Watercolor Pencil review and tutorial

Howdy folks!  I bought these Faber-Castell watercolor pencils over the weekend since I had no other watercoloring alternative to dye inks, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy they were to use and with the results, so I decided to share this with you.

They were regularly priced at $25 for a tin of 24 colors, and then I bought 16 more priced at $1.50 each.  But Hobby Lobby had them on sale for 30% off, so for 40 colors that can be blended to make many more, my investment was about $35, and pencils last a good long while.  When I use up a color, my replacement investment is only $1.50.

My review is purely my own opinion based on my actual experience using these pencils.  I am not a spokesperson for Faber-Castell or any affiliated company.  I also have not compared these pencils to any other watercolor pencil or marker on the market .

External features:

The pencil shaft is triangular shaped with rounded corners and with little raised up dots for gripping the pencil.  The grip dots are a fabulous feature for me, since my stamp loft is pretty warm and my palms and fingers sometime get clammy and tend to make slick pencils slide through my fingers.  Even if you don't have a problem with clammy hands, these grip dots help you to hold the pencils firmly with less hand pressure, which help reduce and/or eliminate hand cramps with prolonged use.

The pencil colors are marked by using numbers, and placed at the end of the pencil shaft.

Very little pressure is needed to lay down a good solid color, and I managed to get a vibrant color each time.  The lighter pressure you give only lays down less color, but does not give a less vibrant color, in my opinion.  When you blend less color using water, you get a more transparent look, and when you blend more color using water, you get a more opaque look.

I suggest using these pencils on watercolor paper and with a waterbrush to blend, for best results.  I used Canson 90 lb. watercolor paper for my project below.

I liked being able to lay down ALL my color on my images prior to applying my waterbush to finish. Whereas when I watercolor using dye inks, I can only use one color at a time.

How to use:

First, stamp your images using a waterproof ink.  I used Brilliance graphite black.

The stamp set I used is called Under the Sea and is available at CDStamps.

 

I laid down 2 different greens and a dusty navy color onto the seaweed images, see below.  The pencil colors I used here are 166, 167, and 153.  I did not fully cover the image space as you can see.  I left some spaces white so that I could pick up the color with my waterbrush and blend the two colors together.

 

Using your wet, but not drenched, waterbrush, lightly touch the tip of the brush to your lighter color and blend using a gentle and continuously moving back and forth stroke, moving the brush toward the other color.

 

Gently swipe the brush off a couple times onto a dry paper towel to remove the excess color from the brush.  Start again on the darker color and blend toward the lighter color. 

This does take a few practice runs!  You will see how the two colors become blended together with little effort, provided you are working relatively quickly so as not to allow the first color to dry before starting the second color.

 

Above:  Watercolored seaweed scene.  Colors used on the shells are 115, 118, 131, 132, 151.

 

Above:  A close up of how I colored the fish with the pencils. Colors used: 109, 115, 137, 139

Below: Watercolored fish.

 

To finish my project, I sponged baja breeze dye ink over the seaweed images to get a light ocean background color.  I dabbed a small amount of soft suede ink across the bottom for the ocean floor.

 

Below is my assembled and completed card.

 

SUPPLIES:

• ALL CDSTAMPS USED: Under the Sea
• CS & PAPERS: watercolor, baja breeze, green galore, lavender lace, pumpkin pie
• INK: Brilliance black, baja breeze, soft suede, green galore
• EMBELLISHMENTS & TOOLS: sewing machine, cuttlebug embossing folders swiss dots & divine swirl, sponge, waterbrush, faber-castelle watercolor pencils, thin organza ribbon from CDStamps.com, Basic Grey bling, SU dimensionals, stickles in several colors
• COLORING MEDIUM:  watercolor pencils on watercolor paper

I hope you find this review and tutorial useful, and remember that this post is merely my personal opinion on a product I purchased for myself.  You may or may not agree, and may or may not find the same satisfactory results as I have.  I just wanted to share my experience and hope that it is useful to you.

Thanks for stopping in today, and my next post will be saturday morning at 9 am!  Charlie has something sweet planned this Saturday, and I hope you will be stopping by again!

Happy stamping and may you be blessed ths week!

Laurie

Comments

[sue morris]

Great tutorial laurie! thanks for going to the trouble to share this. I haven't used my watercolor pencils much. Perhaps I should pull them out again. Thanks for the inspiration. Also, your cards and projects for the blog hop are fabulous!!!

[Joyce]

Great tutorial. Love that little fish!

[Cassie]

What a great tutorial, Laurie! Thanks for sharing your opinions on this. . .I've been looking at buying some new ones ;D

[Joan Ervin]

What a wonderful tutorial, Laurie...the colors are so vibrant and I love the finished prodict...beautifully done!!!

[Elena]

This card is gorgeous!
I have the same pencils (gift from friend), but never had a chance to use them!
Your wonderful tutorial inspired me, Laurie!

[SHAWNE]

What a great tutorial! I've never tried pencils, they look really fun to use, your card is so vibrant and has such fun details! I love it!!!

[Katie Renz]

Great tutorial and gorgeous card!

[Christi Bryant]

Thank you so much for doing this tutorial!
I have been very intrigued by watercolor pencils! I think I will stop by hobby lobby here in el paso tomorrow!
And -- your project turned out beautifully!

[Dawn B.]

Awesome Tutorial... I love the fact that you can blend the colors like that. It really does give a great depth of color. Super job Laurie. Thanks for sharing this.

[Nika]

Dear Laurie! I hope all is good with all of you! Your watercolor card is so beautiful!!! I pray for you! Hello from Russia. Nika