Watercolor Pencils - What's the Point? 

You are, hands down, one of my favorite presenters on RU-vid. You have your supplies on hand, before you start. You don't stumble around your thoughts, when speaking. Your pace is excellent and your subject matter interesting and informative. I hope others learn about your channel as it is a real rarity among artist presenters.

I'm 72 and recently spent 10wks in hospital. My best mate,my wife bought me a tin of watercolour pencils,my art shop gave me a heap of 300gsm w/paper and I was hooked. Hospital, doctor appointment,coffee shops out come the pencils, so convenient.

“You can’t eat paint”, they said. So I stopped making “art” a long time ago. But you make me believe it’s worth it to start drawing again, even if I never become a professional artist. And because of you, I might even produce good work. Thank you!

I love wetting a page and then drawing directly into the paper with watercolor pencils as it gives great intense lines 😊 Thanks for making this video 🙏😊

TIP for ya. U probably know this because of your exacto knife trick but its helped me a lot so I thought I'd share. I save the pencil shavings from my water color pencils. I have a bigger container that I mix all the color shavings into, and I sprinkle them on wet paper, or various other things. I also have a bunch of little containers to separate the diff. colored shavings. I use them to make my own paint pallets, or to use in mixed media. I do, separate the wood from the paint most of the time. I just sharpen them on a piece of paper, pull the wood shavings, and funnel the dried paint into whatever. But theres tons of things I use them for. And I save money that way. Thankyou for your video I thoroughly enjoyed it. Watercolor pencils are so satisfying :) sorry if my explanation is confusing.

You might want to try the Derwent Inktense pencils along with your other pencils. Inktense, once activated and then allowed to dry, won't lift if you use subsequent layers or add watercolor paint on top. I use both the regular watercolor pencils and Inktense. The wonderful thing about Derwent is that you can buy them singly, instead of buying an entire set. The other good thing about the inktense sticks is that you can use them as paints very easily. The reason this is important is that you can use a white Inktense stick to paint corrections and highlights and once it's dry, you can paint right over it without it lifting.

I love your explanations! Could you please make a video about watercolor papers? Cold press, hard press, what's the difference, student grade, artist grade, cheap, expensive, which brands are better, thickness of the paper and when it is recommended to use thick vs. thin, I have so many doubts on that particular issue, I would like to know more on that. Thanks a lot for your videos, I just recently discovered them and they're so informative and relatable and I just love them!

I love my Albrecht Durers and Museum Aquarelles for underpainting my Coloured Pencil work. I use them stand alone too for full watercolour artwork. ❤️

I’ve been an artist and designer for over 40 yrs and I am really enjoying your videos. They are so well done, the narrative is informative and positive plus your artwork is very appealing. I’ve been in a creative slump since being laid off a year ago and selling my dream home but your videos have inspired me to get back to basics. I’m going to dig out my pens and pencils and explore my new neighbourhood.

Most of these sets are non-toxic, too... which means you can make simple, quick drawings that kids like and doing "paint with water" pages for them like the ones that used to be popular in coloring book form.

Sometimes I just dunk the pencil in water to make a bold saturated line. I also use watercolor pencils for guidelines or the underdrawing of a painting in watercolor or gouache when I don’t want the lines to show in the final painting. I like to do the rough sketch in red, and corrections in blue. Thanks for this video, Mark. It’s a great way to start the day. I missed the music and of course, the coffee break!

My favourite art teacher at school (in England), was a Mr. Campbell 😊

My favs are the Albrect Durer and the Caran Dache Supracolors. The pencil lines melt away with even the smallest amount of water. So smooth and satisfying. Thank you for your video!

It’s really cool seeing the progression of your experience through this medium! It’s kind of crazy seeing how each iteration just ups the pigment load from one to the next. Didn’t realize how much more intense the prismacolor ones were until the shot of all four right at the end! Wow!!!

So glad I found this site! I love your Wild Irises; they look just like those around our cabin in the Snowy Range of Southeast Wyoming. I am 72 on my own during the pandemic. I will buy a set of Reeves, and follow your tutorials. Thank You!🙋🏼‍♀️💞🌟

I think it's really cool that you can make a water color pencil palette, and give it to a friend to use. With out having to give them the pencils.

I recently found out that the FaberCastel colors match from media to media, color pencil, watercolor pencil, Pitt pen, watercolor marker......very cool!!

P.S. I really like how you did the splatter! I have not ever done that with WC pencils. I'm going to try it!

OMG that effect with just a spray bottle, never tried and how beautiful, thx!!!!

The point is that colorful tip on top!

Thank you! Great side-by-side comparison, and excellent sun tips. Interestingly, I think I personally prefer the Derwent drawing over the Prismacolor even. Not that it really matters to me, since I’m not a pro, and I don’t have time to put into my art enough to justify another set of watercolor pencils. I have a set of Arteza watercolor pencils that a friend gave me for my birthday in 2020, and I have really enjoyed using them, especially to enhance my Zentangle art, since discovering that in 2021. If I do get another set, I suspect that they’ll be the Derwent Inktense, since I’ve really enjoyed the art I’ve seen in the Zentangle Waterfall using those. Thanks again!

I have the faber castell watercolor pencils. What I usually do is that I layer quite a lot. I layer the watercolor pencils with normal colored pencils and then finally add the water. The normal pencils basically help me add intricate details and subtle tones I don't want to get smudged away when I'm applying the water. It's a very useful technique!

Hi, this is a great video, really good to see the comparison. I am currently using Arteza watercolour pencils, and I also have Inktense pencils which I love. One point, though, is that Inktense aren't actually watercolour pencils. They are ink pencils and as such they don't behave in quite the same way as watercolour pencils. Having said that, I do use them both for flower studies - the Inktense are really vibrant, and although you can create more subtle effects, I find that there's not a lot of point in using them for a piece which consists solely of pale and delicate shades. Also, once the ink has been activated it is permanent and cannot be rewetted. This means that there are some effects you just can't achieve with them. I have seen people asking which are 'better', but it's not a direct comparison 😊

My parents just bought me some watercolor pencils yes. It’s only my second day of using them, but I’m having a good time learning how they work. Thanks for the tips. This video is so helpful!

SO well presented! There are SOOO many videos that I clicked on about watercolor pencils that I couldn't watch....some people have artistic talent without the video talent---you clearly have both, so I'm subscribed now. Thanks for sharing!

I just found your RU-vid channel and what a pity you are not an art teacher anymore! We need teachers like you, eloquent, knowledgeable and dedicated to their field of expertise! Thanks for sharing....

Thanks so much for the information. I feel so blessed to be able to watch amazing people that share their ideas and thoughts. May God richly bless you and yours.

Put the tiniest speck of water on your finger for a smudge effect at edges of scrap bits in collages

My first thought was that these look like they'd be great to take outside to sketch with; less mess than taking watercolours or ink. Thanks to your video, I know which brand I'd pick - thank you ! :-)

Nicely covered subject Mark! I like your cool texture and spatter techniques. I've used the scraped off pigment method a few times. I personally don't paint (do full paintings) with WC pencils but I do love them for linear detail and underdrawings. Also love the application of color to line and wash. Most WC pencils have lightfast issues, so another reason I steer away from them for finished paintings that might hang, but as you noted, so great for sketching and portability. The best of the best is Caran d'ache Museum Aquarelles and Faber Castell Albrecht Durers. Pretty good ratings even in the light fast category. One thing I loved about the Prismacolors was they match up by color and number with their wax based pencils and the colors really do seem to match on paper, a nice mixed media potential with that. Thanks for the video my friend! You're quickly heading to 10k subs. Awesome!

I’d been looking for this kind of video all evening! I’ve tried searching for “when to use watercolor pencils” and “why use watercolor pencils”, and eventually stumbled upon your video. I agree with the pinned comment 100%. I’ve subscribed to your channel as well and will be checking out your other videos. Thanks for sharing this!

Thank you,this was very helpful because I plan on getting some water color pencils to try out a different medium

Now this tutorial I have found to be very useful. Thanks so much for sharing. 😊

Fantastic tutorial. Just what I was looking for as a brand new watercolor pencil user. Bravo!

As a kid, color pencils were my comfort tools. I wanted to learn Water Color but it was too hard and confusing for me. I don't get the same level of control compared to color pencils. Most of the time, I just made a mess. But when I discovered Faber Castell, my mind was blown. It's such a genius combination. Instead of struggling with planning the brush strokes, just do everything dry like color pencils and then just add water later. Never going back to regular watercolor!

I have had watercolour pencils in my kit for some time but was not sure how to use them Thank you for your informative video I’ll definitely be back to learn how to use them

WOW! Thanks🎉

Hi Mark, you've basically covered all I could say about wc pencils! I've been working with them as mixed media items for years now and my faves are Derwent and Faber-Castell. For me layering over w/c washes produces the most control of high detail within small areas of contrast, it's fun! I've also branched to other brands. The ones I'm not crazy about I simply take with me on vacation/ location, so no worries about losing my quality paint supplies! Plus, there's no setup and I'll get a quick, fun impression for later on with any photos I might take. Sometimes the less you take, the more likely they'll get used/ less precious supplies-you're less fearful of messing up! Happy Easter :)

Very nice Video on Watercolor Pencils. I love Watercolor Pencils and use them a lot just to have fun and explore color.

they're great for sketching out your watercolors without the lines of a pencil etc.

I started using watercolor pencils for when I traveled and now use them regularly. You gave some really good tricks that I have to try. Thank you!

I really loved this video you have helped me a lot thanks

I have been making greeting cards for 15 years or so, mostly with rubber stamps, and watercolor pencils are great for my use. I rarely use watercolor paper, but use heavy card stock. Thanks for your video!

Thank you Mark very much for this lovely video. Watercolour pencils are great in journaling and add fine details to your watercolour art work. It helped much in biology like drawing cells and it's organelles cause it is so fine detail. I learn from the video that pigments from watercolour pencils never die and when few water add to it, start life again. One more important thing in your video that start small with budget affordable materials. Finally, we can keep doing study for the materials we have. Thanks for the great video, great lessons and do not forget some of your music next video. Good luck

Watercolor pencils are my absolute favorite to work with!

If you stick the lead of a watercolor pencil in water, it starts to soften up and when you put it on the paper, it just lets go of all of its pigments (but its a bit slow of a process). Looks really cool, I used to do that to my colors when I was younger, was a cool way to get yourself a tattoo that you can wash off in like 2 seconds.

I bought some water colour pencils from one of those cheapy shops...cost me £1 for a tin of 12 water colour pencils and i must say they were brilliant.....loved using them

Another wonderful video, Mark!

Thank you very AmZing Work 🌟✨️🌟✨️

I'm so excited! A while back I bought a nice artist set that included about 40 Prismacolor watercolor pencils. I haven't used them because I really wasn't sure how to use them. Now I know that I not only got a good set, but I have multiple options for their use. Thank you!

The point is..............they are fun as heck to use!!! woohoo!!❤️

241 likes and no dislikes😊. You are the father of art on RU-vid.

U should totally get even just the 12 pk of the Derwent inktense pencils. The color payoff is AMAZING, and I think ud really enjoy em!

You made this educational and interesting TY

Use them in wet color as a small brush for detail.

Very interesting to learn the differences between the pencils. I use them for coloring in coloring books. I'd like to portability of them. I use a water brush with him on the go. My daughter's ready to have a baby so I have the durwent pencils and coloring books to work in since we're going to be sitting quite a bit. I don't have an artistic bone in my body and coloring books is something I could do. I'm trying to learn the rest, like shading.

True! They are very fun and nice to use. They are also necessary for doll customizing (a hobby of mine) due to the nature of the sealant.

My mom had given me watercolor pencils one day just out of the blue she had seen them at the store and got them for us to try. she teaches an adult workshop about enneagram and mindfulness and she likes to have coloring pages and things like that on the table during the workshop while she speaks to encourage creativity and “spiritual development” Most of the people aren’t there for an art class, and often don’t consider themselves to be creative. But I heard that they were very satisfied when they could simply color and when the water was added they could see the picture come to life. Anyways, I had tried using them as well, and although it took a bit of experimenting to be satisfied with the results, I enjoyed every second of the process. these are what introduced me to watercolors and it’s been four years now and I still paint every day. I think that they were a great tool to use when vein introduced to painting. Now that I have all my paints and my palettes I’ve made and all of these extra supplies I don’t do as many full pieces with them, but I do find that they were a godsend when I struggle with finding the perfect texture for hair, fur, wings, feathers or even grass.. things like that. My paint style tends to be very loose and sometimes I struggle with those types of textures getting too blurred and the pencils have been a great tool to use for that 😊

Thank yooou! I really want to learn how to waterpaint using pencils

my fav watercolors is Generals kimberly lile for me it was good

Watercolor pencils provide a level of detail that is really hard to get with watercolor brushes. They make realism in watercolor much more achievable for entry-level painters.

I have a few sets, even expensive ones...but I only use WC pencils for less serious work....cartoon type stuff, mixed media, journaling, making my own cards, etc. I enjoy them, they can be fun to use...but I’ve never found a need to use them when I sit down and work on a painting I plan to sell.

Those are some great ideas

I use the faber-castell albrecht durer and they’re lovely.

Great review! You are making the best videos, hands down. I really like watercoloring, but I am on a budget, don't have a place I can draw. It is usually on a bed or the small coffee table. This is the reason I prefer color pencils. I defiantly need to get watercolor pencils, I wanted them for ages.

I don't know if you tried the Derwent Ink-tense colours yet, but I can really recommend them to you. They are amazing, although they will stay permanently when they dry. But the colours are SO amazingly vibrant!

yeah!! i am ALL ABOUT fun being prio 1!! i'm playing around with watercolor pencils atm trying to use up some "watercolor" paper that can't really hold watercolor very well, and it is a blast. thefrugalcrafter has a ton of useful tutorials and stuff that i've been checking out and learning from. i've also been using them in my coloring book, pushing down hard in one place and then using a brush to drag out the pigment is a very convenient way to get some variation without making a ton of effort. and i color in that book when i'm tired and wanna relax so that's a perfect fit for that technique. :)

I love point 1. You’re awesome!😘

I bought some artist grade Mitsubishi Uni ones many years ago and found them so weird to work with because it didn't really behave like what I expected. I also didn't have the experience. I pulled them back out last year and found they were amazing to just use as their own thing for more easy details in watercolour. I aspire to also get Faber Castell Durer pencils. Great video.

Some watercolor pencils, a sharpener, a graphite pencil, a waterproof black pen, a waterbrush, and an ordinary bottle of water is a versatile and compact kit with a watercolor sketch book. I sometimes use them after the watercolor phase to add emphasis with darks or whites/lights. I also use regular wax-based colored pencils (or a grease pencil) for a portable version of a mask, a bit here and there, that watercolor won't cover. You just can't remove it once down.

Another excellent review! I have a set of Caran d'Ache and they are wonderful. Very creamy and dissolve nicely. I love them. My first set were Staedtlers. I still use them for some special colors (like skin tones).

Very helpful video. Thanks!

Very nicely done. Thank you.. I have the Prisma Water Color Pencils but really not sure how to use them correctly.. this was great..

Great! Really useful, thanks ☺️

Excellent information beautifully presented! Thank you!

Jason Morgan did a great video on a realistic painting using watercolor pencils. I didn't think it was even possible to use watercolor pencil for realistic paintings.

Thank you very informative 👍

Love the title of your video because I always asked myself - what's the point of water colorpencil? I never understood the pros of using these pencils over the traditional water-colours. To me, water-colour is quicker and the pigment seems to blend more seamlessly. I could still see faint lines underneath my water-colour pencil (maybe my skills are not there yet). Whatever these colorpencils can do ..... traditional water-colours can do them slightly more efficient. However, your point #3 - portability; is spot on!! (I didn't think of that) and point #4- draw now, water later. (very smart). Thank you for your video.

My first art was colored pencils. This video is FANTASTIC!!!! I just subscribed Thank you so much for sharing your ideas with us.

I did the same thing last year. I wanted to have better knowledge to pass on to my beginner w/c students. After trying several, my favorite by far for their intensity are Derwent Ink Tense. You don't have to be heavy handed to get beautiful, rich color.

This helps a lot, someone gave me watercolor pencils.

You never tried Albrecht Dürer Faber Castell Watercolor Pencils? They have been my first and I still love them. Pigmented, smooth and so many light fast colors I rewet the paper and draw on it with the Pencils to get detailed and very intensive colors

I love the Inktense they are my fav! i also love my Stampin' Up watercolor Crayons, about 10 yrs old!

Nice!

It’s probably been said but I believe the prismacolor watercolor pencil colors match their regular colored pencils so you can layer with an exact color match.

I wasn't sure about using watercolour pencils, so I bought a basic set of 12 colours for $4 Canadian. By the way, I also have watercolour paints. I bought a basic set of the paint in tubes, about $7-8 Canadian from a local Michael's. Looking forward to try colouring with my watercolour pencils. The key to using watercolours is not to use too much water. Tried painting a galaxy, didn't wait for the paint to dry, and ended up with mud. So now, I am a lot more patient and wait for the paint to dry before adding another layer.

Great comparison! Thanks for sharing! 💕💜💕

Awesome video!

The Prismcolor Pencil work looks best, but you forgot to do Crayola watercolor pencils. One can do regular Watercolor paint for the undercoating, then use Watercolor pencils after, including using regular Color pencils for details.

OMG thank you so much for doing this video on watercolour pencils. I have a Derwent wooden box that contains Derwent watercolour pencils, paper for watercolour, paint brush, etc. I've had the box for years, but never used it because I didn't know how. I have normal Derwent pencils that I recommend anyone to use. PS: When I was a kid (80's, 90's) I won awards for my artwork, and I had some of my drawings turned into Christmas cards (using Derwent pencils). My family became homeless for other reasons, I couldn't do art for many years. When I became an adult I felt like a failure. The level of art I was good at as a child, is now considered basic for an adult. My therapist told me I should get back into doing art. Release my emotions into my art. A few weeks ago I was stuck at what type of art style suits me. I came across your channel. It may sound silly but I find listening to your videos very therapeutic. Im also learning a lot. I binge watch your channel at around 2am in my country. It's a time when everything else is quite. It was funny yesterday morning I watched a video you did about doing art when feeling sad/depressed. You said something in your video about you not being a therapist/psychologist. It made me wonder do other people find listening to you therapeutic too?

Amen ! My kind of logic! Thank you so much! You are wonderful to learn from from!

Thanks for doing this it is really helpful

I am someone that is REALLY not qualified to talk about this, but I like to put the water down before I put the pencils. Just my opinion.

Nice review and demo. I have the Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer pencils and they are great. I also have the Inktense pencils - they are different from regular watercolor pencils in that a layer becomes permanent after it dries. They behave more like permanent ink in this respect.

Great video! If you want a watercolour pencil that acts like a colour pencil, get a handful of open stock FC Albrecht Durer, you won’t be disappointed and as they are open stock, you don’t need to spend a fortune to try them. The Caran D’ache museum aquarelle are excellent but behave a little more like gouache in that they are more opaque. They are unique in their own right, it’s hard to describe them. Again these are also sold open stock so maybe get a couple of colours to try of those too.

Loved your demo I recently bought Faber Castell, l was not satisfied, they were dry, and scratched the paper. Then l just got Arteza set, these are far better. Thank you, Mart

Very nice presentation.i had no idea you could do such great work with pencils. Thank you and keep your presentations coming.

Very nice video, for me,i mainly draw small areas with them or correct and area of a painting with them on cards for family or friends. They are also nice for a quick plein air draw. I carry a small set of 12 by Pentalic that I bought on sale at Hobby Lobby for a $1.74 and they are in a tin case. I haven’t used them yet but they are there should I need them. Maybe they were too big of a bargain. Hope you and your family have a wonderful weekend and that the snow is gone in your area.

They are cool. I had some but got rid of them. Better get more!!

I have a 24 set of the Reeves and I love working with them. I want to get a set of the FC Albrecht Durer's to start doing more permanent artwork with them. For now, I'll continue to work with my Reeves pencils.