trying ART SUPPLIES I HATE

Hello🩷

i dont prefer watercolor pencils either tbh!! i dont know how to style them in my works and just overall i dont like the results much. but hey thats ok!! i think its worth trying something were not that experienced in! proud of you for giving it a try :3

I find watercolor pencils to be good for my messy sketchbook, when I just want to test colors without getting my watercolor palette out. Also, if it's the vibrancy you're after, you might try Derwent's Inktense pencils--they are much more vibrant, I've found. Great video!

I totally agree on why were watercolor pencils made…it’s nonsensical 😳☺️

I think you are supposed to activate them in layers, activating a layer and then adding more on top, much as you would do if you were using non watercolour pencils with solvents (but here with water instead of solvents). Also most watercolour pencils are staining/more like India ink (it is not just Derwent Inktense, who are just good at advertising, haha, all watercolour pencils are kind of permanent), so you can layer once dry more easily than with watercolour

totally agree that watercolor pencils are kind of pointless lol but it makes sense to wet the pencils to make smaller details!! anyways the two paintings you made i think are very fun and charming!!!! :-)

This might be an unpopular opinion but I don't actually mind watercolour pencils lol

While they're not my go-to supply, I like being able to get a nice wash of colour without having to worry about the unpredictability of watercolour paints (e.g. like colours flowing into each other when I don't want them to). I also learnt that some watercolour artists like sketching with them because once they're done lining a piece, all they gotta do is start painting and the pigment from the pencils just disappears.

I ise Mondeluz on Black Paper - the pigment in them is good enough to pop off the pages and make a bright enough drawing. Never used watercolor pencils with water though :)

Cheap ones svck, expensive ones also svck and they are expensive, double the pain. I stromgly dislike them haha

I always have this exact same experience when I decide to try to use watercolor pencils in this way! It's frustrating, and I can always get better results with actual watercolor. Really the only thing I've found them to be good for (for me!) is that they make a great sketch layer, because I like the way they softly blend away as water and paint are applied.

I personally don’t feel like I have great brush control, so it’s easier to use pencils to apply the pigment

I don't know if it helps, but I like using watercolor pencils because it makes it a bit less scary and give me the feeling of more control compared to a brush which is (at least for me) more foreign when I wanted to put details ^ - ^'

I remember that watercolour pencils were all the rage in elementary school and all my friends had Faber Castell watercolour pencils and I was so jealous cause my mum said they were too expensive and got me an off brand.
As kids we used it to paint on our own skin A Lot, like doodling on hands and arms in class, and it worked super well haha. I might try them again.
I think the results might be better if you use the water in between layers, let it dry and then continue layering

Why I love watercolor pencils:
- they don't need as much water as watercolours so you can use them on bad papers (saved so many sketchbooks I bought and turned out bad for water mediums)
- easier to make even layer of color for backgrounds
- intense gouache-like effects but without the effort and messines of painting
- super easy color mixing by just adding layers
- you see the grain and texture of pencil but it blends like paint
- fun to use wet first and then details dry

I fully agree on the use on them as a medium in an actual finished piece of artwork. Theyre the opposite of everything I love about watercolor. However, I have recently fallen in love with water soluble pencils (including graphite) specifically for sketching! I use them to do a normal sketch, and then I add water for shadows and a range of values. They add a fun element to an othewise bland sketchbook spread 🥰

Agree whole heartedly, I too have found myself circling this supply straining to grasp the point. Now I hardly reach for them unless using strictly for drawing or sketching under what I will later add layers of actual paint to. Ur not alone hahaha thanks for sharing!

I've never got the hang of watercolour pencils either, they're like watercolour but less blended and like colour pencils but worse 😂

You unlocked a memory. As a beginner experimenting with art, I thought I would like watercolor pencils because I didn't like the unpredictability of watercolors. Nope, it just made me hate watercolor AND colored pencils for a long time.
The second piece has a lo-fi illustrative look that feels nostalgic to me. It seems like a good use of the medium for that artistic style. Maybe the flat staining quality would do okay for more graphic pieces? Idk What a weird medium.

Did you forget about your self portrait lol, its in the background of the intro

I don't use watercolor pencils a lot, but through a few different subscription boxes, I got to try a handful of different brands. Faber Castels Albrecht Durrers watercolor pencils are, in my opinion, completely unique in the vibrancy of their color and their ability to completely dissolve in water. If you're going to use watercolor pencils, I would suggest the Albrecht Durrers.

I like watercolour pencils for quick abstract pieces or thumbnails of watercolour pieces I wanna do. but a full illustration?… Not for me! Haha

I do like the second piece you did a lot, actually. There’s something weirdly nostalgic about it to me. 😅 Like…. (This is super specific,) it’s an illustration on the top/ cover of a choir song booklet.

I don’t really like watercolor pencils either, but one good use of them that I’ve found is that they are really good for doing the sketch of a piece you are gonna paint later, as it will fade once you add water and the lines won’t be peeking through!

beautiful ❤

I don’t love them either but occasionally, while doing mixed media, I just use them for the texture they leave behind.

Oh another thing, you can just lightly mist over your drawing as well instead of using a brush at all. Although, takes some practice

And then also, instead of doing a bunch of layered detailed drawings then wetting it, you can do each layer then wet, let dry, draw another layer etc. it’s stupid and takes forever but it seems to work better.

Maybe you’d like the neocolor2 or inktense better. I don’t like watercolor pencils but I do like those. I mostly use them in mixed media as a top layer though for bright pops of color

The lack of saturation is what bugs me too. Try INKTENSE pencils instead. They are really colourful....though still watercoloury, so you probably wont like them either 😆

So I personally use these to lay down muted colors, then I do fineliner/ink drawings over the top -- that's where my lights and darks and details come from. It's just not worth the hassle to me to mess with "real" watercolors for my purposes. I probably would never use them standalone. For what it's worth, I personally use far less water than you were and work in layers. Also, I used the brand you're using for a while, but it's not great quality compared to other options. Specifically, the "lead" of the pencil is fairly hard and the color comes out too muted for my taste. But it's also totally valid to hate any medium! You don't have to use anything you don't like!

I don’t use them for finished pieces but I love them for sketching and then using water to blend the shadows.

I use them only for sketching, design, thumbnails, mixed media and for challenges. Often best with less water and easier to use in worse paper when using very little water. Undersketches you intend to blend in is also a good use.

Tbh, most of the people i see using watercolor pencils are doll customizers. Watercolor pencils go well over sealants and last better over time. That being said, i used to use them as super pigmented color pencils by licking the tips when i was too lazy to use watercolor

I use watercolor pencils because my hands are shaky sometimes and I’m way more accurate with a pencil than a brush. I’m able to put the marks where I want them and get rid of them if I make a mistake. They’re also easier for me to blend than regular watercolor.

I know you have a different opinion than me, but I absolutely love both paintings. They're lively and kind of nostalgia-evoking. I think you had more control over the sharpness and straightness of lines, and it helps create form better than washed out/thicker watercolour lines. My favourite is the second one, the buildings look kind of nautical and inviting, like a neighbourhood I'd like to explore. You did a great job, and I'm inspired to try these pencils again now :)

i find watercolor pencils to be a useful tool, i use it for sketching before painting with watercolor or oil pastels, ilike using them to add details and do thumbnail, but i sort of don't understand them as a standalone supply

i know this is a super specific niche, but my grandma has dementia and they are the perfect medium for her!! i gave her my set bc i hadn't used them in a long time and she loves them - they're really easy to control, there's much less 'prep' needed (e.g. preparing a pallet, using different brushes, clean vs dirty water), but she's still able to mix some different colours. it's great that they don't need as much water so they still work on the regular paper that she uses.

accessibility! sometimes its just easier for me to use these than deal with fully wet paint of watercolors. also i like them for thumb nailing just to get the idea down

Some more perks of watercolor pencils
- accidentally dumping paint water is no longer a concern
- no graphite lines showing and potentially distracting
- super cheap ones aren't highly pigmented - great for newbies who may not get their sketch "perfect" on first try - in some ways they're more forgiving
- you don't have to wash out all the texture, and leave some of the sketchy lines visible if you want to

That said, my EDC kit has three watercolor pencils - a neutral color, a coolish neutral, and a warmish neutral. They're great for sketchbook work especially if you're regularly in places you can't pull out your full kit.

I use watercolour pencils not for the watercolour feature 😂😂😂😂 I just wanted cheap colouring pencils and that was all my local shop had 😂😂😂😂

I'm with The Mind of Watercolor in that watercolor pencils are primarily a drawing/sketching tool rather than a form of paint. So for the most part I use them dry except for a few instances: when filling in large areas or blocking in color it's much quicker to lightly scribble then spread them out with water than it would be to fill the whole area just with pencil; to soften or blur lineart, often to create a shading effect; or to dip them in water to get bold marks, as you have.
As per using them directly as a paint, by scribbling on a palette as some do, I think the main reason people do that is for portability: it's easier to bring a pack of soluble pens/pencils, a scratch pad, and a water brush when out and about than it is to carry a full watercolor set, with brushes, water pots, etc.
I know they're also used a lot by mixed media artists because of their versatility: two art supplies in one package. They can also sometimes be used over mediums that regular watercolor usually struggles with, like acrylic paint.