Watercolor pencils. They’re travel art kits’ little unsung heroes. Recently, I did a review on watercolor sticks as a great travel option for watercolors, and I think they would pair well with a set of watercolor pencils for great travel tools. I hadn’t played with colored pencils for many years and I’d forgotten how good they feel in the hand. There is such an ease and simplicity of use.
For one, we all used them as kids. They’re just easy to pick up and use without overthinking the process. The muscle memory is there and it’s easy to get back into that child-like playful frame of mind that taps into effortless creativity. They sharpen easily with a tiny hand sharpener, there is almost no mess involved and they’re so versatile. You can do a quick sketch, add detail, set it aside and then come back in later to blend with water. It’s easy to add in layers in a variety of techniques. Blend colors in a drawing, blend that layer with a wet brush, add in layers and blend more—or leave top layers dry for more texture. In playing with them, I actually found that using a variety of approaches resulted in a multi-dimensional look I appreciated.
I bought a set of 36 Prismacolor watercolor pencils and found that to be plenty—especially since I would really only use these for sketchbook purposes. The set comes with: Cream, Canary Yellow, Spanish Orange, Goldenrod, Sunburst Yellow, Orange, Poppy Red, Carmine Red, Crimson Red, Mulberry, Pink, Blush Pink, Light Peach, Lilac, Violet, Violet Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Copenhagen Blue, True Blue, Peacock Blue, Indigo Blue, Non-Photo Blue, Parrot Green, Spring Green, True Green, Grass Green, Olive Green, Dark Green, Sienna Brown, Terracotta, Dark Umber, Dark Brown, Cool Grey 50%, French Grey 20%, White, and Black pencils.
The set has plenty of blues, greens, and browns—making it perfect for plein air landscape studies.
An Excellent Travel Sketchbook Tool
Watercolor pencils really are a perfect sketchbook travel option. They come in a metal tin with 3 layers of plastic inserts. For some reason, they come just randomly inserted in the trays. I found myself compulsively dumping them out and regrouping them by color right away.
The fact that I can just grab a tin of pencils and a pad (adding maybe an eraser and a brush pen) and head out is just too easy. They’re even perfect to use with sketchbooks of thin, cheap paper because you can blend with just a touch of water and they won’t warp much at all. There is no rinse water needed (or to worry about disposing of). Just grab and go when the desire strikes.
They can be blended with a Prismacolor colorless blender marker. The blending markers are double ended with a fine point or large tip option (and you don’t have to worry about it leaking—so there is that). The blender marker also won’t warp the paper.
I prefer just using a brush pen myself. With a brush pen, I can just wet the tip of the pencil and paint with the pigment on the brush. I rather like that effect. I also really enjoyed wetting the tip with a short scrubby brush and using a finger over the bristles to create a spatter effect on the paper. This was easy to do with a minimum of water. No mess at all really.
Make a little palette on a piece of paper by laying down some pigment, wetting it on the paper “palette” and then applying the color in a sketchbook or on a work of art is an easy way to use these pencils on the road. They can even be mixed on the paper palette to create an exact shade needed.
As a Sketching Tool for Watercolor Paintings
I like using the gray pencils to sketch out a drawing for a watercolor painting. The lines blend into the painting with a small amount of water and disappear into the piece unlike a charcoal or graphite pencil. The pencils can be sharpened to a fine point and used for small details on a watercolor piece, making tiny details easier to add than with a small brush alone. With a light touch, they blend easily into tube or pan paints. I’ve found the pigments to be surprisingly vibrant.
I’ve head some complaints about the pencil points breaking too easy when sharpening, but I haven’t had this problem. I just use a tiny metal hand sharpener, so this hasn’t been an issue. I imagine that using an electric sharpener might cause some issues, but I found them to be rough on any pencil.
In this day of digital scanning, photographing and inkjet color printing the quality of supplies is somewhat less of an issue—but if these pencils are used on acid-free paper and coated with a UV protectant spray once complete, I imagine the originals are quite archival. Although I haven’t put them to the test, I would think they could last for a couple of decades at least if hung under good conditions.
Can the pigment be erased?
Can the Prismacolor watercolor pencil pigment be erased? Not so much. I used a light touch to lay down pigment on cotton paper with some tooth and a Prismacolor Magic Rub® eraser. It lifted some pigment, but not enough to make it “magically” disappear. Don’t count on using these like you would an actual pencil.
In Summary
Watercolor pencils are a very convenient tool for keeping an art sketchbook while traveling. I use them for quick studies and experimenting with color options. They are so versatile and while I only use them for sketching outlines in final works of art, they are now a permanent staple for sketchbook work. I recommend them as a portable go-to supply when on the road!
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