How to Use Watercolor Pencils

This time, contemporary artist David Berkowitz Chicago decided to make a publication about how to use watercolor pencils both because of the fame they have achieved and the curiosity they generate in those who are still looking to try new mediums of expression.

The world of art supplies has seen interesting advances since the industrial revolution, which came steadily hand in hand with science. The idea of sales had a lot to do with it, yes, but great materials have also emerged that have been adapted to the tastes, skills and needs of all types of artists, both beginners and advanced.

In fact, in this sense, we could even say that we still have more to learn from the artists of the past. Today, perhaps there is too much tendency to accept a technique and, at that time, the most important thing was to experiment until achieving the desired result, no matter how many techniques were combined in the same work to achieve it.

Between tests and experiments, all kinds of interesting data were discovered, for example, which techniques got along better with each other. Therefore, over time, memorable techniques and mediums emerged and new implements were created, among which we find the watercolor pencils.

They may not seem like something that requires complicated methodologies, but there are ways to get the most out of them and a few qualities to take into account to work with them in different ways successfully.

Fortunately, for this area, artists in general tend to be open to new materials.

Why use watercolor pencils in the first place? Because with them you can have the best of both worlds. They are a unique medium for creating art as they combine drawing with painting in a way that no other medium can replicate. They are very similar to colored pencils, but they behave very differently when you add water because of the soluble binder with which they are made. This is the main difference they have from conventional colored pencils and their oil or wax binders, explains the Chicago-based artist.

Although you could use them only dry (there are those who do it although for most it could be a waste; it is a matter of taste and techniques), these properties make them not only different from conventional colored pencils, but also of painting as such. Gaining mastery in the use of watercolor pencils won’t make you a master painter, right?

In the same way, even an experienced painter who does not know how to use watercolor pencils will have to learn to handle them properly in order to create everything that comes to mind with them and combine them with other techniques. Learning about this handling is the heart of this post.

Advantages of watercolor pencils

Perhaps the main advantages that naïve artist David Berkowitz Chicago has noticed when understanding how to use watercolor pencils are the following:

• Control
• Detail
• Convenience

For starters, a pencil is much easier to maneuver than a paintbrush, which makes them less intimidating up front. Watercolor pencils, too, require less water than watercolors, so the most uncontrollable part and that requires more practice in watercolor painting is simplified in the case of these pencils. Even if a particularly sharp line is what you require, you don’t even need to add water.