I’m usually pretty good at not forgetting when someone gives me a GREAT idea for a video like a comparison of colored pencil vs watercolor pencil. I keep a spreadsheet with a list, and things eventually get checked off.

But….I was working on my website recently, creating new “category” pages. Instead of just having a boring slate of icons, I wanted the pages to be more interesting, more helpful, and more motivational to artists perusing them. When I got to the watercolor pencil category, it struck me that…I’ve not been producing classes in that medium! Combining them with colored pencil would at least help on the website but — it’s time for a new class, dontcha think? Read on, my friend…

Tutorial: Colored Pencils vs Watercolor Pencils: What’s the difference?

I wanted was a graphic and short video-explainer on the Pencil page – and that’s where today’s video comes in. It’s in a few parts:

1. A simple discussion of what makes the two mediums same/different
2. A simple demonstration of basic techniques drawing the butterfly
3. A complex demonstration of the two mediums in 2 sunset drawings

So let’s get rolling, shall we?

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

That webpage I worked on

If you’ve not done any web work, the screen you saw at the start of the video is the DIVI platform, which all my sites are built on. I was putting in a header photo that I created, and the text at the top of the page, but cut out of that before I bored everyone to tears. Ha!

The page, https://art-classes.com/pencil, has the drawn graphic on it but with the handwritten text replaced by typed text so it’s more readable. As new artists come to the pages for each medium, I hope to inspire them with learning things right away, helping them choose a class to start with….and the “voice” I used on those pages to describe the classes is much more of “casual me” – no marketing mumbo jumbo! 

If you poke around you’ll find a few other pages have been started but at this point the only one with a video is this one.

Sunrise Sunset demo and class

This Sunrise Sunset class is taught in both colored pencil and watercolor pencil. I don’t have a good assessment of whether there’s less need for WCP classes, or if I just don’t have the students since I had hardly any classes….? Hard to say, chickens and eggs and all. But….we’ll see how the homework goes and which medium I see folks particpating in!

The double speed-painting of the sunset sky is the bonus lesson in class; it’s not a Level 2 drawing by ANY means, but since I filmed it and did like what came out, I decided to include it without voiceover. Just music and some onscreen captions, and slower. If you’d like to see that, then class is the place to be!

Colors for colored pencil vs watercolor pencil

When choosing the colors for class, I picked a set of 11 colors (I tried for 12 but if you don’t need it, you don’t need it, right?). Faber Castell’s Polychromos Colored Pencils and Albrecht Durer Watercolor Pencils. That way they’re at least going to be the same colors so we can see the comparison without mixing brands.

These are the colors, in case you have a different brand and want to see if your pencil box has the right ones in it….you might also want to try some Faber Castell and these would be nice colors to have – to save you poking around I have individual links in the free pre-class lesson over at Art-Classes. 🙂

And thus, a new class is born! My apologies to the person who asked SO long ago about this comparison. Thanks to the website work, it’s now a reality and I hope the person is still following me! And I hope some folks will be inspired to give some pencil skies a try! Click on the pic to get to class:

Are you team colored pencil or watercolor pencil?

Okay you can vote for both but I would like to know which is more important for ya! As I’m working on these webpages it’s becoming obvious what the gaps are in classes so the list is getting revamped, and if there are few wcp folks, I’ll keep the focus in other places.

Well except on Saturday. Coz there’s new Anita Jeram coming, and well, I’ll be working with Inktense pencils since I gave a nod to them today without much of an chance for my Inktens pencils to reply 🙂

Sandy

Supplies

Used in this video:

1. Stonehenge sketchbook

Fave Erasers:

1. Kneaded Eraser
2. Electric Eraser, Mont Marte
3. Tombow Stick Eraser 

Fave Sharpeners:

1. Afmat Long Point Pencil Sharpener 
2. Dahle Chubby Pencil Sharpener
3. Quietsharp Pencil Sharpener BLICK – AMZ 

Colored pencil supplies:

1. Polychromos Pencils
2. Polychromos Hex Chart
3. Stonehenge Drawing Paper: AMZ –  BLICK 
4. Blending stumps and Blending stump sanding block
5. Gamsol Blending solution or Winsor and Newton Refined Linseed Oil
6. Jars for solvents
7. Tea Strainer

Watercolor pencil supplies:

1. Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolor pencil
2. Arches Cold Press Pad
3. Artist tape 3/4″
4. Ampersand Hardbord
5. Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #8: BLICK –  AMZ 
6. Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #4  BLICK – AMZ 
7. Mottler Flat Wash 30, DaVinci Cosmotop Spin Brush
8. Tea Strainer

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