Tag: Irojiten

A few thoughts about pencils, blending and burnishing

Ruby Charm Colors September 24, 2020

Hi all, and happy Thursday! I thought I would share some thoughts I had while responding to a friend through Etsy about colored pencils recently. Because who doesn’t like a few tips when it comes to working with colored pencils? Keep in mind that I am not an expert by any stretch, but these are a few tools and techniques that work well for me. And to illustrate my thoughts, I colored my Rocky Raccoon design (available on Etsy).

My friend is one of those lucky owners of the Holbein colored pencils. I have a few and it’s so tempting to order the complete set, however I desperately need new eye glasses so the Holbeins will have to wait. She reached out to me because she wanted to learn more about the Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils. In short, I love them! They are highly pigmented and opaque, and lay down on most types of paper very nicely.

Working on more toothy paper can make ‘white speckles’ appear in your coloring. Basically, it’s simply your pencil skipping over the little divots in the paper while sticking to the more raised bumps with textured paper. You can feel a paper’s texture with your fingers, and if you look at it with a magnifying lens, you can see all the little peaks and valleys of the paper’s fibers. You’ll see more of them in highly textured watercolor paper, and less in more smooth papers like certain Bristols and card stocks. A Prismacolor colorless blender pencil can help further blend your colors and get rid of those white spots that appear on more textured papers, and I also do a lot of burnishing with the Caran d’Ache Blender Bright stick (but more on that shortly).

Only the raccoon face and the right side of the limb is blended here (with the Prismacolor blender and a Blender Bright stick). You can see the white speckles from the tooth in the paper in some of the darker areas I colored, especially the tail and feet.

I have found that the Luminance pencils, combined with the Derwent Lightfas t and the Derwent Drawing pencils, is a perfect combo. They work so nicely together, and the color range is gorgeous. They are all fairly earthy colors (which I tend to gravitate toward) and some brighter colors, too. These pencils are what I would call soft and highly responsive, though you can get a nice point on them for tighter areas and details. I typically use them for my base layers, then use the Tombow Irojiten pencils (which are quite hard and can be sharpened to a really sharp point) to add little details, extra color, and even burnish.

The few Holbeins I do have (thanks to another friend who sent me a lovely set of 12 pastels) work well with my Polychromos pencils (another perfect combo in my humble opinion) and I use the Irojitens with them for fine details and burnishing, too.

It’s taken me awhile to refine my approach to coloring and mixing pencils brands, but I think I have it down pretty well now for my tastes and coloring habits. Basically, I either use my Luminance, Lightfast and Drawing pencils together, or I use my Polychromos and Holbeins together. Do I prefer one grouping over the other? Difficult to say. I think the group I choose depends on my mood, though when working on black paper, I do prefer the Luminance, Lightfast and Drawing grouping because they are a bit softer and color over black paper more readily. And of course I still mix in other pencil brands as well including my tried and true Prismacolors and Pablos.

I know I have mentioned this before in other posts, but I find that smooth card stock sometimes needs a layer of watercolor pencils to give me a little extra tooth. I pick a few colors that will work well for my base layer, use a water brush to blend, let it dry thoroughly, then work with my colored pencils on top of the dried watercolor pencils. My favorites are the Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer and the Caran d’Ache Museums, though I love working with the Caran d’Ache Neocolor I Is, too. Lots of steps for coloring a design, I know, but I truly enjoy the process and am always pushing myself for better results.

Buying a set of the the Luminance pencils or the Derwent Lightfast pencils can be a bit daunting (for the old wallet) so if you think you would like to try any of these, order a few of your favorite (or most used) colors from Blick or Cult Pens first to see if you really like them before investing in the whole set. There are also a few places that carry single Holbein pencils, but buyer beware. I had emailed Holbein back in May with a few questions about their colors, color names, and where to find individual pencils and they responded with the following:

"The Holbein Colored Pencils are not available in North America yet as they currently present serious health concerns. A few of the colors can cause severe Chronic and Acute issues. They have been sold illegally by off shore retailers with no regard for Health labeling. The US and Canada have very strict regulations and these have been blatantly disregarded. We have advised those who write to return the pencils to the retailer who sold the pencils to them ....

The good news ... We will be launching the North American edition of the pencils by the end of the year. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the launch. You will be able to find them at all large US retailers in the months to come. For the record, your pastel set does not contain any of the invasive colors ... Rest easy!

So there you have it – Holbeins are coming to America! Not sure how they will compare to the pencils made in Japan, or if they will be available as singles, but I am very excited to find out and am saving my nickles.

UPDATE! Blick now carries the official Holbein pencils here in the USA!

As with any pencil brand, it takes time to get used to how it behaves on paper. Some pencils will feel natural and easy to use right away, while others require more time to adjust–and this is different for everyone. If you get new pencils and are not sure if you like them right away, play with them a while! It took me months to get a real feel for the Polychromos pencils after using only Prismacolors for years, and I had a similar experience with the Luminance. It took time, trial and error to really understand how to use them.

My three must haves? The Caran d’Ache Blender Bright stick, the Prismacolor Colorless Blender pencil, and the Caran d’Ache Buff Titanium pencil.

Luminance Buff Titanium, Blender Bright and Prismacolor Colourless Blender

I use the Buff Titanium to blend and soften my colors, the Prismacolor Blender to simply blend, and the Blender Bright to do a final burnish of my work. All three pencils work differently and will give you different results, though they can be hard to distinguish at first.

Raccoon drawn and colored by S. Carlson (Ruby Charm Colors) © 2020

To illustrate my thoughts on these blenders, here is a sneak peek at a raccoon I recently drew and colored. This little guy will be in the 2021 Creative Companion (and is now on Etsy as a downloadable PDF for coloring), but I used all three types of blenders to achieve the results I wanted.

First, I started with Luminance, Drawing and Lightfast pencils for my layers, then Irojiten pencils to draw in the additional background details (the little cloud shapes in the top half, the scribbles on the tree bark, and the green vines for the bottom half).

Once I had all my colors down, I used the Prismacolor Blender pencil to fine-tune areas that needed blending. This pencil “squishes” or rubs the pigments together on the paper without creating a sheen. In fact, it’s sort of like using super-super-fine sandpaper and retains a matte appearance. Don’t overdo it, though–blend with this pencil too forcefully and you can lose some of the pigment on your paper or rip a hole in it.

For the sun and the clouds, I used the Buff Titanium pencil (which is not technically a blender but I like to use it as such) because it has a faint yellowish cast (almost antique) and it really softens my colors.

For everything else, I used the Caran d’Ache Blender Bright which is a grayish, solid stick of high quality wax. It can be sharpened with any old pencil sharpener or blade so you have a fine point, or you can turn it sideways and use one of the flat sides to burnish large areas since there is no casing around the stick. One of the big reasons I love the Blender Bright is because in addition to intensifying my colors, it also creates a bit of a sheen and protects my art from UV light and water. It’s not necessary for a lot of colorings done just for fun, but since I sell some of my original colored pencil artworks, I want to be sure those pieces won’t fade.

Burnishing with the Blender Bright brings up the saturation level of the colors and essentially ‘locks them in’ under a smooth layer of wax. This is ideal for me because I use a lot of gel pens for embellishments. Because of that nice, impermeable burnished surface, the gel pens stay on top of the art and don’t soak into the paper so I get cleaner, sharper dots, lines and squiggles. This also means it takes a little longer for the gel to dry (because it essentially floats on the surface), but if you have a heat gun, just run it over your work on low for a minute and that usually does the trick. Just don’t let the heat get too close to your work or you can burn it. And that can be heart-breaking.

Don’t burnish anything until you have all your colors down–once burnished, it’s nearly impossible to add any more pencil layers because burnishing literally smashes all the tooth of your paper–compresses it down to a slick, flat surface. That’s why the colors look more saturated. Once burnished, the only thing I can add is gel pens, acrylic paint and Pitt pen (or other fine, opaque pens).

If you are anxious to burnish certain areas of your coloring (I get ahead of myself all to often), be especially careful when burnishing colors next to empty spaces that you plan to color (or add more color to). Especially with the Blender Bright because it lays down a layer of wax that is nearly impossible to color over. In theory, you could use a workable fixative spray over the burnished areas to add more pencil layers, but I have not tried that myself. I rarely use sprays since my studio is very small and am not too keen on asphyxiating myself.

When you have a little time, grab some scrap paper and give these techniques a try to get a feel for how they will work for you. I messed up a lot at first, but once I realized the steps (basic pencil base layers first, blending, finer details, burnishing, then gels if you like) I started to have so much fun and started to see much better results in my coloring. Burnishing is not for everyone (it is especially hard on your hands) but it can be very helpful to use a blender.

Hope this helps a bit, and as always, happy coloring! I am off to watch my daughter play some volleyball!

Lion, Hare & Moon: Lesson Learned

Ruby Charm Colors May 16, 2018

My latest illustration for coloring, the Lion, Hare & Moon, was a learning lesson once I starting filling it with color, so I thought it might be useful to share my mistakes with those of you who use (or want to try) watercolor pencils in conjunction with regular colored pencils.

The illustration itself was inspired by wondering about our perceptions of strength and weakness, the fierce and the tame. And do we always know which is which?

After the illustration was complete (drawn on my iPadPro using the Procreate app and an Apple pencil) I printed it on Georgia-Pacific “Image Plus” 110 card stock and pulled out my pencils. I started with the moon using a Derwent Turquoise Blue watercolor pencil to lay down a base layer. I often do this for larger spaces and use Pentel and Sakura Koi water brushes to blend the watercolor pencils. So far so good.

I wasn’t thinking ahead about doing a blog post about this piece until I was nearly done, but I usually try to snap a few pics of my work in progress. The lighting is a little off in the pic above (my apologies) but you can see how pale the first layer is on the moon.

I also used watercolor pencil for a base layer on the lion (Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer, Bistre), then once it dried, started working it over with colored pencils (mostly Polychromos Bistre , Burnt Ochre and Sepia, plus Prismacolor Premier Black, Light Umber, and Pumpkin Orange, Sienna Brown, then Polychromos Dark Chrome and Naples Yellow.

Once the basic colors were down in a few light layers, I used Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils (Brown Ochre and Yellow Ochre) to blend in the body. For the mane, I used one of my favorite pencils, a Derwent Studio (Rexel Cumberland) Burnt Carmine, which has deep wine undertones. I also used a Luminance Buff Titanium pencil to work in highlights under the eyes and cheeks. I then used a Crimson Irojiten pencil (which I order individually as needed through Blick) to work in the reds I put down in the mane and the sun ray lines with Prismacolor Tuscan Red and the Derwent Burnt Carmine (see below). I probably grabbed a few other similar colors during this process as well.

The colored pencils went down quite smoothly over the Faber-Castell Bistre watercolor once it dried. Per usual, it gave my colored pencils a nice “tooth” to grab onto.

Next: the grass. No watercolor pencils, but a variety of Prismacolor (Kelp, Prussian, Artichoke, Moss and Olive), Luminance (Moss, Olive Yellow and Olive Brown 50%) and Polychromos (Permanent Green Olive and Chromium Green Opaque) were used in multiple layers and then I burnished the colors using Irojitens (Cactus, Lettuce, Verdi and Forest).

Because the Irojitens are harder than other pencils, they work well for burnishing since they push the pigments around and, depending on how hard you press, deeper into the fiber of the paper. This helps to get rid of the small white dots that can appear in the coloring.

I try to work in small circle to avoid streaks, but sometimes my fingers get cramped and I get anxious and more concerned about finishing an area than making sure my colors are smooth. I am sure this happens to a lot of colorists. Sometimes time is running out and you just want to finish. Or move on to the next thing.

I also get a little sloppy (especially with watercolor layers) but that’s okay. I am constantly going back to areas that need a little more work and yep, sometimes I need a break from the larger, more monotonous parts of a page (like when I was coloring the grass).

Here’s when one of the biggest issues came in with this piece. Once I started working on the moon with regular colored pencils, I noticed that the turquoise Derwent watercolor pencil started flaking off in spots. It was most noticeable with the darker blues. The painted pigment would come up and leave small white flecks that were really difficult to color over, blend back in, and burnish.

My fix? I used small dabs of watercolor to help fill in the white spots in the dark areas, and I also realized that once I added my gel pen embellishments at the very end, the white flecks probably wouldn’t stand out as much. And I figured small dabs of ink would work too, so I tried not to panic and overwork those darker areas. With all of the pressure I had already used, I didn’t want to risk damaging the paper.

I used Titanium Buff again (Luminance) to work in the highlighted areas and blend my lighter blues and greens together. The flaking was not as noticeable with the lighter colors, thankfully.

The lesson here is that it really does pay to test out your ideas and tools before working on a final piece–especially if you are using a brand or color combo you haven’t tried before.

In this case, I used my Derwent Watercolour which is a fairly old pencil (15 years?) and got unexpected results. It could be the age of the pencil, or it could be the pigment in this particular pencil that doesn’t like being colored over with regular colored pencils. Hard to say. I have used lots of Derwents and have not noticed this issue until now. I have an even older collection of Staedtler Aquarelle pencils that all seem to behave beautifully.

But again, the point it … unless you are certain you’ll get the results you want with whichever tools you are using (paper included), try it out first on a scrap page of the same paper. There have been many times a design colored beautifully on one type of paper, but then total crud on another.

As I was working on the moon, I decided to try something a little new (for me, at least). I didn’t want the the rays coming off the moon to be a solid color, or just use a gradient, so I grabbed an Indigo Irojiten and drew a paisley-like pattern in that space after very lightly coloring a layer of Prismacolor Black and Indigo closest to the edge of the moon.

I then used Holbein Ice Green (aren’t they just the most dreamy pencils!?!) to add small dabs of color to the shapes I drew. I didn’t take my time drawing the paisley shapes or coloring them in perfectly because I thought that if everything went as planned, it really wouldn’t matter….

Here’s where the fun part comes in–blending these simple little lines and shapes with the Luminance Buff Titanium pencil. I colored with lots of small, fairly hard, circular strokes to push the color around and soften up the paisley lines and shapes. I also followed up with Irojiten Eggshell and Cascade (a light aqua hue) for more blending and burnishing after this pic was taken to smooth things out even more. The overall effect looks like fabric or even batik in spots.

My wheels are turning and I’d like to experiment with this technique even more in the future.

Here’s where we are at so far (below and about 6 or 7 hours into it). I also added some rainbow colors to the rays, and somewhere along the way I colored in the hare. I forgot to mention that little guy! Same pencil brands, same technique using the Irojitens to burnish.

Here I go again saving the background for last! A few colorists on Facebook and Instagram have been chatting about this dilemma, and I really don’t know what the answer is. Sometimes I can picture the color scheme of the entire piece in my mind when I start–other times I just grab pencils and start working on a focal point.

I considered a black background for the contrast it would provide, but then thought that would be too harsh and might even obscure the lion’s mane and tips of the grass if it was too dark. So I settled on a combination of Black, Indigo and Grey. The Prismacolor Black was used in the U-shapes closest to the moon. Just a few light layers but progressively darker as I worked toward the center…

Then I added a few layers of Prismacolor Indigo (again layering progressively deeper toward the center and blending into the Black).

The layers started looking a little streaky as my fingers were cramping up again and I just wanted to get all of the blue filled. I am sure many of you can relate!

To avoid streaks, it does help to keep turning your paper so that you are not always coloring in the same direction. For this piece, though, I planned to burnish these areas and go back over them a few times so I didn’t worry about the streaks too much.

And that’s what I did–first with the Irojiten Indigo pencil pushing the Black and Indigo Prismacolor layers around and blending them together …

… and then with Irojiten Taupe. I also went over all the sky areas yet again with Pigeon Grey, which is a little lighter than Taupe, toward the outside areas.

Using Irojiten shades close to the original layers of colored pencil you put down can provide rich saturation levels and also slightly change the tint of your original layers depending on what you choose.

The Pigeon Grey gives the Indigo a nice smokey look, for example, while using Eggshell will inject a slight yellow tint into your original colors. Don’t be afraid to experiment with this if you decide to use the Irojitens the way I do. And remember that I am not a colored pencil expert–I am still learning as I go and still making mistakes!

Here is a quick video of blending and burnishing with the grey Irojiten over part of the sky. You can see how it really adds depth to the existing light layer of Indigo:

Once I finished the sky, I was left with the mostly blank white circle inside the moon shape. Another dilemma. I settled on trying out the soft paisley-effect again, but with a few slightly different colors including Faber-Castell Permanent Green Olive. I kept the tip of my Luminance Buff Titanium pencil fairly blunt, but again, used lots and lots of circular blending as you can see in the video below:

I did a few touch-ups in spots, but once all the colored pencil work was complete, I added a bunch of dots using Sakura Souffle gel pens (and a darker Turquoise Moolight pen). It can be tricky to work with these pens because they take a few minutes to dry and can smudge easily until then, so I usually work on a small few sections at a time and let it dry under my hot little Halogen desk lamp before moving on.

And here you go … the finished piece! Except that I just realized I never colored the stars … hmmm. For another day! I think they should be dark Indigo, yes?

If you would like to try this design on your own, I offer a downloadable, printable PDF through the RubyCharmColors Etsy shop as well as a bunch of other downloadable single and “bundle and save” designs, and have copies of the Artist’s Edition of my spiral-bound book if you don’t have access to a printer.

Feel free to share your questions or comments about this post and give me a follow (if you don’t already) and find some of my posts helpful.

As always, happy coloring!

Little Bird Illustration by Ruby Charm Colors ((c) by Susan Carlson, 2017)

black paper + black ink = color pop

Ruby Charm Colors January 7, 2018

“How did you get those colors to pop like that?” Ive been asked that question countless times, and I can say in all honesty that it’s not so much my skills as an artist, but my willingness to experiment with different colors and pencil brands.

While putting my first coloring book together this past July, I purchased a few packages of tinted card stock from Michaels (the “Recollections” brand) so I could include a few of my illustrations on pale blue and brown paper. It was an experiment inspired by an drawing I did of a Lion Fish since, yep, the ocean is blue. Some of the packages I bought included sheets of darker charcoal and black card stock. When I had a little time to color, I printed my Little Bird design on charcoal just to see how it would look. And wow was it fun to color!

I posted my work in progress on Instagram and my followers seemed to love it, too. They inspired me to keep going, and I eventually created a Black Magic coloring book. I knew I would not sell a lot of copies (especially early on), but I wanted to make it available to those brave enough to try–and there are some courageous souls out there from the US and Canada to Germany, France and Malaysia. (And it’s pretty cool to know my illustrations are being colored around the world.)

It took a little experimenting, but I found that certain pencil brands and colors worked better on darker papers than others. For Little Bird, for example, I used mostly Prismacolor and Faber-Castell Polychromos. A light layer of Prismacolor Light Aqua allowed me to build up a few darker shades on the body and wings, like Prismacolor Aquamarine, Electric Blue, Peacock Blue and Indigo mixed with Polychromos Prussian Blue, and Cobalt Turquoise. I also mixed in several green, French grey and brown hues.

The white pencil from the Caran d’Ache Luminance series (and no, I can’t afford the entire set, sadly) is one of my favorite, most used pencils. As with most of my pencils, I order them from Blick individually as needed and usually keep a few sharpened and easy to grab on my desk. They work very well to “pull up” or lighten areas I want highlighted, and they also work well to blend colors (but with a whitish cast).

If I don’t want a whitish or chalky cast when I blend larger areas, I’ve found that my Irojiten pencils (which are fairly hard) work very well–especially if the color I choose is slightly darker (or lighter) than the colors I am trying to blend. Using similar shades can really saturate or intensify the colors, and if I color with a lot of pressure (but not enough to snap a pencil tip) the Irojitens work great as burnishers. And I adore the smoothness of the black Irojiten pencil (which I order individually through Blick) for working in shadowed areas.

The big take-away here is to experiment. And don’t be afraid to screw something up! It’s going to happen now and then, so just embrace your mistakes as opportunities to learn something new about the tools you are using and what it is you want out of your coloring.

I don’t typically plan out all the colors I want to use in a given piece, but I do have a “feel” for what I am going for overall. And I very rarely end up there because the colors sometimes make the choices for me as I work. But that’s okay! When I am using dark paper, I try the colors I want to use on a duplicate print out of my illustration on the same dark paper. If one brand of the color I want does not lay down enough color, or just doesn’t show up as well as I’d like it to, or looks crappy next to another hue, I try another brand or another shade. I don’t have as many colored pencils as many of my fans do, but I do experiment. A lot. My desk is littered with scraps of paper with little scribbles of color on them.

Another key to working with black ink on black (or dark) paper is to have really good lighting. I have a small OTT light and an older halogen light I keep on my desk. Both have bendable necks that I can twist to just the right angle to see my lines. The lines on the Little Bird illustration weren’t too hard to see, but on black paper (like the card stock I used for my Black Magic coloring book) the lines can be very challenging to see–especially for some of my more highly detailed designs. The coloring I started of Ruby Charm herself (below) was done on the same card stock I used in Black Magic and, as you can see, is quite dark. Using a white Verithin pencil to lightly trace over detailed lines that are difficult to see can help quite a bit. As you color, those white lines will be absorbed, so don’t worry.

Below Ruby Charm is a sea lion I colored on charcoal tinted card stock.

Finally, I add a lot of my smallest details with a fine-tipped black Faber-Castell PITT pen (to carefully emphasize some lines and dark areas, and a small collection of Sakura Soufflé gel pens for dots. I like the Soufflé pens because they are matte and photograph and scan better than metallics or glitter pens do. The beauty of purchasing, downloading and printing any artist’s coloring pages (I am a big fan of Etsy for this!) is that you have control over not only the paper quality (which is a huge issue for many colorists) but also the color or tint of the paper itself. And if you purchase pages through Etsy, you are directly supporting an artist!

If you have a computer and printer, all you need is a free version of Adobe Reader to download and print your files. Check your local craft and office supply stores to see what they carry in regard to card stock, and don’t be afraid to play around!

Coloring on darker papers can be very challenging, sometimes frustrating and time-consuming, but it can also be unusually rewarding.

my coloring process

Ruby Charm Colors August 2, 2017

I’ve had a number of people ask about my coloring process, and now that my RubyCharmColors Etsy shop is up and running, I have a little time to devote to a new post.

I basically follow a two-step process. First I use watercolor pencils (and blending with a water brush)–and then step two–light layers of regular colored pencils on top of the watercolors. It is a technique that works well for me though I am still experimenting and playing around with it. Not everyone will want to devote a substantial chunk of time to a coloring page, and not everyone will like the same technique I use, but in the spirit of turning adult coloring pages into an art form, here’s how I do it …

Some of my favorite tools I keep handy when coloring

TOOLS

Before we jump into process, I thought it might be useful to talk about a few of the tools I rely on. First, I like to work on a decent illustration board. I have two (one large, one small) from my art school days and am glad I never got rid of them. The surface of a good illustration board is very hard, smooth and shouldn’t scratch. Coloring on a surface that is scratched or dented can make your pencils skip and it’s hard to get a nice even layer of color.

Another thing I appreciate about a good illustration board is that I can write notes on it with a pencil (if I need to remember which colors I am using) and I can test color combos on it, too. The board can be easily cleaned with a damp cloth and a little soap between projects. Sometimes I tape my work to the board, but since I like to move my paper around to work on different areas, I only tape it if I want to set it aside for another time. My smaller board (pictured above) has a few eye screws on one side so I can hang it up and out of the way when I’m not working on it.

I also can’t live without my pencil books. I have 4 of them (two for watercolor pencils and two for regular colored pencils) so I don’t have to use the tin and cardboard boxes some of my pencils came in. Aside from keeping everything organized, they don’t clang around and there’s less of chance I’ll knock the boxes off my desk and risk cracking the leads inside the pencils. The tin boxes are attractive, but they make a horrendous clatter when they hit the wood floor. There are a few nice cases out there, but I settled on the zip-up “books” made by BTSKY and Soucolor (and ordered them through Amazon). No issues yet, and I use them a lot. Grey for my watercolor pencils and black for my regular colored pencils.

A good pencil sharpener is a must. I have an electric X-ACTO (great for new un-sharpened pencils) and a small brass sharpener. I’ve had it forever and have no idea where it came from. I use the brass sharpener the most because it gives me a fine point without chewing up too much of the pencil.

I also keep a small brush handy for keeping my page free from little chunks of junk that accumulate while I work. I don’t like to brush the paper off with my hands because oil and sweat can make the paper less receptive to the pencils. I also use (at least when the weather is bloody hot) one of those funny-looking artist gloves so the side of my hand doesn’t stick to the paper and smudge things up. I originally got one for working on the glass surface of my iPad. Cooler months aren’t bad, but when it’s hot, I can’t drag my hand across any drawing surface without it sticking. No fun. And not good for smooth lines.

Because I use watercolor pencils for the first layer of color on my drawings, I also use a few different water brushes. They have a reservoir that holds water and slowly releases it as needed. If too much comes out, use a tissue to mop up the excess–and if not enough comes out, give the reservoir a little squeeze. These brushes allow me to control how much water I use, and since the bristles are fairly stiff, they work really well for blending the watercolor pencils in a very controlled manner. I have two Pentel Aquash water-brushes and a few from Derwent and Kuretake. I honestly don’t have a favorite brand at this point but choose based on tip size in relation to the area I am working on. Okay, well maybe the Kuretake has the best fine point for really tight areas.

STEP ONE: WATERCOLOR PENCILS

Below is a close up of the coyote I’ve been working on recently (a grey-line version of my Coyote and Fox illustration) printed on grey card stock) with the first rough layer of watercolor pencil. It looks a little sloppy, but that’s okay. It will all come together.

I used French Grey (my go-to color for nearly all of my work) and Night by Caran d’Ache (Museum Aquarell‘s which are dreamy to work with); Faber-Castell’s Albrecht Dürer watercolor pencils (Warm Grey, Nougat and Bistre); and Blue Grey 68 by Derwent. As mentioned, I don’t have full sets of any of these pencils. Instead, I order individual pencils as needed through Blick or pick them up in stores. Blick usually has decent prices and it is a reliable company, and buying specific pencils instead of full sets helps me avoid collecting colors I may never use.

Once I have filled in areas with the dry watercolor pencils, I use a water-brush to blend my first layer. The wet brown stripe in the middle of the photo above was worked with a fine point Pentel Aquash water-brush. Instead of “painting,” I think of it as gently “scrubbing” the color around … but not so hard the paper loses it’s integrity and falls apart. There’s nothing worse than creating a big ugly hole in the paper–especially if you have a good portion of a piece completed. I’ve done it enough to learn my lesson. Be gentle with purpose.

If you want to try this technique, practice a few times on scrap paper so you get a feel for your brand of watercolor pencils, your brush, and how they all behave (or misbehave) on the paper you will be using for your final piece.

I work in fairly small, controlled areas. Above, you can see where I started blending the brown swirl shapes. Working on small areas at a time allows the water to dry faster and keeps colors I don’t want blended together separated. As one area dries, I tackle a new one until I have finished with the watercolors.

Below, you can see where I’ve moved into the blues and added some Derwent Inktense Sea Blue and Deep Indigo. Watercolor pencils play nicely with one another, so if after blending an area you want more color, just sketch a little more on top and get it wet again. I prefer to add layers after the paper is dry, but a watercolor pencil on wet paper can produce lovely effects, too.

Things still looks a little sloppy at this point, and that’s fine. Before I started using colored pencils over watercolor, I was a lot more precise applying the color before blending with water. On their own, watercolor pencils produce a beautiful look. But since I will be adding a few layers of colored pencil over the top, I think of this as a simple under-body or base layer of color to build upon.

Why go through the trouble of laying down this watercolor base layer?

I have found that it gives the paper a really nice, faintly “gritty” texture or “tooth” that my colored pencils really seem to love–especially on smoother types of paper and card stock. The key is to make sure the paper has dried before grabbing your colored pencils.

Small, self-contained areas are pretty easy to work on because they have a definitive start and end point (such as the brown lines on the coyote’s rear and neck). Where it gets tricky is where there are larger areas that move from one color to another (behind the ears all the way to the back, tail, and part of the legs). I’ve had to learn to work fast. I typically “scrub” quickly in small circles, but sometimes I pull the brush along the edge of a border to get a larger area damp. Then my circular strokes are used to scrub those colors around and blend them together. If some of the areas look a little splotchy, don’t worry. The colors usually even out as they dry, and if they don’t, the colored pencil layer will eventually blend it all together.

My best advice? Play. Experiment! One of the great things about having digital copies of an illustration is that you can print out a few on different types of paper and play around with techniques and different color pallets before committing to a final piece. And … if you royally screw something up (I’ve done it plenty) you can print and try, try again.

While all of the areas I have water-colored are drying (it should not take long at all), I put my watercolor pencils away and pull out my regular colored pencils. I try not to mix them up because it really stinks when you color a whole area and hit it with water only to realize you hadn’t used a watercolor pencil. And watercolor pencils don’t work very well over regular colored pencils because of the waxes and oils in the colored pencil leads. They can, if thick enough, repel water. So I try to keep my pencils types separate.

COLORED PENCILS

The pic above shows the coyote with all the watercolors blended and a start (on the belly) with regular colored pencil layers. Adding light layers can give your work a lot more depth, vibrancy and definition.

I like to use the softer colored pencils (Prismacolor, Faber-Castell, Caran d’Ache Luminance and Pablo, and Bruynzeel) for the larger areas and I work with a light touch and try to avoid coloring in the same direction. Light circles or tight cross-hatching works well. Sometimes the layers can get a little too thick and an annoying “chunky” build-up can occur. It happened with some of the sepia (see pic below) I was using to the left of the big white star. Too much build-up from being a little heavy-handed in that area, whoops.

Some of the sheen in my photos are a reflection of the wax in the pencil leads and appears when you apply a lot of pressure, or go over the same area quickly back and forth. Burnishing, as it is often called, can be a great way to deepen colors and set them, but you can overdo it so be careful. Once I have my softer layers of pencil down, I then use my harder pencils (like Tombow’s Irojiten pencils, the Verithins by Prismacolor, and Derwent’s Studio pencils) to carefully carve in sharper details. I used black, Tuscan red and indigo Verithins to define parts of the coloring below.

I also like to use the Caran d’Ache white Luminance pencil for all of my brighter highlights. It seems to give me the best coverage of all the white pencils I have. A little pricey compared to other brands, but for a responsive, reliable white pencil, I think it’s worth the price. Most of my white pencils barely show up when applied over other colors.

One tip about whites … if you want a bright white to appear over another color, always color that area with your white pencil first. Next, work your other colors around it and right up to the white. And then, hit the white area with your white pencil again being conscious of pushing from the white center toward the other color(s). If you pull from the other color(s) into the white, you’ll get more blending (and not a brighter white).

I find that I can blend and burnish colors together pretty well with the Derwent and Irojiten pencils as a final top layer. I usually use a shade or few lighter than the color I am working over. For instance, on the brown and taupe colored areas of the coyote, I used Irojiten’s Pigeon Grey, Chesnut and Eggshell to “set” the final layer over the Prismacolor and Polychromos French Grey and Bistre. I’ll do the same with the blues. Irojiten Indigo over Polychromos and Prismacolor Indigo for the darker areas, and maybe Irojiten Midnight Blue or Kingfisher for the medium blues.

As a side note, I have found that the Irojiten Eggshell pencil has become a favorite go-to for blending many different colors–it’s light enough to pick up the color of the layer underneath without muddying things up and it’s hard enough to push the colors together.

And there is a push and pull when it comes to working with colored pencils …

Below: slowly working more colors. I think I had about 2 or 3 hours into the coyote at this point. I realize not everyone wants to spend this much time on a coloring project, but I really enjoy the process. While I love to see the final product, it’s the act of choosing the colors, working the water and the pencils, and having time to focus on something tangible and tactile. An escape from all the screens virtual everythings.

The bottom photo shows the final layers of colored pencils, plus a few details that make the image pop. I like using the Sakura Pen-Touch paint pens to add small dots (be careful you don’t smudge if you try this – paint pens take a little time to dry). I also go in with a black waterproof Faber-Castell PITT pen to add dots and lines, or sometimes just to darken areas that got a little covered by pencil marks (like the coyote’s eye). Gel, metallic and glitter pens are fun, but I don’t use them much anymore because they don’t photograph or scan well.

I also try not to feel restricted when it comes to following the original design of any page (including my own illustrations for coloring) and often add in new details like the oblong white and grey shapes on the tail.

Here is the same coyote I tested out with color after my original black line drawing was complete and converted into a vector for printing. It was printed on white card stock (instead of the grey-scale lines on grey card stock for my current coyote). Not sure which one I like best, but they were both enjoyable to work on.

I hope some of the information about my process and techniques can be useful to you. Again, my approach isn’t for everyone, but hopefully it inspires you to try something new. Don’t be afraid to take your time and push your creativity to the next level. I am always trying to learn–always thinking about ways to improve. And while my own relationship to art (and now coloring) certainly provides relief from stress, art is also my passion (and can surely cause stress at times).

Isn’t that the Yinyang of life? 😉

I’d love to hear from you if you have questions, comments, or techniques you would like to share!

UPDATE: I now have six pencils cases – seems my pencil collection has grown a little. I am sure some of you can relate to this! 😉

rubycharmcolors

Tag: Irojiten

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