I received an interesting question recently that I thought was worthy of expanding into a post. It was about the best combination of paper and pencils and methods for achieving certain results. It arose out of my post about making my colored pencil drawings look like oil paintings.
Mixing Paper, Pencils and Methods
There is an unlimited number of combinations of paper, pencils and methods. Even if you limit yourself to one method or paper, you have a wide range of possible combinations.
So I’ll speak in generalities with the hope of giving you a few basic principles to guide you in your own experimentation.
And that, in the long run, is really what it’s all about. Experimentation.
Surfaces
Most brands and types of colored pencils work with most types of paper if you use the right method. Somewhere, there is an artist using whatever combination you care to name, and getting good results.
However, there are some combinations that seem to work better more often than others.
For example, most paper types made for pastels can also be used with colored pencils. That includes hard boards such as Ampersand Pastelbord, Pastelmat boards, UArt boards, and Canson Mi-Teintes boards. Canson Mi-Teintes, Pastelmat, Colourfix, and UArt papers are also in this category. These surfaces will work with soft, waxy pencils, but work best with harder, drier pencils such as Faber-Castell Polychromos.
Smoother papers (Stonehenge, hot press watercolor papers, and Bristol, for example) are excellent surfaces for soft, waxy pencils such as Prismacolor and Luminance.
Basic Principle #1
Use soft, waxy pencils with smooth papers, and hard, dry pencils with textured papers.
Pencils
Any brand of colored pencil can be used to create excellent artwork. It has more to do with the way you use the pencils than with the pencils you use.
However, I think softer pencils like Prismacolor and Luminance are easier to lay down lots of color quickly. They can be difficult to get detail with, and they tend to break or crumble easily. But if you like big, bold colors applied with just a few layers, soft, waxy pencils are probably for you.
Harder, drier pencils can also be used this way, but their strength is in the ability to layer without filling the tooth of the paper. They’re excellent for glazing and detail work. They also are less prone to breaking or crumbling.
Basic Principle #2
Soft, waxy pencils lay down color fast, but may break or crumble and may be difficult to draw detail with. Hard, dry pencils are great for glazing and don’t break as easily.
Methods
The number of drawing methods boil down to two. There are variations and adaptations, of course, but only two methods.
The first is the direct method. You do the entire drawing with the colors that appear in the finished piece. The second is starting with an underdrawing of some type (umber underdrawing, green underdrawing, complementary, etc.). This is generally known as indirect drawing methods. I compared the drawing methods I use most often here.
Layering is involved in both types of methods, but the way you layer may differ. For example, if you use the direct method, you might do a lot of layers applied with light pressure. That’s what I do. Or you might do just a few layers applied with heavier pressure.
And if you use the underdrawing method, you might use light pressure as long as possible or start with light pressure, but increase pressure until you’re burnishing at the end.
In general, though, the more layers you use, the more tooth the paper should have. I’ve tried using the umber underdrawing method on Bristol. The underdrawing went well, but the paper tooth wouldn’t take many more layers when I finally started glazing color.
Basic Principle #3
Direct drawing methods work best on smooth papers. Indirect drawing methods (underdrawing) works best with more textured papers.
Finding Your Best Combination of Paper, Pencils and Methods
What should you take away from all of this?
In short, soft pencils and smooth papers are often a good match. Hard pencils and textured surfaces are also often a good match.
But there are exceptions to every rule. As I mentioned above, it doesn’t matter what combination of paper, pencils and method you name, someone somewhere is successfully using it.
However, I hope you now have enough information to determine your best mix of paper, pencils and method.
If not, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with playing with different combinations until you find the best one for you!
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Hi Carrie! As always, i enjoyed this article.
Interesting point, comparing Prismacolors and Luminance. i’d thought Luminance is more like my favorite, Faber Castell Polychromos. The Prismacolors don’t hold a point for me, if i can even get one in the first place, and they “explode” (yes, heperbole, but…)
However, i have been noticing the Luminance crumbling & breaking more at times. Drier air? They’re still worth using for the colors, but the Prismacolors are so much trouble that even the yummy colors don’t tempt me!
Valerie,
Thank you for taking the time to read this post and share your thoughts.
I know what you mean about Prismacolors breaking. They are very prone to that, especially with a sharp point.
I’ve been able to get very sharp points on all my pencils (yes, even the Prismacolors and the few Luminance I have) with a Kum 2-hole sharpener. It’s nothing fancy, but it works like a dream. It even comes with replacement blades.
i love the Kum sharpener. The only problem is making myself replace the blades when it’s time!
The blades are actually quite easy to change if you happen to have a small enough screwdriver. My husband has a set of Jetfix tools for computer work, as well as some other very small specialty tools. They’re perfect for changing the blades in Kum sharpeners.
For decades I was using a hand held sharpener for Prismacolors, different kinds, but leads were always breaking. I discovered that the Afmat electric sharpener has been
working perfectly. I’ve had no breakage, it’s been consistent! A miracle. No one ever
talks about this.
Tom,
Thank you for reading this post and taking the time to share your comments.
I have an Afmat Long Point sharpener, but it’s hand crank. I haven’t used it very much because I perfect a hand-held sharpener. But I don’t recall having problems with breakage with the Afmat. They make good sharpeners, as a rule.
Very helpful and allot of good content. Thanks.
Thank you, Patricia!
I have the Afmat vertical electric sharpener and so far so good with my Prismacolor Premiere. I haven’t used with my other brands yet.
The T-Gal handheld sharpener is what I had been using and have had a very good experience with this sharpener which allows selection of point length.
Lisa,
Thank you for sharing those sharpener preferences. I’ve heard of the Afmat vertical sharpener, but not used it. The T-Gal handheld is new to me. I’ll have to look into that.
Thank you!