Peppers

Last week I was sitting in Connie's kitchen waiting for her kids to get home from school. Sitting on the countertop by the window was a bowl of fruits and vegetables with the sunlight dropping down on them. Grabbing my watercolor pencils, I got to work. I didn't finish in time as the bus soon pulled up.

As I had started with the orange pepper first and worked my way to the left, the whole composition definately leans to the left. I think it looks better this way than had I done it more level. I also like the brightness of the colors but I need to work on generating deeper contrasts with the watercolor pencils. What you think is dark enough really fades once you bring on the water.

Bird and Berries

I really do enjoy working with my watercolor pencils. Just watching the color blossom as the brush goes on is a thrill for me.

More flowers

Here are some flowers I've been drawing with the watercolor pencils during my lunch time. I had the idea to make the background flowers lower in the distance to make it seem like you were looking up at the iris.

The scanner is still making the colors too light, I need to find the right settings to save to a profile for these types of images.

Sea Turtle

Just a quick sea turtle drawing for Connie. I like how the front fins turned out.

Drawn with watercolor pencils on 200lb watercolor paper.

Time for Fruit

I've been really enjoying my watercolor pencils. I need to work on overlaying and layering the colors to get smoother tones. Here's another still life!

Lots of Leaves

I've finally finished my watercolor pencil drawing. I really do like how these pencils handle and I'll probably need to order some more online.

Enjoy!

More thoughts on Watercolor pencils

After trying out the new Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils I'm finding that I like them a LOT. The color goes on smoother and dissolves more completely than their student-grade sibling Aquarelles. I'll post later a photo of a test I did between several of the matching colors between the two sets. You can see the difference on how the pencils dissolve.

I've learned that if you are serious (or even semi-serious) about a new medium, it's worth it to buy the 'Artist's Grade' version of that medium. It's better to spend your money on a few excellent quality paints/pencils/whatever than to buy a bunch of something that you'll regret purchasing once you try the good stuff.

Now would anyone like a bunch of Aquarelles?

Test driving the Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils

One of my first art projects when I started getting back in to things was to draw portraits of our kids as an anniversary gift for my wife. I bought a bunch of Faber-Castell Aquarelle watercolor pencils for this and they worked fairly well. Watercolor pencils are like colored pencils except that instead of colored graphite, you get actual watercolor paint in the pencil. You draw like you would normally and by adding a wash of water you get a beautiful watercolor effect.

I love working in watercolor and this is an easy way to do it. The pencils that I had did have some frustrating qualities. They were a bit too hard and would leave gouges in my paper. They also didn't dissolve completely when you ran your wet brush over the pencil marks. While browsing through the art supply stores online I came across the high-end version of the pencils I had.

I had mentioned to Connie that I was looking at these Albrecht Durer pencils and soon she said, "Surprise! They're on their way." I was soon to be the proud owner of a set of twelve off of eBay.

When I got them I knew the first thing to do was to make up a color chart as it's impossible (or at least really hard for me) to remember what color pencil does what exact color.


From here I started to draw. Since this was the Nature set of pencils I thought an autumn leaf pile was a good place to start. Here's the work in progress.


And I'll post the finished version soon.