Pencilvember is On!

 

My initial Pencilvember palette (all Derwent except those marked with P, which are Prismacolors)

Pencilvember is well under way, and you’ve already seen Day 1 from the Dia De Muertos post. Before I get too much further into the month, I wanted to show the palette I’m beginning with (mostly Derwent Drawing with a couple of Prismacolors). I’m sure I’ll change it out as the foliage changes, and as I learn more about how these colors are working. The goal for this month, however, will likely remain consistent: Practice using only non-soluble colored pencils (on location when possible).

11/1/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood
(This sketch is only about 4" square. I'm hoping that keeping sketches small
will compensate for dry colored pencils' time-consuming nature.)

For context: As mentioned in my initial planning post back in September, every now and then I get the urge to try using dry colored pencils, but my practice usually doesn’t last long. For many years now, I’ve relied on water-soluble colored pencils to do most of the heavy lifting on location. Activating pigments with water is such an efficient and effective way to intensify both values and hues that sometimes it feels like cheating.

I’ve practiced using dry colored pencils quite a bit with all the pet portraits I’ve made in the studio the past several years. That’s what showed me the inherent beauty of all dry pencils. No other medium has quite the same ability to convey subtle modulations of texture and value. I adore that look!

Using them in the field, though, is a whole different game. Dry colored pencils are a time-consuming medium. I already miss the speed and efficiency of water-soluble pencils, but I don’t want to get frustrated. Keeping sketches small should help.

My whole InkTober month showed me that using markers is exactly the opposite of pencils, and I missed them. Now I have a whole month to take on a relatively unexplored approach.

11/2/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood; Derwent Drawing pencil
(The challenge with drawing fog, which I think is made for pencil, is to avoid looking like I've achieved wimpy values and instead show that I intended them.)