Home › Forums › Explore Media › Colored Pencil › Are watercolor pencils shiny?
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March 31, 2022 at 11:23 am #1464842
You know how regular wax and oil based colored pencil tends to shine on the paper when burnished, I was wondering if watercolor pencils work the same way if used without water and used like a traditional color pencil with burnishing?
April 1, 2022 at 2:14 am #1464897Generally, not, they are compresses pigment and intensify when you wet them.
Doug
We must leave our mark on this worldApril 1, 2022 at 1:27 pm #1464976Generally, not, they are compresses pigment and intensify when you wet them. Doug
Thanks for the reply! I was planning to use them dry on top of gouache to add details and do mixed media. Gouache is matte and when I use regular colored pencil, it shines when you tilt the piece, my worry is that if it were to be hung up and framed/unframed, certain angles of the light would cause a noticeable glaring shine, such as this I did on a test piece https://imgur.com/a/8vScOga
I had someone answer this for me and they say that the Faber Castell Albrecht Durer is the most matte and flat. So I’ll try and see for myself I’ll have to buy some, but if anyone has some on hand and could just test it out by tilting the paper in the light and let me know, I would appreciate it so much!
April 1, 2022 at 2:44 pm #1464987Check out this interview with artist Pat Southern She uses them extensively along with pens and gel markers on toned paper.
Doug
We must leave our mark on this worldApril 2, 2022 at 9:18 am #1465078Check out this interview with artist Pat Southern She uses them extensively along with pens and gel markers on toned paper. Doug
Oh I just love that! I love the pop of opaque colors on toned paper, it’s my dream favorite right now. I’m working on canson mi tientes and fabriano tiziano paper, it takes gouache OK so far if I tape it down, but I’m still sort of deciding if I want to use gouache on it or just stick to dry media to avoid the whole buckling issues. Watercolor paper needs to be available in the same colors as the mi tientes/tiziano lines, it pains me a lot to not be able to use these gorgeous muted tones on a thicker paper. I really gravitate towards the muted tones like light and juniper greens, greys and grey blues, tans and some dark rich colors like burgandy and midnight blue. I am still very new to gouache and barely have worked with it so far, so I need lots of practice! It’s so unique and different to see toned paper artwork, it’s totally different than painted backgrounds IMO, because you can see and feel the paper fibres and texture against the subject and it has a very bold luscious finish.
April 2, 2022 at 4:40 pm #1465113I’ve used both Derwent and Caran D’ache watercolor pencils and have tried samples of Albrecht Durer. Usually even when I have my work flat I can see the shine with regular colored pencils. There is no shine of with watercolor pencils, at least that I can see.
Just so you know, artists have found Mi-Teintes paper to fade in anything other than the palest colors. I haven’t used Fabriano Tiziano paper, but would assume it fades as well. Since you’re working in gouache, you could either use Bockinford Tinted watercolor paper, or gesso your paper with either casein or acryla gouache (James Gurney is a wealth of information on this topic).
Sandra
April 3, 2022 at 2:10 pm #1465193I’ve used both Derwent and Caran D’ache watercolor pencils and have tried samples of Albrecht Durer. Usually even when I have my work flat I can see the shine with regular colored pencils. There is no shine of with watercolor pencils, at least that I can see. Just so you know, artists have found Mi-Teintes paper to fade in anything other than the palest colors. I haven’t used Fabriano Tiziano paper, but would assume it fades as well. Since you’re working in gouache, you could either use Bockinford Tinted watercolor paper, or gesso your paper with either casein or acryla gouache (James Gurney is a wealth of information on this topic).
Thanks for the info! I wasn’t aware that they faded, thanks for letting me know! I’ve always hated how construction paper faded, I didn’t think that these artist grade papers would fade, especially when they market it as lightfast. I will keep that in mind, it’s a good thing I go for very muted colours most of the time, I did pick up some burgandy and midnight blue and chocolate tiziano papers but wasn’t planning to make a habit of using it a lot. My most favorites are the very pale light green, light greys and light grey blues. I know an artist who works with it in gouache and I don’t think she’s had any fading, I looked it up and read that some artists do and some don’t, I guess it depends on how you display it? Or maybe it used to be fugitive and nowadays it’s changed? Who knows, I couldn’t find anything recent online about it, most of the information is from before 2006.
Funny thing is, I actually was looking up lightfast tests of colored pencil, and I found some tests done on polychromos and other high end pencils and they actually fade in harsh sunlight lightfast tests! I was shocked! No one really talks about this, well I haven’t heard anyway. I follow artists on youtube and instagram and everyone talks about the lightfastness. This is not deterring me though because I trust the companies and their lightfast standards and all of the millions of artists who use it. Here are some of the lightfast tests I’m talking about:
https://lisabeckers.nl/research/lightfastness-colour-pencil-research/
https://www.pencil-topics.co.uk/lightfastness-test.html
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