Watercolor Pencils - My SECRETS to Better, Smoother Results
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- čas přidán 30. 06. 2024
- In this video we talk about all the reasons you may be getting scruffy, textured results with watercolor pencils and how to fix it. We discuss everything from paper to clever application tips and tricks.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Introduction
1:30 Paper
5:03 Brushes
6:27 Quality
9:45 Turning pencils into paint
11:56 Application
14:46 Blending tools
16:19 Using White
17:19 Inktense
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• Watercolor Pencils - M... - Jak na to + styl
I am interested to know... What kind of watercolor pencils videos would you like me to make in the future...?
I have the Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils that I have only really used for under painting with colored pencil and mostly as watercolor reconstituted on the plastic palate applied with a brush. I would like to see a demo of how to get good results in a field sketch by applying wc pencil directly to paper and activating with a water brush. It seems like they would be great for this application.
Drawing a pallet on paper to take with you is a great idea!😊
It works really well!
I just used some watercolor pencils yesterday for the first time. I definitely experimented with them. Used them directly on the paper, used them to make paint and used them to make details on top of a painted area. I am sure I will experiment more with them too.
Wonderful!
Excellent timing! I was recently trying to use watercolor pencils w/out getting the undissolved pencil lines showing. My test scribbles done as I worked along watching this video already show a little improvement, thank you! I would love to see more about using the Inktense pencils in a painting (on paper). It was only a few months ago that I realized the difference between Inktense pencils and regular watercolor pencils. I originally bought Inktense pencils for drawing designs on fabric and didn't think much about it when I started using them in watercolor paintings on paper. Works great, but not in all situations, of course!
No problem, glad you are getting better results!
Love!
Most instructive is this video on Watercolour pencils and the Derwent Inktense pencils - I use both but this video gave me more options. I’d love a video on Watercolour Markers as well - I have the Faber Castell range and they are vibrant. Cheers!
Glad it was helpful! I don't have markers, but I have used them in the past, thanks for the suggestion!
I am also interested in the better use of watercolor markers. I have a set from "Eberhard Faber", which I really enjoy when using the pointy sort of brush side. But I also got a huge set of cheaper "Einhorn" watercolor markers with a broad range of beautiful colors, but their tips are of quite tough felty type, which I really dislike.
Until now I only used those from Faber for rather graphic designs and sketches. It would be nice to see what else can be done with them. And I would really want to use the beautiful colors of the cheap watercolor markers in some way.
Very helpful, Michele! I like that you give ideas for lower costs for supplies, generally saving money.
You are very welcome!
Love this tutorial video!! Not only do learn, but it's also very calming. Thank you!!
I'm so glad!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THIS KNOWLEDGE, I can't wait to enjoy my watercolour classes with this knowledge ❤
Wonderful!
Wonderful! Thank you for such a thorough explanation of watercolor pencil techniques. I found this so helpful!😊
You are so welcome!
Another great video Michelle! Thank you so much!...Not only do I have a large collection of colored pencils ranging from Crayola (which I truly love) to Holbein...Im not ashamed to say that when it comes to Art Supplies I am a bit of a Hoarder!...But I also managed thru the years to obtain a collection of Watercolour Pencils as well with all ranging from the most budget brands up to Albrecht Duer and Museum Aquarell...Like yourself I tend to favor the Museum Aquarell Pencils mostly due to their quality and lightfast ability! I also find myself reaching more and more for my pencils these days because they are just so much fun to use and the vibrancy can rival even the best Watercolour paints out there! Again thank you for your great video and all that you do Michelle! Many blessings, Rus from Bucks County Pennsylvania ❤️🎨🖌🤓
Thanks Rus!
"mostly due to their quality and lightfast ability! "
Be aware, though, that watercolour lightfast ratings *only apply to the dry state.* The big brands acknowledge this, and obviously, the more water we add, the less lightfast the colour becomes. It varies between colours, though, just as watercolour does, and the best way to discover how well your particular favourites fare is to paint graduated swatches, labelling them clearly (you won't remember which was what a few months down the line !), cut them in half and put one set in a sunny window, and the other in an thick envelope in a drawer for comparison.
Protect them from wee beasties which might get under the tape / between window and paper by taping the samples thoroughly all round. Check regularly that the tape hasn't lifted, make sure that the window is clean in and out before putting them in, and check that the outside is cleaned regularly - otherwise strange little shapes and changes will appear on your swatches. 😄
Thank you so much for all your tips. I have watercolor and watercolor pencils, but it is amazing how possibilities I have now after watching your videos.❤
You are so welcome!
Thank you, Michelle, I love your teaching techniques❤ you explain clearly and your demonstrations are precise and easy to follow❤🎨❤️I’ve learned so much from you and always learning more, since I came to watercolor painting as a complete beginner. Thank you sooo much, from the bottom of my heart, I am 70 years old and painting certainly enhances my life❤️💝🙏🏻🎨🙏🏻💝❤️You’re an amazing artist❤️💝🎨💝❤️
Thank you so much! You are very welcome 🤗
Click the thumbs up button .
Thanks Sue!
Also I would like to add using a waterproof sand paper you can mix directly on the paper then simply mark a piece of tape and put on the back after it dried to use the next time working on the painting.
Oh, great tip!
I’ve never heard of inktense pencils. I really like the vibrancy!
Great video Michele, thank you for so many info!
Any time!
Thank you for making this one, it was very helpful.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks so much. You're always so clear and thorough in your explanations and consider every aspect that could be useful -a really wonderful and impressive teacher. Again, many thanks, and greetings from Italy
Thank you Michele. Yet another very informative video, with a lot of effort to produce and present. Much appreciated.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for this very clear, very helpful instruction.
You are welcome!
As always, great information and demo of techniques. Plastic versus sandpaper; super!!!
Thank you! Cheers!
Thanks, Michele. You answered all my questions and explained a lot of things I have never thought of.
I'm so glad!
Lots of great solutions for smoother watercolor pencil results. Thanks for sharing this informational video with us! Your watercolor pencil course is extremely helpful & I really enjoyed doing it!
Thanks so much 😊
Good video, very good discussion of pros and cons and how to use.
Wonderful information, as always.
Thank you!
Love your demonstrations using different media
Thank you!
Thank you Michele❤
Any time!
I did as soon as the video started. I love Michele and always learn from her. 🥰
Thanks for watching Alicia!
Thank you for all of your strategies and tips. I love watercolor pencils!
You are welcome!
Thank you so much for your wonderful video! I have 2 kinds of wafercolor pencils and haved struggled using them. I can think of a number of ways I can apply the techniques you've outlined. 😊
Wonderful!
You are always succinct and inteligent and useful
I've learned a lot, thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for this video. I recently bought some Derwent inktense and have been playing a bit. Your guidance will help a bunch 💜💜
I really enjoyed this video overview! Thank you. I have the pencils but have only used them for my horizon lines in seascapes or sometimes when I just need a little bit of color when traveling. You’ve explained why I have had problems in the past and I am excited to try them again.
You are so welcome!
Excellent video Michele . I learned a lot. I was always wary of pencils.
Thanks for watching!
Great video thank you!
No problem!
Thank you! So much advice all in one video. I've just been given some watercolour pencils and this gives me enough pointers to get started with.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for this video Michele. I've had a variety of watercolour pencils but not sure how to make the most of them. I really enjoyed learning about them today. 😊
You are so welcome!
Such a great video. I'm always wanting to use my watercolour pencils more and these tips will definitely help me in future projects.
I'm so glad!
Perfect. Spot on advice.
Thank you!
great video!
Very interesting, learnt a lot from this video
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks Michele
Any time!
Awesome!
Thanks!
Thanks for the informative video. Any video on watercolour pencils I will Watch but, I’m surprised my tutor of 25+ years ago didn’t mention how useful they can be with Aquarell paints. I think your videos are very thorough & thoughtful!
I guess with paints is the main way I use them!
just starting with water pencil this was very helpful I am starting with the Derwent Thank you,
Glad it was helpful!
A big thank you. You have helped me lots now i can try what I saw. From London UK. Mr wizard, Trevor
Glad to hear that!
Wow. Very informative. Thank you
Glad it was helpful!
I have found a small white cutting board, which is a bit rough on one side, which I use for depositing pigments to. It was a very cheap 1€ kitchen utensil in a normal supermarket.
Before I had used another similar white cutting board, which had become quite overused, to use as pallette and for mrk making. On one side it was still pretty smooth, on the other side of had lots of cutting marks. The latter I used for textures in either pencil drawings, or for mark making on FIMO and alike.
These small cutting boards are just very cheap knock-off, therefore come with a rough side and a smooth side, and also do not withstand knife cuts.
Thanks! 🎉
No problem!
Great information MW! I have Prismacolor watercolor pencils and inktense pencils. Imho the inktense far surpass the prismas in quality. The inktense pencils go on so smoothly and are very transparent if you want to build up layers of color. Inktense pencils also work great on hot pressed paper. On the textured board, we have dollar tree stores here in the US that carry small textured plastic cutting boards similar to the Caran boards, to use for mixing the pencil pigment into watercolor. Very handy for those on a tight budget. Thanks for all the great info as usual. Blessings to you!
Thanks for the shopping tip!
I have the Intense and the Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer 36 set. I've had them for a couple of years and still haven't used them, other than swatching. Thank you for this.
Excellent
Thank you so much 😀
Very good. You’re absolutely right. Once I used watercolor pencil like a colored pencil. I couldn’t get the marks off, and when water was applied it turned into this dark streaked area.
It can be tricky for sure!
Thank you
You're welcome
Thanks
Thanks so much Susan!
Wow I never knew hot press had a rep for more back runs and cauliflowers - that explains a lot
Yes the bumps help spread pigment and water allowing even drying and preventing puddles.
I looove Derwent Inktense ... sometimes though i would prefer a more muted color. At the end i found i like to have some Derwent Graphitint pencils ready for me in same pencil case as the Inktense.
I want to buy the Graphitint!
The use of white under a color and how to manage cheap low pigmented watercolor pencil 😍 tysm
My pleasure 😊
Enjoyed video found it interesting and informative 💛🎨✍🇨🇦🇺🇲💛
Thank you! Cheers!
Loved the comment about being able to use your “not so great watercolor pencils”
Brilliant, I learned so much! I love my watercolor pencils and will now have to try inktense pencils! All your information was gold!! Thank you for being you
I don't have any content on the crystal colours but my brusho video will show you similar techniques. I haven't used the brands of pencils you mention, there are literally hundreds of brands unfortunately!
Great information here! I hadn't heard of using a blending tool before, or of using the white pencil as a base! Appreciate those tips! I have had 2 ongoing problems with my Albrecht Durer pencils. 1. Sometimes it seems that when laying down 2 colors lightly, I can't get them to blend into 1 color. 2. When I try to activate pencil pigment in a narrow space, like a stem, the paint just pushes out to the outside. I have tried wetting from the outside in and mitigated this, but it is tricky in a very narrow space. (Or, I might color just inside the area and well away from the edges so there is some room for it to push outward. Geez, I hope that made sense....)
Remember they combine well with actual tube or pan paints so that can be a solution too.
Thank you Michele for sharing this information..I have just been trying out some Crafters Companion Spectrum Noir watercolour pencils, I'm really not having much luck with them and was wondering if you have tried them and have an opinion ?
Not so far, sorry, the easiest thing is to by one or two single pencils of a better brand and compare to see if it makes a difference.
Michele, thank you so much for this tutorial. I would like to know what your preferred method of sharpening watercolor pencils is. Thank you.
I just use a helix barrel sharpener, being too lazy to use a knife or sand paper, both of which might save a bit of pencil lead.
Inktense pencils can be really good as an underlayer for a background because they don't mix with subsequent layers. I often use both Inktense and regular watercolour pencils in the same painting.
Very true!
Very beautiful my dear friend and artist ❤❤🎉
I subscribed to your channel
Thanks and welcome
nice video
Hello Michele, I love working with w.pencils ,with my style of painting I tend to stick with hot press paper and Derwent pencils, however interestingly my mum bought me a large set of W.H.Smith's water colour pencils ,OK bless her , I was doing a painting for a friend ran out of the Derwent I usually use,rummaging in my draw I came across the Smith's set and blow me down its great stuff,the pigment is beautiful I was really surprised, so maybe its time to in my case,to put the snob away and try a few cheaper pencils which in this current climet might not be a bad thing ,I hope this helps people out there who wanted to have a go without spending bucket loads of money , thank you I've learnt a lot from your vlogs Michele all the best ☺
Glad to hear that the WHS set is still as good as those I bought in the 1990's, Anni! 💃 I heard from others that they are good, but it's always good to have more folk saying so. I still have about six , but they won't last much longer, and I'm still trying to get matches for them from other brands! Consequently, I try not to use them very often. If ever I go back the the UK, I would head for WHS to buy another set, just for 'playtime'. They aren't a patch on Abrecht Durer, Caran d'Ache Supracolour or Museum (but then, for me, neither are Derwent watercolour pencils, though as Michelle has said, they do have their uses) but the WHS are a truly joyful change for playtime!
*Just one thing to remember* - they are absolutely *not* lightfast, especially after wetting. Dry, some of them will do well, but the lighter colours will fade within weeks. (I have seen recent testing, so I know tis is still the case). Once wet, there are serious issues.
All brands have lightfast issues after wetting, and it will depend on the colour, rather then the brand itself. The top brands actually tell us that their lightfast ratings only apply to the dry product, but obviously, the higher the lightfastness dry, the longer they will retain some colour over time. So... it's important that any you give away / sell need to be hung away from bright sunlight - a room which doesn't get sun is best, or a window-wall where the sun never reaches (watch out for sunlight from windows in the room / hallway opposite, though).
BTW, I learned all this the hard way, as back in the day, and until very recently, there was very little information available on this medium! 🤔I've been very thankful for recent videos actually covering these pencils to confirm that it wasn't 'just me'!!! 😄
And just to end: Adding two drops of vegetable glycerine to about 100mls of water will make a very big difference to the result of activating them. Don't be tempted to add more - it will make the thing look shiny! Also, I use my sable watercolour brushes (but any decent synthetic watercolour brush will work, too, so long as it's soft, but holds its shape well). to active the pigment, as they lift off far less pigment and give a better flow when activating the colours.
Hope something in this is is helpful? 😊
Interestingly people who used to come to my art classes with those big sets of WH Smith watercolours in the wooden box, of course they didn't compare to artist's brands but of the cheaper stuff they weren't terrible!
@@IntheStudiowithMicheleWebber 🥰
@@MrsBarnabas Thank you for the heads up , maybe they will come in useful for Bookmarks or Birthday cards , all the best
@@anni50ful Far too good to languish in a drawer. 😄How about using them in your sketchbook, for 'just playing'? Colour-wise, they'll be fine as they aren't exposed to light, and they _are_ fun to play with - doodles, overlapping shapes, reversing colours (eg making green trees purple, the grass, red, the dog, orange and so on... ) - or just laying out ideas and plans for a drawing - using colour instead of graphite for sketching is fun, too.
And who knows - you may discover a completely new side to your art as you play! I did!!! And I still do! It's fun to ask oneself, "What if I do this, or that, or something else?" in a sketchbook, where the results are kept safe to enjoy or to use later.... 😊
I would love to have a video on how to draw birds. I use the circle technique now, but my birds are always too long and narrow. I want to be able to draw cute little plump songbirds! ;) Any advice on a video would be great. Thank you again for another excellent video.
Great suggestion! I love drawing birds so will definitely think about that one!
How to paint a tube, a cone, a ball, and creating shadow or value to give it dimension
Great idea, thank you!
You can actually have a great deal of fun trying this for yourself!😄A ball? If you don't actually have a ball of any sort, it's not a problem - learning by looking around the house for round objects (tomatoes, apples, oranges for example) is far more interesting and far more useful.
A tube? Igf it must be a tube, save a tube the next time you finish a roll of kitchen paper, or simply use a tin - which is simply a tube with the ends covered - when it's full, and then when it's empty with the lid off to get your internal shadows. Or use a mug, or a glass, or a jam jar...
A cone? Make one! If you don't know how, google - there are videos on how to make a paper or cardboard tube. A cube? Any box will give you the basic shapes you need,
The only other thing you need, apart from your art stuff is a table lamp, or preferably, one of those inexpensive little desk lamps where you can alter the angle of the light to change the highlights and shadows. You can make a light from below by raising your subject off the table with some books, or from above, or from the side by putting the light on a pile of books,. You can alter the angle of light from a table lamp, too, by putting it up higher on the pile of books, for example, or on its side.
Set up your stuff, close the curtains, and using the lamp , draw and shade (by layering, not one heavy layer), and look closely to see the variation in the depth of the shadows, moving the lamp around to make the shadows change. Keep looking at what is in front of you - *not* drawing what you think is there! Look properly, and draw that! Keep looking at what is in front of you - *not* what you think is there - look properly, and draw that! (yes I have deliberately repeated tihs!)
Check what you've done by looking at it in a mirror, right way up and upside down. You'll spot the mistakes easily that way!
Nest, when you've got the hang of this, use watercolour, and use your eyes to see where the shadow are, and how the colours change where the light changes. Keep looking at what is in front of you - *not* what you think is there - look properly, and paint that!
It isn't going to come out right every time, so just keep on practicing till it comes right more often, Even after 27 years as a watercolourist, for me, it still doesn't come right every time - just most of the time - _because every artist has her/his off days when even the basics aren't working for them. And every artist needs to go on and on having fun with practising their art._ And every artist needs to remember that art is *not* about perfection Take a photo if that's what you want, but art is an expression of what we see, how it makes us feel, and each one of us sees it differently, responds to it differently, and *that is what makes art unique to each one of us!!!*
I can assure you that you will learn far more by doing this than watching a hundred art videos!!!! And by doing this now, you are giving yourself the best possible grounding, example and encouragement for going on with it in the future with other shapes, sizes, colour schemes ... whatever. *Art is an on-going , never-ending learning process, experimenting to see "what happens if I do ..." and accepting that we will make mistakes and messes, and that making mistakes and messes is good, because we can have the joy of learning from those mistakes and messes to grow in our art.* 😄💃
I'm new to watercolor pencils. I bought Christmas book for watercolor pencils with patterns. How do I shade in using different colors for intensity and depth.
Working light to dark is always good, but how dark your pencils go may also depend on their quality :-)
❤❤❤❤
My cat is not approving my hobby! When I start painting,she starts a real concert of meow!!!!😂😂
Maybe just singing you a song!
You’re going to tell us how to travel also. Haha. Just kidding Michelle. You’re awesome.
😁
Did you try the prismacolor squarely, what is your opinion?
I haven't tried them yet sorry!
What about a video on using Inktense pencils with water?
It's an idea, I need to buy more, I don't have a full set. A friend gifted me the ones I have when he moved to France.
If you don't have that piece of plastic made by Caran dash,just use a plastic taperware from your kitchen or anything similar. I mean,there is no need,to spend watercolor paper,or use dsandpaper and lose all that pigment! It also does n't work that good,as shown here. Any plastic surface,even plastic cutting board,will turn your pencils,intopient and clean watercolor pient,like the ones in a pan or a tube.
I am sure there are lots of alternatives in the kitchen, just remember to keep them separate from your food prep!
That blue at 16.59, is it Manganese blue?
I don't recall, I have so many but it certainly looks like it!
Pastil pencils would be a good subject please
Great idea!