I am on holidays at the moment and wanted to spend some time practicing with my Derwent watercolour pencils. 🎨
There is something that is so beautiful about watercolour. The way the paint blends with the water and creates a unique movement and texture every time. I really admire artists that work with this medium and create some beautiful work.
I decided to use watercolour pencils, because I like having the control of using a pencil and being able to draw/sketch/colour certain areas and then add water to blend. I recently purchased a set of 12 Derwent watercolour pencils and I really like them. I had a cheaper brand and they were awful. The pigment didn’t look right and they did not blend very well. I’m glad that I decided to go with Derwent and would like to buy a bigger set with more colours. 💕
One of my biggest challenges is trying to draw faces. So, I decided that I would try and focus my practice here. I still have a long way to go, but I think that I am improving with each attempt. 🤗
One of my first attempts. This is a bit cartoonish, but that face, aaaw.
Sorry about the accidental black eye… 😐
Finally, a mouse and flower. 🐭🌼
Questions
- Have you used watercolour paints or pencils before?
- Do you have a favourite watercolour artist?
- Have you wanted to try or practice a certain art form?
15 Responses
So cute! I don’t use mine very often but I also own watercolor pencils. I used them for the first time when I was drawing trees and they made my trees look more impressive because I wasn’t expecting them to actually look like watercolors, haha.
I like your sketches. The mouse and cartoonish face are especially cute :3
Oh my goodness! Those are beautiful. Incredibly expressive and I think the color composition is what really strikes me. I’ve never done anything like that (though I used to draw a fair bit and had a web comic for awhile), not so artistic. <3
One of my friends at work is really into watercolours. I think it’s really nice but I have never tried it before. And I have heard that you can’t really go cheap on it because the cheaper options are really really crap. ? So the Derwent pencils were probably worth the money. 🙂
I think you are doing a great job! I can’t really draw faces at all. I remember trying sketching a few years ago, sketching just little faces of people I knew, just using a pen. They were not super accurate and didn’t look that great, but at least I gave it a go. 😛
I really like art but I am not sure if there is a specific type of art that I really want to try. I am sure there were but it’s not crossing my mind at the moment. I do remember feeling that there was much, much more to art than doing things on paper, and that’s when I started to think about glasswork and sculptures and 3D art 🙂
I loooove watercolor art too! It’s a difficult one to master though. I used to have a phase where I was all hyped up about watercolor and doing watercolor art that I purchased a watercolor palette set like this one and a few brushes, including the watercolor brush pen where you can fill water inside the tube and just squeeze the pen if you want to wet the color even more – what a lame description, lol.
Sadly, I end up buying all those and a watercolor sketch pad for nothing because I haven’t gotten around to practicing my watercolor skill at all! Gosh, what have I done lol. I just don’t know what to draw, really and I’m too lazy to assess my nonexistent fine art skill 😛
I personally don’t like using watercolor pencils. faber castell has amazing watercolor pencils though but for some reason, I prefer using watercolor paint tubes or a palette directly. I also like working with acrylic (they’re way easier to work with, compared to watercolor) and have always wanted to try gouache.
I don’t really follow fine artists however I love watercolor artworks from tumblr user Qinni. she did such amazing job with watercolor and I love seeing her live paint videos 😀
I inherited some watercolor pencils when I married Josh and I am rubbish at them! You are miles above me at using them, that’s for sure! <3
I don't think I have a favorite watercolor artist but I do admire watching people work with them. I have a few friends from art school that I watch in such awe when they are drawing. It blows my mind that there are such talented people in this world.
OH THESE ARE GREAT! Your use of color is superb! I can’t wait to see more – you ARE going to do more, right? You say you can’t draw faces but look how wonderful these are! Keep going keep going!!
I am terrible with colored pencils and watercolor pencils specifically. I’m also still improving my watercolor paint skills, but I feel more at ease with them than using pencils. I can never get anything right with colored pencils – it’s so frustrating! I would love to get better at them.
One of my favorite watercolor artists is Cathy Johnson (http://cathyjohnsonart.blogspot.com/). Her work is SO good. I would love to take one of her classes someday. I love that she uses little watercolor drawings as a way to journal her life. It’s so inspiring!
Your very artistic. I commend you on that. I don’t think I could do those watercolors. It’s very pretty by the way. My favorite is the mouse and the flower. I took Introduction to Drawing at a community college and I sucked at it. I ended up dropping it because I just couldn’t do it. I looked like a little kid drew it. We had to draw our hand without looking at it. There was a paper over my hand.
Questions:
1. Have you used watercolour paints or pencils before? No
2. Do you have a favourite watercolour artist? No
3. Have you wanted to try or practice a certain art form? Maybe
Ooo lovely! I like the mouse! I always wanted to learn watercolors!
I love your drawings! Watercoloring is magical and some awesome work can come out of it. I’m still trying to grasp the concept of watercolor pencils. Are you supposed to use water at the end? XD. Your blending is awesome.
I use watercolor markers (with water/brush). I don’t have a favorite watercolor artist in general, but anyone who have the skills ;). I like animal art the best. There’s more room for error XD.
These illustrations look amazing! 🙂 I’ve always loved watercolor too, but I am not artistic at all so I don’t know how to use those XD
I really like the mouse picture. Haha I love drawings of cartoon mice in general so it brought a huge smile on my face. You’re doing really well so keep up the good work 🙂
Thanks for sharing your samples! I should start showing some samples of my artwork on my blog, but that’s what I use my Instagram account for. ^_^ Those are looking really nice, by the way.
1) I’ve used both watercolor pencils and paints (both the pan and the tubes). In fact, my watercolor pencils are the cheaper kind (Artist’s Loft), but they’re actually pretty good, especially when they are blended with watercolor paint. For the paint pan, I use Winsor & Newton. For the paint tubes, I use the same brand as the watercolor pencils. I don’t want to invest in the more expensive ones until I can get the grasp of basic watercolor painting. To be honest, I originally got into watercolor mainly for my calligraphy and lettering art. ^^
To be honest though, even though I feel that I have more control with the pencils, for some reason my hand felt a lot more flowy and natural when holding a paintbrush (those convenient water-filled paintbrushes), so I ended up abandoning the pencils (sometimes) and just stick to the brush.
I also got into gouache painting also. Gouache has a thicker, richer, more opaque pigment than standard watercolor, but it is a type of watercolor paint. It’s also closer towards acrylic paint too.
2) One famous watercolor artist who I really admire is Vincent Van Gogh, as well as Georgia O’Keefe.
3) I think I’ve tried *almost* every single art medium out there, maybe except for acrylic and oil painting and “hardcore crafting” such as sculpting and pottery making. I also do digital illustrations too (like you), but I haven’t really had the time or inspiration to make them for awhile now. What I really want to be good at is figure drawing. I can do some manga/anime-style artwork, but only on the faces and never on the figure drawings, so that’s one thing I need to tackle on.
These are really pretty, and that first face is super cute! <3
I like the colours you use to paint skin. Using blues and greens in skin colouring can really lift it and make it seem more 3-dimensional.
I have a set of watercolour pencils but I tend to use them as just coloured pencils and rarely add any water. I'm just too scared, haha! Watercolours are really beautiful though, and I wish I was better at them. I should definitely try to practise more.
Your watercolor faces are so colorful! My favorite ones are the first and the last face. The first one is super cute, and the last one is elegant. The mouse is also cute.
I have not used watercolor pencils, but I have used watercolor paint before. It’s more challenging than using an opaque paint such as acrylic or oil. I haven’t done much with watercolor.
I don’t have any favorite watercolor artists.
I think handwriting is something I would like to practice more, that and to do more illustrations, such as with pens. Holiday card making can be a great opportunity for that.
When I started painting this year, I started with water colors. But I’m not as fond of them now. There are really lovely, and it’s so fun to try things out! 😀