Watercolour Pencil Techniques

Faber-Castell watercolour pencils have rich watersoluble colours which transform into brilliant watercolours when brushed with water. Colours blend beautifully to create unlimited shade options. Try the following techniques with your set of Faber-Castell water colours.

Pointillism

Draw an outline using a lead pencil. Wet the tip of the watercolour pencil with a wet brush. Press it onto paper and repeat with lots of dots to colour in (fill up) your outline. If you use similar tones close to each other, your eyes will mix the colours to form one colour. You can use this technique for lighting effects.

TIPS

* To get lines of bold intense colour, draw on damp paper.

* After you have finished painting with water, use dry pencils to add more details.

* Adding more water will blend the colours smoothly. The more water you add, the less intense the colour will be.

Palette technique

Colour blocks on separate sheets of paper, these will be your palette. Activate colour with a wet brush and then transfer the paint in your brush to a blank sheet of paper. When you transfer it to dry paper the paint will stay still. When you transfer the paint to wet paper it will spread out across the area that is wet.

* Use a heavy weight paper or special watercolour paper, as regular drawing paper will tend to buckle when damped.

* For a gradual colour effect, colour 1/2 of your drawing and using your brush draw the colour down onto the second half.

Trace and brush

Draw an outline using your watercolour pencils and "push" the colour to the internal part of your drawing with a damp brush.

* A barely damp brush gives brighter colour, with pencil lines still showing.

* Be careful not to add excessive amounts of water, as it will make the colours run together and the paper may buckle.

Environment Background

Draw the sea, sea bed and the plants that live underwater using watercolour pencils. Then, blend the colours with a wet brush; wait until it gets dry and your background is ready. All you have to do next is to draw in the details such as bubbles, shadows, highlights and rocks.