Playing with Watercolor Pencils and Water

A guest blog by Dragon Dave’s wife

As Dragon Dave has mentioned in some of his recent blogs, we have taken up sketching (again).  Somehow going places inspires me to take out my sketchpad and pencils.   So when we went on a weekend get-away to Big Bear Lake, the sketching supplies went with us.

One evening, inspired by a scene on the local tourist magazine, I sat down with my watercolor pencils and sketchpad to see if I could recreate it.  I used a set of Caran D’Ache Prismalo watercolor pencils (a gift from my loving aunts), and set to work. Below is the picture that inspired me, and the results of that evening.

Sometimes being creative leads me to more creative thoughts.  I had been using my watercolor pencils as just color pencils, with only a quick dab at adding water to them, so I began thinking about using my watercolor pencils with brushes and water. What kind of results would I get?  A trip to the local craft store provided me with water-brushes.  These are brushes you fill with water and gently squeeze to release the water into the brush.  

As the paper in my sketchpad does not react well to water (it is only a 65 lbs. bond), I decided to try drawing on some watercolor paper (140 lbs. bond). Note: the higher the bond of paper, the less warping of the paper when water is applied.   So what should I draw?  I decided to redo the scene from Big Bear Magazine to see what difference water would make to the picture.  On a free evening I re-sketched the scene.

Drawing on Watercolor Paper

Then I used the water-brush to dissolve and blend the pencil drawing into a watercolor painting.

 

Drawing after water has been applied.

I found it interesting how the water brought out the intensity of the pencil colors and made them even more vibrant.  I will definitely work on making more watercolor paintings using my watercolor pencils.

Original Drawing & Watercolor Painting

I hope you enjoyed seeing the results of my little experiment, and that it inspires you to a creative effort of your own.

Dragon Dave’s Wife