Water Color Pencils

Someone on the Cricut Circle Message Boards asked about using Water Color Pencils to color and highlight a stamped or printed design. After posting an answer to her questions I thought I should make a sample of what I am talking about and then post it on my blog. (Gotta love the light bulb moments).

First, there are many brands of water color pencils including Crayola. I pulled out just a few of mine made by Derwert. I purchased just a few of these to play with and see if I like the quality before purchasing a whole bunch. While digging around I also found a box of Water Color Crayons I purchased from Close To My Heart. So I pulled them out too.

You will need a non-water soluble ink for stamping your design, think in terms of your inks for Copics...Or consider printing out Digi Stamp images, like I did for this exercise. You will also need a paint brush, water, and a paper towel.

Here is a sample of the 5 basic ways to use your pencils (plus a crayon sample)
1) Just color with them DRY just the way you would color with regular colored pencils.

2) Color with the Dry pencils just as above. Then give the whole picture a wash with a damp brush. Make sure to clean your brush and dab off extra water from the brush before using it on the next color.

3) Color with DRY pencils as you did before, but this time only wash parts of the picture to give different texture to different parts of the picture. I washed her raincoat but left her pants dry.

4) Use any of the ideas above but highlight (darken) areas by first dipping water color pencil in your water container, dab off water, and then sketch where you want to add dark shades.

5) Instead of laying color on to the image via pencil, use a damp brush. Dip your brush in water and then run the tip of the brush along the tip of the pencil, picking up color the same way you would from a pan of paint (think grade school water color boxes).

Then place the color on the image with the brush. This will give you the look of water color painting with a depth of color.

I really like the new "water brushes" that Pentel, Koi and others have come out with. Each brush has a synthetic brush that attaches to a refillable water reservoir. These actually come in several brush sizes/shapes. You have the ability to control the amount of water you are putting on paper by squeezing the barrel.

Lastly, I mentioned the CTMH crayons. I colored my little image with the crayons and then gave it an overall water wash. The colors in my box (Regal Colors)

I really like The look of water color so most of the time I load my brush and paint, but I really like the fact that I can change texture just by coloring with the pencils or wetting the tip to increase intensity. They really give you a lot of variety.