About me and my watercolour pencils

Welcome to my new blog!

My blog is starting subtly and quietly. I am still adjusting and added to it , but,  I have begun!

I live in Sydney and love to sketch and draw. I have been drawing since high school, but became more serious about it in the last few years. It is now a part of me and my life. I will do a five minute sketch at a bus stop, for a half hour or two hours while having coffee or complete a drawing over a few nights at home.

I carry my sketchbook, pencils and pen with me everywhere. There is always something to draw! I try and make the most of every opportunity.

Please click on the About Me tab above for more information.

Over the past four years I have been scanning all of my drawings to flickr to share, so please drop by and browse through them all . http://www.flickr.com/photos/alissaduke/

I have started this blog to allow me to explore and explain my sketching and drawing a bit further.


What do I use?

My sketchkit includes:

Watercolour pencils

I use watercolor pencils (both Derwent and Faber Castell). Watercolour pencils are coloured pencils that are made of a soluble pigment, so, if and when you add water to the page or the pencil tip, the pencil the pigment dissolves and becomes like paint. I add water with my waterbrush (which has a reservoir of water) when I am out and about, or with paintbrushes art home.

This past Saturday at  Erin Hill’s sketch class .  Over lunch, I did a demonstration of how I use my pencils, by drawing a teapot! I was overwhelmed with how interested the students were in this technique. I also really had to stop and think about what I do, step by step. That has prompted me starting the blog with this post!

 

How I use watercolour pencils

Sometimes I lightly mark out where I am going to place the object or scene on the page in a HB or 2B pencil, just to make sure it will fit on the page and I also think where I am going to add my written notes on the page.

 I then lightly and roughly sketch in lines and areas in the colour that am going to use in that area – there is usually one or two main colours. For this teapot it was Faber Castell Cool Grey III. I blocked out main areas in that colour and then lightly and loosely brushed on water.  For example, I added a heavy area of colour on the left hand side of the teapot and then used the watercolour brush to pull some of the colour acoss the page, getting lighter as it moved away from the edge. The plate is Faber Castell Burnt Sienna . I also used Cool Grey VI in the shadows

I add more pencil colour in specific areas, and water, building up the colour over the page.

To get finer detail or more intense colour I take pigment off the tip of the pencil with the water brush.  I also add finer details and any crisp clean areas to the page directly,  with a finely sharpened pencil.

I use a combination of all of the above – making it up as I go along  . That is why I love to use watercolour pencils – they can be blended, layered, provide rough texture or fine detail.

Pen

I also use a Lamy Safari Joy ink pen (with a cartridge of Noodlers waterproof ink). Sometimes I don’t add any colour and other  times I put in a light wash or heavy colour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sketchbook


I use a Moleskine watercolour sketchbook 21 x 13 cm . I only use one sketchbook at a time starting at the first page and work through to the end. I have completed 30 sketchbooks since I began using them in December 2009. It suits me perfectly at the moment. I love the way they look sitting lined up on the shelf (can you tell that I am a librarian?) . However, I have also have been known to sketch in spiral bound notebooks with biro in meetings, and on serviettes in cafés, programs in theatres.  Not having my sketch kit is no excuse not to draw! And lately I have been experimenting on drawing on larger sheets of paper.

Sketch Kit

25Aug12 Part two: making my pencil roll by alissa duke
see 25Aug12 Part two: making my pencil roll,

I hope that this has been an interesting start to my blogging world. I look forward to my flickr , facebook and new blogger friends exploring small and large parts of my world through my pencils.
 

5 thoughts on “About me and my watercolour pencils”

  5. Alissa Duke

    Thank you everyone for the visits and welcoming comments in the first week of my new blog. It is a comfort and exciting to see familiar names and friends visit and a large number of new visitors via facebook, flickr and other referrers!

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