Sharie – Probably the problem is that when using water the best paper for the job is one for watercolour. If you are planning to combine it with regular dry CPs, pick a Hot Pressed one, with less texture than the Cold…

There is a UK author, artist and great teacher, Trudy Friend, who has books where she uses water-soluble pencils (Inktense and others) combined with others. You could also find videos, if not on YouTube at least in her website. She uses light layers, mainly to “glaze”, but that information I believe is covered only in her books.

Lisa – Using a solvent for a pigment especially formulated to dissolve with water is far from the ideal way to handle it!

I have pencils and sticks but I really only use them for painting fabric (because once wetted, the ink dries fixed and permanent. Perfect for doing backgrounds to embroider over). I scribble them onto scrap watercolour paper to make a palette, and use them onto stretched fabric like watercolours. I also grate the sticks with a tiny spice grater and sprinkle the tiny grains onto wet background.

You have to be careful not to get the stick or the pencil lead wet though, as the wetness activates the wet area to dry fixed and permanent, forming a solid non-soluble outer layer on the stick/lead, which you then have to remove before you can use the stick/pencil again.

Personally I wouldn’t even try to use them for proper CP fine art work – in my opinion the colours and application just don’t compare with good quality watersoluble pencils like Supracolor or Albrecht Durer. I would only use them when permanence is required.

The T Friend book I mentioned is Drawing and Painting Flowers, which has a lot of information about water-solubles, including Inktense.

I have only used W/S on the edge of a picotee Amaryllis, and it was a great way to start. I used to be a member of the UKCPS, and through them got a whole set of Aquatico, which are good (we don’t hear about them now!), but I prefer the Albrecht Durer. Also used the Neocolor II on sanded grounds. I will post some of that in my WIPs thread soon…

I never thought about using them for fabric. Thanks Claudia!

Claudia, you’re so talented! What a neat idea! Did you create the embroidery pattern, too? The whole piece is lovely.

After seeing this, I spotted an older article you might enjoy that would let you [URL=http://sandraleichner.com/wordpress/colored-pencil-applique-tutorial/]use your Prismas on fabric[/URL], too. Probably you already know about this but maybe not. :wink2:

Have a great weekend!

Thanks Sharie!:) Yes, it’s my own design, although I can’t really call it a design – I just sketched some of the stems and flower heads in at the start, and then I freestyled, adding bits as I went along. It’s very relaxing to do! It requires less concentration then coloured pencil work, and I can just do it with my feet up in front of the TV.

Thanks for that link – I’ve only just recently found out about using coloured pencils on fabric and I’m fascinated. There seems to be lots of different things you can do. I’ve seen some beautiful examples where people have used freehand machine embroidery to create outlines, and then coloured in with Inktense pencils. That’s yet another thing I’ll probably have a go at!!

I just tested my new set of 24 Inktense pencils on watercolour paper and they behaved nicely and very colourful.

Ah, glad to hear it went better on the Arches paper. I love that paper for water media. I just wish they did a whiter version. I’d be really interested to see anything you do with your Inktense – I’ve had mine ages and hardly used them so I’d appreciate some inspiration.

Are you working loose and free with them, or using them as an underlayer for other CP? I’d definitely be interested to know how you get on with them once you get more familiar.