Wet-on-Dry with Watercolor Pencils

Wet pencil tip applied to dry paper

While reading Quick & Clever Watercolor Pencils, I noticed how often Evans dabs pigment from his pencil tips with a wet brush and then uses those same pencils in a conventional manner to draw with immediately afterwards while still wet. When I’m sketching on location, I’ve done this only occasionally, but wet Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle pencil tips become so soft and intense that I have to take care to be gentle with the points and also go easy on how much I apply or the hue could get too intense (as happened on one of the dry-on-wet apples shown yesterday).

Thinking about all of that made me wonder . . . since saturating the pencil tips both softens them and makes them apply more intense color, what if I did that with harder pencils, even if I haven’t “licked” the pigment off with a brush first? In other words, what if I wet the points before use as a deliberate drawing technique?

First I tested several harder watercolor pencils to see how they would feel when used wet. In the scribble tests below, the first line was drawn dry. Then I dipped the pencil point into a cup of water (trying not to submerge past the edge of the wood), waited a few seconds for the water to be absorbed a bit, and then scribbled the second line. The last test was of a Cd’A Museum Aquarelle, which is already so soft that it doesn’t need to be softened this way, but I wanted to see the change in the line quality.

 

Tests made in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

In each case, the pencil point softened significantly, but I was disappointed that the line quality did not change dramatically. Still, I like the slightly fuzzier line quality that the soft pencils produce for times when I want that effect. As expected, the more pigment the pencil contains, the softer the point becomes when saturated, and the more intense the hue.

1/1/20 Caran d'Ache Bicolors and Uni Pin brush pen
 in Field Notes Signature notebook

Next I tried this technique in the field. In field tests, I wet the points with a waterbrush instead of dipping them, since I don’t carry a water container. The first trial sketch was a brick house in my neighborhood (left). After making the rough drawing with dry Caran d’Ache Bicolor pencils in my minimal kit, I wet the brick-reddish pencil point liberally and used it to color the front of the house. Color application was very uneven as the pencil tip became drier and drier. It’s not an effective technique if I want an even application of color on a flat surface like this house front, and it’s much easier to simply apply dry pencil in a conventional manner and activate with water afterwards.

I knew the wet-on-dry application would be more effective with organic subject matter, so the next time I went on a walk/sketch walk, I chose one of several palm trees near Green Lake. (Local trivia: These palm trees are at the intersection of East Green Lake Drive North, West Green Lake Drive North, and Green Lake Drive North! Glad I don’t live there . . . imagine the address confusion!) I sketched most of the palm with dry pencils as usual. To shade the right side of the trunk and give it texture, I then wet the tip of the brown pencil. I like this application a lot; the wet pencil makes nice rough, irregular marks that are just right for a palm trunk. I’m happy that the Evans book reminded me of this technique, which I plan to use more often.

 

1/3/20 Cd'A Bicolor and ArtGraf pencils in Field Notes Signature

If you try this technique, please be aware that routinely saturating the woodcasing around the pencil core may damage the wood. Avoid wetting the wood as much as possible. I treat wet pencils like wet brushes and allow them to dry lying on a flat surface so moisture will not wick further into the wood (similarly, brushes can be damaged if water routinely wicks into the ferrule). Also, never try to sharpen a wet pencil – the softened lead is certain to crumble inside your sharpener. Evans recommends knife-sharpening all colored pencils.

One more thing to think about and plan with this technique is any detailed drawing you may want to do with a particular color. Whatever sharp, firm point you may have had on the pencil will be unusable once it gets wet, so use the point as needed while it’s dry.

Dry-on-Wet with Watercolor Pencils

Dry pencil applied to a wet surface

In my review of Charles Evans’ book, Quick & Clever Watercolor Pencils, I mentioned that I was reminded of some techniques that I don’t use often and was inspired to try again. One is dry-on-wet, which looks rich and organic when everything goes well, but – as with anything that involves “on wet” – it’s unpredictable. While the paper is still wet from a previous water activation of pencil pigment or from a fresh spread of clean water, you draw with a dry watercolor pencil onto the wet area. The wet-on-wet technique with traditional watercolor paints is tricky enough, but an additional complication with pencils is that the point is firm, so it can damage a wet paper surface more easily than a soft brush can. I find it less damaging to use the side of the pencil lead rather than the point.

1/1/20 Trial 1: Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle (red 60, yellow 240,
blue 660) in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

 

1/1/20 Trial 2: Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle (red 60, yellow 240,
blue 660) in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

Another challenge is that the paper must be wet enough for the newly applied dry pigment to settle and blend with the previous color but not too wet that the new pigment floats away. If the paper dries too much, the pencil will skid unpleasantly on the damp surface, leaving only a faint trace of pigment, and the point is more likely to damage the paper. It’s a narrow window between wet enough and too dry. This technique requires a high-quality pencil containing lots of pigment. (It’s actually a good test of pigment content; see the comparison chart I made a few years ago, including more info about various techniques.)

Given all these challenges, I tend to use dry-on-wet only when sketching trees or other foliage, where unpredictable results have a better chance of being happy accidents (in the Bob Ross sense). I haven’t used it much at all on still lives, so I gave it a shot on my oddly shaped Cosmic Crisp (which also gave me more opportunities to try some primary triads). In all cases in this post, I used Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelles so that I could count on high pigment content.

In my first try (top), the blue I chose (which looked so innocuous in the test swatch) turned out to be disastrously dark for the shaded side of the apple when I applied the rich pigment too heavily. I immediately tried again (above) using the same triad, but I applied the blue with a lighter hand. A little better, but the paper had started to dry by the time I applied the red, so more of the rough pencil strokes are apparent.

1/2/20 Trial 3: Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle (red 560, yellow 10,
blue 162) in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

Using a different triad, I got slightly better results on my third try (at right), though the paper reflection under the apple turned muddy. I thought this technique would be faster than my usual dry-on-dry-then-wet approach, and it was – until I had to wait for the paper to dry completely before I could apply more dry pigment.

I’m not happy with any of these tries, and I’d need a lot more practice with this painterly technique to get better results. As with other painterly approaches I’ve taken, I miss being able to render the form with the shape of the pencil stroke. With pencil “paint,” I have to rely more on effective shading to shape the apple, and I have only about a minute to do it while the paper is still wet. I’m a fast sketcher, but not that fast!

Cosmic Crisp

1/2/20 Cosmic Crisp apple

I’m not sure how far outside of Washington state the new Cosmic Crisp apple has been distributed yet, but it is a huge hit in these parts. More than 20 years in the making, this apple variety has been bred for its “ability to survive in all of Washington state’s microclimates, its taste and texture, and how long it would store without decaying.” At first I poo-pooed the news as just another type of hyped-up, over-promoted, fancy, expensive produce. But since its price is about the same as Honeycrisp, our apple standby, we decided to try it. Somehow both sweeter and more tart than a Honeycrisp (I know that sounds contradictory, but that’s how I perceive it), the Cosmic Crisp has a startlingly intense flavor. I’m sold!

We’ve bought them several times now, including a recent organic batch from Whole Foods. Less shiny (unwaxed) compared to conventionally grown Cosmic Crisps, they are also not perfectly round, but they still taste the same. Most notably, I found one embellished with a “star”! I didn’t notice it the first time I bought them, but then a friend mentioned that she saw this cosmic-like mark on her apples. The next time I shopped, I took a more careful look . . . and there it was! I’m ambivalent about such overly designed produce, but I certainly couldn’t resist sketching it.

Star-struck or over-designed?

Book Review: Quick & Clever Watercolor Pencils

Quick & Clever Watercolor Pencils by Charles Evans

During the cold, soggy months, I use the indoor time to scan book descriptions and page samples on Amazon and our public library online catalog, looking for potentially interesting art technique books. I learned long ago that probably 98 percent of books on colored pencil techniques focus on the time-intensive studio process I learned in my colored pencil class at Gage a few years ago involving layer after carefully applied layer of pigment. From that class and the watercolor pencil class that followed, I learned so much about drawing in general and the medium in particular that it was certainly worth understanding and practicing the process, but I also know it’s not the kind of work I want to do. So I continue to look for books that might offer an approach closer to my own: working on location with a method that enables me to finish a sketch right there (instead of many hours back at home). I was therefore delighted to come across Quick & Clever Watercolor Pencils, by Charles Evans, which sounded from the description to be close to my desired approach.

Evans is an urban sketcher at heart.

A traditional studio and plein air painter, Evans uses water-soluble colored pencils in a sketchbook while in the field. He encourages readers to use this medium on location for two purposes: to get their feet wet with plein air work without the fuss and heavy equipment of traditional plein air painting; and to make field studies that can then be taken back to the studio to develop into large-scale paintings. Discouraging working from photos, he believes that making a sketch on location “will capture really special, personal moments with much more feeling than a quick snap on the camera.” I appreciate that Evans is an urban sketcher at heart!

After the usual brief introduction to materials and tools, he demonstrates various wet and dry pencil techniques. (The techniques were not new to me, so I didn’t learn much there, but I was reminded of some techniques I rarely use, and I’m now inspired to try them again.) The bulk of the book is made of 17 lessons, each based on a sample sketch with step-by-step photos of how he completed the sample. Most examples are natural landscapes (some urban), and almost all are from life.

The author's favorite technique: using a wet brush to pick up pigment from
the pencil tips.

Although I was excited that the book comes as close as any I’ve seen to my own approach to urban sketching with watercolor pencils, I was disappointed that every lesson relies strongly on one technique: “taking the paint off the pencil with the brush” and applying it to the paper with the brush (what I refer to as the “licking” technique).

Some lesson examples were made entirely by this method, which is exactly the way one would use traditional watercolor pan paints – except it’s more difficult with pencils. As a traditional watercolor painter, the author is probably very comfortable working in this manner, whether the paint comes in pans or in pencils. While I have nothing against the technique, I feel that if I’m going to do the work of completing entire sketches by taking pigment off of tiny pencil points, why not just use actual watercolor paints, which would be much easier to get onto the brush? My complaint is that he emphasizes using watercolor pencils as a substitute for watercolor paints instead of taking greater advantage of the unique properties of watercolor pencils. In all fairness, he does mix a variety of techniques within each sketch, but the overall effect is more painterly rather than drawing. (Obviously, my preference is to view and use colored pencils as a drawing medium rather than a painting medium.)

Despite my complaint, readers who are interested in learning to use this “licking” method would find the book informative. The lessons are broken down into manageable steps, and photos are plentiful. I’m thrilled that a book that is close to my own approach (at least in philosophy if not methods) is even on the market. It gives me hope that other such books may follow (even if I’m the one who has to write them someday!).

As mentioned earlier, the book rekindled my interest in techniques I had forgotten about or rarely use. I’m going to explore some soon; stay tuned.

Yellow Gran Torino

12/29/19 Ford Gran Torino, Maple Leaf neighborhood

After days and days of temperatures in the 30s and low 40s, the sun came out one afternoon, and the mercury shot all the way up to 50! Although at least one guy strolled around Maple Leaf Park in a T-shirt, I wasn’t quite that hardy. I did, however, find a sun-lit spot on the sidewalk to sketch this Clint Eastwood-style, ‘70s vintage Gran Torino parked on someone’s lawn. Behind it was a vintage pickup that would also have been fun to sketch, but I’ll save it for another balmy day.

Tiny Shadows

12/28/19

In a couple of weeks I’m going to start a class at Gage Academy on botanical drawing. Plants are not a primary drawing interest of mine (whenever we sketch at Swansons Nursery, I tend to sketch everything but the plants). But I’ve taken enough classes now to know that focused drawing practice of any subject matter is informative for and can be applied to any other subject matter. A study of rendering volume, light logic, values, perspective – the principles are all the same, whether the subject is human bodies, cars, buildings, excavators or pears.

An important aspect of the class I signed up for is that we are using real (indoor) plants to draw from – not photos. I understand the value of learning from photos, and much of the year around here, drawing landscapes from life is nearly impossible. But I know I learn best by practicing from life. I’m looking forward to it, especially during all the cold, gray days ahead.

I thought I’d start getting my head in gear by sketching pinecones. As I studied the light on each of those “petals” (maybe the class will help me to become more articulate and knowledgeable about plant terms . . . I know they aren’t called petals on a pinecone!), I realized that the light logic is exactly the same as it is on all the pears and apples I routinely sketch – it’s just much more complex. And the shadows are tinier.

12/31/19

Maple Leaf Ace Hardware

12/27/19 Maple Leaf Ace Hardware at 90th and Roosevelt

The Maple Leaf Ace Hardware store has been owned and operated by the same family since 1973. Greg spends a lot of time there when he’s working on a project. It’s right next door to Reckless Video, which is also owned by the Stephenson family (and which I sketched last spring). Always involved in community events (like the summer ice cream feed with free ice cream bars donated by the Stephensons and the Halloween parade), the two businesses and the family are the cornerstone of the Maple Leaf neighborhood.

After taking my walk/sketch route as far north as the Northgate post office, I came back south on Roosevelt, which has several coffee shops where I could have stopped to claim my reward sketch. Although it was only 40 degrees, I was feeling nicely warmed up after 45 minutes of walking. Instead of stopping for coffee, I picked up our weekend movies at Reckless and then stood on its porch to sketch the hardware store. (I regretted it 20 minutes later when I finished the sketch – my hands were numb and my teeth were chattering.) This may be my most iconic Maple Leaf neighborhood sketch: I got the utility tower, the blue water tower and Ace Hardware all in one composition.