils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5] Scraping<\/strong>. This is a great way of producing some spectacular textural effects. Scrape the point of the pencil with the edge of a craft blade or scalpel, over a pre-wetted area on your paper. As the tiny scrapings hit the moisture, they fan out in an interesting an unpredictable way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6] Overlaying<\/strong>. Watercolour pencils really come into their own if you overlay colours, gradually, on top of each other. This is an effective way of creating a wide range of hues, from a limited number of colours, and can produce a considerable amount of depth and tone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7] Wash Effects<\/strong>. Colour can be taken straight from the point of the pencil with a damp brush, then applied direct to the paper as you would with watercolour pans or tubes. This makes watercolour pencils a convenient sketching tool, when out of doors. They are also ideal, when used in conjunction with the Pentel Waterbrushes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8] Burnishing<\/strong>. Burnishing is the mixing and lightening of adjacent colours using a white watercolour pencil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month, I’d like to just run through a few techniques for getting the best out of those watercolour pencils you’ve had kicking around for ages and not quite got around to using. It’s a medium that I personally have a bit of a love-hate relationship with, mainly because often when I’ve tackled a picture using watercolour pencils, I’ve only...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-techniques","category-watercolour-pencils"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":572,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions\/572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}