This week’s blog has all the watercolour pencils I currently carry with me in my pencil wrap. A few weeks ago I listed the Top 12 I would suggest anyone carry with them. I had a few requests to show all the watercolour pencils I carry. Out of the 120 FaberCastell Abrecht Durer watercolour pencils, I have narrowed it down to these.

I have drawn my pencils with their colours and then pulled the colour out over the page with the water brush (or a paintbrush). You can see the amazing amount of tone you can get from the one pencil. You can get an intense colour with a lot of pigment on the page and also a very delicate colour.

I have previously done a drawing like this just before I go on a big holiday. The last time I did this was in 2018 before my UK holiday. A few of the colours have changed, but most are the same.

Next week I will explain the different accessories I use – waterbrush, sharpener, pencil wrap.

Let me know if you have any questions about watercolour pencils.

Are any of your favourite”go-to” colours here?

Happy sketching

This week’s blog has my sketches from the past week. I have been travelling interstate to see family and am back in my sketching comfort zone. I visited in December when borders had just opened and things were a little different. I was quite anxious when travelling and although I sketched at the airport, I was not as relaxed as this time. It reflected in my sketches each time.

This time it was as if my sketching muscle memory has returned. It all came back to me and was though I had not had a break of a few years.

Sketching planes is always fun, once you get all the angles right and the proportions. This is where holding up the pencil to measure comparative sizes of parts of the aircraft helps! ie in the sketch below, from this angle the length of the wing is the same size as the length of the airplane. I always sketch the wing too short and have to extend it out.

It was great that this plane did not have an aerobridge for the passengers to enter, they had to walk across the tarmac, which meant the front of the plane was not blocked out for me when I was sketching.

I was able to sketch on the plane again – always fun.

Once I arrived home I took part in my Mum’s life. They played Scrabble and I watched, listened and sketched. Very entertaining. There is no likeness in the sketch, but it is all about me capturing the moment of being there.

We went to a St Patricks Day lunch. with lots a green being worn, a silly quiz and lucky door prizes. I did a very quick sketch there and then drew Mum’s badge later that night at home.

These are my feet up relaxing. We had a very big, wonderful but exhausting family reunion lunch on Saturday. Sometimes you need to judge the time and place to sketch and at the reunion was not it. But I could document the day at the end of it with my feet up (and my green nail polish from St Patricks Day).

happy sketching

Alissa

Below are my sketches from this past week. All are in my Moleskine 13 x19 cm watercolour sketchbook with watercolour pencils. I have added water to some pages,which makes it look like paint. Other pages or areas of the page I have left as pencil on paper.

This was my view from the hairdresser as I waited 20 minutes for my haircolour to set. Luckily the car did not drive away in that time. I initially drew the car and then added the background and street.

I walked into the city and was struck by the brilliant blue sky and white clouds. I sketched the city skyline in the blue (Light Pthalo Blue I think) of the sky. I always sketch directly with the watercolour pencils onto the page. I never use a graphite pencil to do an initial sketch. I think this comes from my travel sketching where you really don’t have time to do things twice. There is also energy with those first lines, even (or especially) if they are wonky.

My lunch break drawing It was too cold outside to sketch, so I sat in the library I work in and drew one of the older books from the shelf. It lived a hard life before being acquired by us. All of the issues of his journal are available online, so there is no need to get books off the shelf. However, there is nothing like an old book, let alone being surrounded by them. It is good to be back at work.

This is not watercolour pencil. It is a multicoloured pencil where you have no control over colour It was given to me and is fun. This came from Daiso (a $2 shop in Sydney) and is Niji-Iro Pencil if you are interested

a quick sketch at a coffee shop

It is a holiday today, Here is my brunch.

Have a good week and happy sketching.

I carry 26 watercolour pencils with me everyday in a pencil wrap. I have chosen these colours over many years, but they are still not absolutely fixed. They are the colours that I have decided suit the objects and scenes I usually sketch. They are 26 from a potential of 120 FaberCastell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils. These are the pencils that you can purchase individually.

Someone asked for my advice on my top colours for them to purchase. I realise that 26 is probably too much choice and most people may just want a handy kit they can put in a pencil case.

I have managed to narrow it to 12. I tried to make it 10, but that was too difficult!

I just love watercolour pencils. You can see the amazing variety of tones that you can get from one colour – from very intense to beautifully delicate and light. That is fun of playing and practising with your pencils and knowing what they can do with them when you are out and about or at home, you can look at something and you can tell yourself “I know what colour is perfect for that !”

Part of the knowledge is the colours and the other part is how much water to add with your waterbrush. My waterbrush is on the far left of the photo. It is basically a tube which you fill with water. You need to play with controlling the amount of water that flows. It is easy to flood the page until you get used to it. Mine has a Medium brush.

I hope that anyone who has newly discovered watercolour pencils is having fun exploring their possibilities. Let me know if you have any questions.

Which colours do you carry? any of these?

Below are two of my on-location sketches from the past week.