INSTRUCTION BOOKLET

WATERCOLOURPENCIL ART

Getting Started

Draw

Colour

Paint

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Basic Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Pencil Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Experimenting with Colour Mixing . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Papers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Shading and Shadows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Creating Texture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Painting Exercises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Mixed Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Collage and Altered Art. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Lettering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Founded in 1761, Faber-Castell is still run by the same family, now in the 8th generation. The company has developed from a small workshop in Germany to an international corporation which employs over 5000 people worldwide. Our Brand Essentials encompass four core values:

Competence and Tradition

Outstanding Quality

Innovation and Creativity

Social and Environmental ResponsibilityLothar von Faber1869

Count A.W. von Faber-CastellToday

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We hope you have enjoyed your experiences and that you will continue to explore and discover the magic of watercolour pencil painting.

You can do beautiful lettering using the dry pencils, or fill in open letters with colour.

LETTERING

Try lettering over a background that you have created with the watercolour technique.

Discover the Magic of Watercolour Pencils.

This is a truly unique art medium and once you get started drawing, painting and experimenting you will be delighted with the results.

Watercolour pencils are very flexible. They offer the dual option of drawing with coloured pencils, and then, if you like, with the touch of a wet brush you can get the look of a watercolour painting. You have more control than with regular watercolour paints, you can easily add details and blend and mix colours. The pencils never dry out, aren’t messy, and take up very little space, all of which makes them perfect for doing art whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself.

Your kit includes the primary colours (red, yellow, blue) secondary colours (orange, green, violet) black and magenta. With these eight colours you will be able to create an almost infinite array of hues, tints and tones.

We believe that everyone, with a little encouragement and some simple instructions, can express their creativity and create still life, landscape, portrait, abstract paintings and more. By experimenting and becoming involved with the materials we hope you will find your own signature style to make original art that truly expresses your unique way of seeing and creating.

1

In this book we present many ways to put colour and paint on paper. You can follow the book sequentially or start anywhere by trying any technique that appeals to you in whatever order you choose.

BASIC TECHNIQUES

Hold On!

Try various grips and placements with the pencil. For more control, grip the pencil close to the tip.

For a freer stroke, move backalong the pencil and drawloosely.

Hold the pencil perpendicular to the paper or at an angle.

Colour with the side of the lead, by holding the pencil almost parallel with the paper.

Keep pencils sharpened. Use the pointed tip for details and the side of the lead for colouring in large areas. Tip

Brush Up

Use the tip of a slightly damp brush for fine details.

Press down on the brush to push colour into the paper.

Keep the brush full of water to create washes.

2

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Paint the surface with white gesso. Add a layer of one or more colours, using the side of the pencil lead. Brush with water. The gesso will give an interesting, mottled background onto which you can add collage elements, photos or lettering.

COLLAGE AND ALTERED ART

Create backgrounds for collage, scrapbook and Altered Art.

The transparent quality of the watercolour pencils make them ideal over pen work, to tint photocopies and printed

On vintage photos with a matte fi nish, you can colour directly on the image. Use only enough water on the brush to blend the colour.

Watercolour pencils are the ideal medium to use with rubber stamps because they offer many different applications. You can purchase rubber stamping supplies at your local craft store to get started. Or make your own stamps by cutting or carving images out of different porous materials such as foam or potatoes.

Stamping

Stamp an image using a rubber stamp and a permanent ink pad. Colour and paint the image with watercolour pencils. If you use permanent ink, the stamped image will stay intact when you paint over it.

Use the watercolour pencils as a stamp pad. Lay down a swatch of intense colour. Wet the swatch. Place your stamp into the pool of colour that is made and then stamp the image.

Paint a background area with watercolour pencils. Once your paint is dry, rubber stamp designs over it using permanent ink or watercolour pigment.

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PENCIL TECHNIQUES

Use a clean wet brush and stroke over your pencil marks. The water will turn the pencil into paint.

Colour an area with a pencil.

Since the colour will lighten when you add water, test the colour before applying it to your finished painting.

Tip

Experiment with different ways to dissolve the pigment.

• Use your dampened fingers.

• Spray the coloured pencil with a spray bottle.

Wet a section of the paper. Lightly draw with a pencil. Notice how the pencil marks bleed to create interesting effects.

Brush the tip of a sharpened pencil with a wet brush. Apply the paint to paper.

Dip the very tip of the pencil lead into a drop of water. (Don’t plunge the pencil into the water as it will cause the wood to swell and weaken.) Draw or stipple with the softened pencil lead.

3

• Paint with a wet cotton swab, sponge or cloth.

Line and WashDraw the outline of an image with a heavy pencil stroke. With the tip of a wet brush, pull the colour away from the line and into the shape.

Wet on Wet Wet and DryUsing a clean brush, wet an area of your paper. Use the “Pulling Colour” technique, transferring the colour into the wet area. Notice how the colour bleeds as you paint.

Add details to an area of washed colour. Wait for the painted area to dry before drawing over it with the wa-tercolour pencils.

4

Pulling ColourColour an area with a watercolour pencil. Using a wet brush, cotton swab, or your finger, pull the colour into an adjacent area to complete the shape.

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Use a block of wax, a white candle or crayon to draw a design. Then skim over the drawing with the side of a watercolour pencil, laying more colour around the border of your design. Paint the picture with a wet brush, moving colour over the design. The wax from the candle or crayon will repel the coloured water and your drawing will emerge through the paint. Add more colours if you like.

Batik Drawing

Draw designs with brightly coloured oil pastels. Lay a heavy border of watercolour pencil around the outside area of your drawing. With a very wet brush, paint across the design, washing paint over the pastel. The oil pastel is not affected by the paint. It will resist the watercolour, creating an interesting effect.

Oil Pastel Resist Designs

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Draw an object or a scene using a permanent ink pen. In this example, we used a superfine Faber-Castell PITT® artist pen with India ink.

MIXED MEDIA

Pen, Ink and Watercolour Wash

Use other art materials together with these watercolour pencils to create some wonderful painting and drawing styles and effects.

Add washes of colour and different techniques over the top of your drawing. If you use a permanent ink pen, the line work will stay intact and be visible through the paint.

Erase with Water

If an area becomes too intense with colour, brush over it with a clean wet brush. Then dab it loosely with a rag or sponge to lighten the colour.

Spatter

Wet the brush with colour and flick it against a pencil point. Protect areas of un-wanted colour by masking with scrap paper.

Brush Strokes

Apply more pressure to fan out the brush tip and pull it across the paper creating deep, broad strokes.

Scraping

Colour an area with a watercolour pencil. Wet the colour. Now take the tip of the brush handle and pull paint across the paper.

Use the very tip of the brush and apply light pressure while painting to achieve fine, thin, controlled strokes.

5

Layering is an important technique in watercolour pencil art. Through this method you can achieve subtle colour grading, mix colours and create the illusion of dimensionality.

6

EXPERIMENTING WITH Colour MIXING

Using the printed grids in your Watercolour Pad, try different colour applications and combinations. With a graphite pencil or permanent ink pen, note the colours you use in each grid to build a reference chart for your future paintings.

Lightly, with the side of the pencil, fill one cell of the grid with a colour. Using more pressure, apply the same colour more heavily in another cell. Brush each with water and see how the intensity of colour varies by the amount of colour you put down.

Use a hair dryer or craft heat tool to dry the paint quickly so that you can add more layers of colour or draw in details.

Tip

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Abstract Paintings

Draw a space that you can easily work within. Then draw a continuous line with a graphite pencil or a permanent ink pen. Make loops, zig zags, circles; cross over and back track. Now fill in the shapes that were created by your line meanderings. Use different colours and techniques shown in the front of the book.

Or scribble and swash colour randomly around your paper. Apply different techniques such as spattering and scraping. Don’t worry about what is forming, just experiment and have fun. When you are finished turn, flip, and crop your image until you find a view that you like.

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Putting it all together

Create bands of colour. Use the techniques shown here if you choose. Each band should represent an area of space such as the foreground, the sky, mountains, etc. Let the bands blend into one another. When you are finished draw a frame or use a paper frame to define the picture space.

Using the side of the lead, fill one half of a cell with one colour. Place another colour next to it. With a wet brush, stroke over both colours to create a new one.

Draw a set of parallel lines with the red pencil, then overlap at an angle with the blue pencil. Blend. Try this with different colour combinations. Try this with 3 colours.

Layer one colour over another by “cross hatching.”

Allow the colours to dry and then go back and add another colour. Rich colour and depth can be achieved by applying multiple layers of colour. Allow the first layer of watercolour paint to dry thoroughly and then add more colour to shade and intensify. By allowing each layer of colour to dry, you will be able to work the painting to get the desired effect.

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8

Keep your brush clean when you are painting by rinsing it thoroughly between colours. Use a cloth to wipe off excess colour and to control the amount of wetness.

Tip

Based on the colour pencil selection in this kit, a variety of brown tones can be achieved by layering different ratios of yellow, orange, magenta and black.

What about brown?

Meet in the Middle:

You will use 3 cells for this experiment. Colour most of one cell green, leave the middle cell blank and colour the next one blue. Brush the green with water, rinse the brush, then paint the blue cell, moving colour into the blank cell and pulling some of the green into it as well. This will create a gradated effect that works really well for skies, flower and leaf petals and other areas where you want to retain some of the original colours that are blended into the new colour.

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FlowersSeveral techniques are useful for making a field of flowers. Use the “Wet on Wet” technique, randomly dotting the wet area with greens, pinks and purples.

Dip a pencil tip in water and stipple random flower petals over a green patch of grass.

Or draw dots, and brush water over them. Go back later to swish in a few green stems.

Sand and Rock

Achieve the look of rock or sand by implying texture. Lay down an area of red, orange and yellow paint. Spatter red and blue dots all throughout the brown paint. Be sure to mask off the rest of your drawing before doing this so you protect other areas from spatter marks.

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Not everything we view around us is perfectly clear and defined. This is especially true in nature with objects we view from afar. For example, when you look at a cloud in the sky you will notice that there is no definite line making the shape of that cloud, and no two clouds ever look alike. Therefore painting landscapes and nature can be very easy.

Landscapes in a minute

By using several of the techniques shown in the front of this booklet, you can make some very convincing landscapes in just a minute.

Sky

The “Wet on Wet” technique you learned on page 4 is great for creating a cloudy sky. Create a palette of blue and red. Wet the area of your drawing that will be the sky. Pull the colour from your palette and swish it around the wet area of your paper mixing to get some purple tones. Make some areas light and some dark.

Grass

For spiky grass, simply use the scraping technique shown on page 5. The wooden end of your brush makes fine strokes that can represent blades of grass.

The salt and sandpaper techniques described on page 12 can also be used to create the illusion of a cloudy sky.

9

On a separate piece of paper draw different colour swatches, applying lots of colour. Use these dry pools of colour as if they were a watercolour tablet and pull colour to apply to your painting. Notice that the more water you use, the lighter the colour wash becomes. With less water, the colour will be more intense.

Make a Palette

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PAPERS

The practice paper in the Watercolour Pencil Pad has a smooth surface. Other papers may have more texture with “hills and valleys” on the surface and when you colour, the pigment will stay on the hills and miss the valleys.

The type of paper you use will have a big effect on the look of your art.

Try different types of paper. Thinner paper makes your art look delicate. Lightly tinted and coloured paper can also be used. Since watercolour pencil is transparent, the background hue of the paper will infl uence the overall colouration and mood of your art.

Handmade paper can also be used with watercolour pencils.

Other materialsalso accept watercolour pencil: try colouring and painting on wood, cloth and other porous surfaces.

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Blocking

Study the object you wish to paint by squinting your eyes. Do not look for lines that define shapes, but instead look for values - lights and darks - and colours. Roughly paint blocks of value and colour that allow each shape and ob-ject to emerge. (See A)

When you are satisfied that you have captured the essence of your object, allow the painting to dry. Sharpen the pencils to a fine point and add details. Dip the tip of the pencil into a drop of water to get an expressive look to the lines you make. (See B)

By adding some brown tones you can achieve an earthy, monochromatic feel.

(B)

(A)

Wash Drawing

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A style often used for practice sketching is pen, ink and watercolour wash. It is very popular for figure and fashion drawing and Asian-inspired art.

Wash Drawing

Although there is no pen included in this kit, you can achieve the same look very simply by just using your black watercolour pencil. Wash drawings can be done two ways.

In the example to the right, a sketch is made first. Draw an object with a black watercolour pencil. Then use a very wet brush over your pencil marks to create tones and shadow.

Another method is to do the wash first. Create a palette of black on the side. In your drawing area, loosely paint blocks of shadow and tones that represent the object you wish to draw. Once your painting is dry, go back and add detail with a pencil over the top of the wash.

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Lightly draw an object. Roughly add colour with the watercolour pencils, leaving the unshadowed portions blank. Then use a wet, clean brush to pull the colour across and create a soft wash.

SHADING AND SHADOWS

Painting with pencils

Lightly draw an object. Using the “palette” method described on page 9, roughly paint blocks of colour, leaving blank those areas where the light is hitting.

Shading with paint

Create intense shadows by adding layers of colour.

Create shadow with colour

Paint an object and allow the image to dry. Now add an additional darker colour at the points where the shadows are the darkest. Blend the shadows into the existing colour. In this example, we added a blue shadow to the red cherry.

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CREATING TEXTURE

With SandpaperWet your art paper. Rub the tip of the pencil across a sheet of sandpaper and let the colour shavings sprinkle onto the wet paper.

StipplingColour and paint an area and while it is still wet, use the sharp tip of a pencil to make small marks in the same or another colour.

With SpongesIn a separate area, make a palette. Wet your palette with a brush. Then pick up the colour with a sponge and transfer it to your art paper, stamping the sponge in the drawing area. Do this in wet or dry areas for different effects.

With SaltFor a subtle background texture, paint an area with intense colour. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle salt over the pigment. Let the paint dry completely before brushing away the salt.

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PAINTING EXERCISES

Imprimatura

Try this technique first in a small area - about 4”. Lay down a field of colour over the entire surface of the picture area. In this example, a blue watercolour pencil was used. Now draw the outlines of your images on top of the background colour, using any colour pencil or even a pen. Fill in the shapes you make with coloured pencil and washes. The background colour will show through your objects and create a feeling of harmony, pulling the drawing together.

Colour another background with watercolour pencil. This time use a wet brush to actually draw the objects in your background area. When it is dry you can add more colours and details.

Discover more great art products at www.faber-castell.com# 800094

Now that you have begun your journey with colour, you can continue to explore the colours and types of pencils available from Faber-Castell.

Creative Studio® ART GRIP® Watercolour pencils are available in tins of 12, 24, 36 and 60 colours at an excellent value for art students and aspiring artists.

Additional Getting Started Art Kits

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