There’s an entire world of possibilities with watercolor pencils that most people don’t know about. Don’t just blend with water, but try these 5 watercolor pencil techniques to create a textured and colorful work of art.

Choose from any of our Coloring Studio Gift Bundles to get started creating your very own watercolor masterpiece.

For this coloring page by Mary Chamberlain, I combined all the different techniques on different parts of the page. The mixing and matching creates a lot of interesting textures and it is the unified color palette that ties the whole page together.

1. Watercolor with Gesso Blend Technique

This technique creates an almost ethereal appearance. It is very similar to the traditional watercolor technique in appearance, but lightens everything up just a touch so that the colors all become matte and muted.

Color the entire page as desired with watercolor pencils, then blend the page with a layer of gesso. Work only one color at a time, and rinse in between. If the color becomes too pale, you can let everything dry, then repeat the process using a more watered down gesso.

2. Pencil Shavings Technique

Begin with a basic color wash or a blank page. Using a pocket knife, create small shavings of lead and allow them to fall randomly on the page. Spritz page with a mister or spray bottle to develop the color on the page.

3. Wet Watercolor Pencil Technique

This technique creates a smoother line and doesn’t require any additional blending. Dip the watercolor pencil directly into the water to create a smooth line of vivid color. You can also redip the pencil as needed to blend out any imperfections.

4. Traditional Watercolor Pencil Technique

For the traditional technique, color your page with watercolor pencil, then blend with a waterbrush.

This technique requires very little water and you can get good control of the pigments if you use a waterbrush.

5. Dry Watercolor Pencil

Watercolor pencils can also be used in the same way as colored pencils. This is great when looking to fill small areas that would bleed when blended with water.

 

Enter to Win Your Own Set of Aquarelle Watercolor Pencils from Faber-Castell!

[This giveaway has ended.]

Our friends at Faber-Castell have graciously provided this set of Aquarelle Watercolor Pencils for this giveaway — that’s a $64.75 value!

Art GRIP® Aquarelle Watercolor Pencils allow you to add watercolor painting effects to your projects.  Simply use a wet paintbrush (included) to brush over your design and the richly pigmented water-soluble leads turn into permanent, waterproof and lightfast watercolor.  Apply a wash of color to stamped images or create beautiful backgrounds for cards and scrapbook pages.

Click here for more information about this amazing product.

To Enter:

1) Share your favorite image above on Pinterest or Facebook by pinning or liking the image.

2) If you pinned to Pinterest, share the link in the comments section below. If you “liked” on Facebook, tag us so we can see.

3) If you don’t have Facebook or Pinterest, please comment below and tell us your favorite technique using watercolor pencils.

 

Winners will be randomly selected from the comments below for our giveaway and contacted via email. Contest is open to U.S. residents only, and ends 01/31/16 at 11:59pm PST.