How I use colored pencils for sketching

I like to have a few colored pencils around for sketching, but I don’t usually use them alone. Rather, I combine them with watercolor to add texture and detail. I find colored pencils can often bring out certain fine details better and in a more controlled way than fiddling with fine brushes, and sometimes I use them instead of pencils for sketching – you have a wide selection of color and colored pencils give very smooth strokes, and they blend nicely into the rest of the sketch of you add color on top.

There are different kinds of colored pencils. All of them need binders for the pigments – some have more oil-based ingredients and some are wax-based. Most pencils use a mixture of binders. You can add water to some of them and spread the pigments around (watercolor pencils), and some will stay in place when you add water. I like to plan for these different qualities when I’m sketching. If I want to use colored pencils for line work that I want to be seen later, I use a pencil that’s not water-soluble. If I want it to disappear or merge with my painting, I’ll use water-soluble pencils (and sometimes I don’t think ahead and my drawing disppears when I add water).

Most typically I will use colored pencil as the last layer on top of watercolor, a lot of the details in my wildlife drawings (feathers, fur) can be done this way. Sometimes I use colored pencils for the very first layer to preserve details (how feathers are organized, patterns, etc.). I also like to add last touches to gouache or watercolor landscapes sketches with colored pencils – tree branches or grasses are also great to do in this technique. For me, the combination of thinking in value and color (painting) and thinking in line quality (drawing) can be achieved very well with colored pencil and watercolor. I usually don’t just get the standard rainbow colors that you get when buying a box (although these are useful too), but I often select single pencils with slightly more muted colors like light and dark browns, blues or greens. For nature sketching, you can never have too many greens and browns. Warm greys are also a good choice, I like to use grey colored pencils for drawing instead of regular pencils. Muted colors are also a great choice for making colored sketches, on white paper or on toned paper (light pencils let you add highlights).

Lightfastness in colored pencils

As with all art supplies, I prefer to use materials that are reasonably lightfast if possible – although I work a lot in sketchbooks, I want to make sure I (or a customer who buys an original from me) can still see what I’ve drawn a couple of years from now. For colored pencils you usually don’t get pigment information, but the manufacturers at least tell you if the color is more or less lightfast. Testing methods and standards vary, and it can be very hard to get additional or in-depth information from customer service. Lightfastness is not as well documented as it is for most paints. Do ask the companies about this if you care about lightfastness, hopefully they will put out better information for all of us in the future. Pinks, purples and blues (and sometimes yellows) are most notorious and can fade really fast. Organizations like the CPSA (Colored Pencil Society of America) do their own independent testing, the results can differ from what the companies put on their labels. If you want to be sure, conduct your own tests.

Lately, I’ve tried a few new brands of colored pencils and combined them with my standard colored pencils to see what’s out there on the market and what pencils I like to use on a regular basis. This is just a very personal overview that takes into account how I work with these pencils. These are the colored pencils I’ve worked with so far:

Faber-Castell Polychromos

These colored pencils are my standard choice. They are soft but don’t break even with a very pointy tip, there is a wide selection of colors available, and the lines stay where they are if you go over them with water. Great as an all-purpose colored pencil, and mostly lightfast. I really love these pencils and fortunately they’re easy to get for me and reasonably priced.

Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer

These colored pencils are similar to the Polychromos (same company, same numbering system), but water-soluble. I don’t use that effect very often, and so I use them in the same way as the Polychromos. They are possibly a tiny bit less soft to draw with. Watercolour pencils (not only these ones) have often more less lightfast colors, so pay attention if this matters to you.

Faber-Castell also has a very nice customer support and answered a lot of my questions about lightfastness – I had a very nice conversation on the phone with the person who runs their lab. One thing I found very interesting that they mentioned is that lightfastness often doesn’t depend on the pigment alone, but how it’s combined with binders and what kind of bonds it forms with other ingredients (which somehow makes sense). So an ultramarine blue (PB29) that’s usually very lightfast can actually be less lightfast in colored pencils.

Derwent Coloursoft

I really love the softness of the Derwent Coloursofts, they’re very similar to Polychromos, but seem to work better on painted surfaces (for me). Not all of the pencils in this range are lightfast. I only have a few of them, but I might try out more colors.

Derwent Drawing

These are very interesting colored pencils, the whole range is lightfast, they’re very soft and creamy, and come in beautifully muted colors. I find them wonderful for all kinds of nature drawings, especially landscapes or toned drawings. Sometimes it can be a bit hard to keep a fine tip because of the softness, with too much pressure they crumble. This line has the most opaque white colored pencil that I have come across – useful for highlights.

Derwent Watercolour

I only tested a few of these pencils, to me they seem to be a bit chalkier and harder to draw with than the Faber Castell watercolor pencils. Again, not the whole range is lightfast.

Derwent Inktense

These colored pencils are a bit different than the ones above in that they are made to simulate ink when you add water. The dried result is waterproof. The dry color of these pencils is often quite different from what you get when you apply water (which is often true for water-soluble colored pencils, but especially for these ones). I mainly use them in their dry state, they’re very intense with a lot of pigment packed into the lead, and they’re also quite soft and give a nice line. Unfortunately, the lightfastness of this range is not so great, but the pencils themselves are really interesting to work with.

Derwent Lightfast

A top of the line, lightfast colored pencil, oil-based. This line of colored pencils is completely lightfast and very thoroughly tested. I have a few of these for pink and purple tones that are mostly non-lightfast for other brands. Expensive.

Derwent’s customer support doesn’t seem to exist at all, because I got no reaction on my questions about their products.

Caran D’Ache Luminance

Another very lightfast, very expensive colored pencil, similar to the Derwent lightfast but they have a slightly different feel to them when drawing. What I find unfortunate is that these pencils create a waxy barrier that is hard to paint on top of, for my mixed-media approach this is often a deal breaker.

Caran D’Ache Supracolor II soft

These are slightly softer and feel more waxy than the Polychromos, and I use them sometimes when I add details over painted areas and want really thick lines. Water-soluble and available in many colors, although the most interesting colors for me tend to be not as lightfast as I want.

Unfortunately the company Caran D’Ache has a slightly weird and unresponsive customer support, so at the moment I’m not really planning to get more of any of their pencils, although they are nice to draw with.

Colored pencil techniques

Using colored pencils on top of existing paint layers can sometimes be a bit tricky. I find it works best when the paint underneath is really dry, so you don’t create indentations with the pencil tip. So it’s not the best technique for impatient sketchers (like me). I sometimes destroy parts of my sketches by adding colored pencil too soon. Another factor is that some colors of the same pencil brand can feel a bit more harsh (depending on the pigment and probably on temperature, too), so not every pencil performs the same.

Applying pencil lines first and then going over them with paint doesn’t work always either. As stated above, some colored pencils have so much water-repelling ingredients that the wash goes on in beads. You can usually force a smooth wash over your drawing if you go over it for a few times. Of course watercolor pencils will dissolve easily if you add water. I find that for preserving details under a watercolor wash the Polychromos usually work best (but maybe that’s because I use them the most).

Another interesting effect you can get out of water-soluble pencils drawing on slightly damp paper – it creates a nice texture (wetting the tip and then drawing is not recommended because it can damage the wood and the lead). When using these pencils to achieve a watercolor effect, I find it’s most helpful to apply color first, then blend the area with water, and go over it again with colored pencil when it’s dried. That way, you get a more even color application.

All in all, I really like having colored pencils around for sketching and they’re an essential part of my technique.

How I store and sharpen my colored pencils

I store my pencils in jars, with the tip pointing up, sorted by color for a bit of every-day-OCD-fun. Most colored pencils also have colored shafts, so it’s no problem picking the one I want very quickly. Some brands (CdA Luminance, all of the Derwents) only have thin color rings on the end, so I have to go by the color of the tip.

One of the best investments in my studio is my Dahle 133 pencil sharpener, which produces excellent tips on all pencils. I avoid small hand sharpener whenever I can.

Resources:

Faber-Castell Color Charts
Derwent Color Charts
Caran D’Ache Color Charts – You’ll have to select a product with the colored pencil line to get a PDF with a color chart.

Do you use colored pencils for sketching? Which ones do you like best and how do you use them?