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At the Alcatraz Sketch Crawl I experimented with water color pencils. I figured that there would be less to carry since I wouldn't have to bring water or a brush of any kind. It worked out great. After coloring my sketches with the pencils on site, I took them home and brushed water over them. No fuss, no muss.
Does anyone have any recomendations as far as better brands of water color pencils? I used some cheap General's pencils.

I maintain a reasonable degree of mobility by velcro-ing my brush and waterbottle (film canister) to a mini palette.

Sounds like a great idea - do you have a photo of it??

CEFPS ( Combined Expeditionary Field Palette System)
Utrecht mini pallet with velcro on foldout, film canister water holder with velcro, utrecht kolinski sable #6 brush with velcro, large water bottle, little sponge.


Deployed CEFPS. The filmcanister water holder and the brush are affixed to the foldout with velcro. This way, I can hold most of my equiptment in one hand, even while walking. I velcro my brush on when I need a free hand to do other stuff!


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VELCRO .. such a good idea!

By the way: your picture looks kind of creepy, as your (cut off) thumb seems be velcroed on the pallette, too.

Staedtler Karat Aquarell pencils are nice.

I have Faber-Castells and Derwents, both of which work well, and Cretacolor Monoliths, which were disappointing (compared to the first two, they don't dissolve well and colors are less intense). I have a nice set of portable pan watercolors, but the watercolor pencils are better for my sketchbook adventures.

I use a film canister also never thought to velcro it. Brilliant. Try a clear canister instead of the black one... oh dont ask me why its just more interesting to see the water.
Toledo, Spain. 'Windmills' http://www.flickr.com/photos/46467728@N ... 59868/[url][/url]

Cynthia, fantasic work! Glad you included the ruler,
I would have never realized your watercolors were
that small To add that much detail with such
a small area to work with is very impressive. You
still maintained a nice, loose style as well. Bravo!

I gave up on colored pencils recently and went with my watercolor pencils. They're Staedtler, and I like them. The next thing I got was a waterbrush. I actually read about it on one of the sketchcrawl.com pages. It's like a brush pen, with a reservoir for water. It's got a cap. I keep it with the pencils, and I don't need to carry a brush and a jar for water. I haven't used it much but it seems really convenient. I should get out and try that some more tonight.

Gerald wrote:Cynthia, fantasic work! Glad you included the ruler,
I would have never realized your watercolors were
that small To add that much detail with such
a small area to work with is very impressive. You
still maintained a nice, loose style as well. Bravo!

Thanks for the compliments to my watercolor mini's. I love working small. One of my first jobs while still an art major at Cal State LA was painting thimbles for a gift store at 'Magic Mountain" theme park. The training I suppose, has served me well. LOL
Cynthia Padilla
<http://artinstructor.blogspot.com/2006_ ... chive.html>

John Juan wrote:At the Alcatraz Sketch Crawl I experimented with water color pencils.....Does anyone have any recomendations as far as better brands of water color pencils? I used some cheap General's pencils.

I teach adult workshops and students bring in all brands. This gives me a great op to test drive so many products and brands. When it comes to w/c pencils, I don't see a big enough difference in any. Make sure it is an artist grade [and not a kiddie grade] and then just get whichever's on sale.

Cynthia Padilla, http://artinstructor.blogspot.com/
Watercolor Pencil How-To:
http://www.gardenandhearth.com/Sketchin ... encils.htm

I've used and like Derwent. You can also find, if you look, a brush that holds water in the handle - also good for travel. It comes in, I think, 3 different sizes. Don't recall the brand name, unfortunately.

I prefer Derwent watercolour pencils ... They come in standard watercolour pencils, Inktense (more intense colours), water-soluable Pastels and Graphitint (water-soluable graphite shades).
A variety of size tins are available in each type. See http://www.pencils.co.uk/product.aspx for Derwent products... check out the brochures in .pdf they explain a lot. Derwent sets are available at most of the art supply stores.

I carried all of them around for a while on my personal sketchcrawls and almost got a hernia doing it . They were good to use but you need to consider a limited colour selection on your crawls. The colours can be blended both while dry and while wet. I found I personally preferred to just carry the Inktense set while outside. I found the pastels a little soft for my use during crawls and the Graphitint a little hard. With the standard watercolour pencils I just had too many colours to choose from and you really want to keep your sketches simple.

I do use the waterbrushes and carry 6. Two have a personal watercolour/water premix mix of a grey and another with Green (Oxide of chromium) - these I will use to do a light under colour tint. The other four I fill with clean water. The brand I use is the Holbein Watercolour brush. I do find that on the rougher heavier watercolour paper the brushes do wear down over time. Mine are still fine after 6 months of constant use but there will be a time where I will need to replace one or two.

Lately, I have gone back to using a regular set of watercolour brushes and carry them in a bamboo roll-up. I also have tried applying coloured inks such as Calli and Daler Rowney with a brush or sharpened (with a pencil sharpener) chopstick. The chopstick works good with the ink, and has the control of a fine pencil. Besides I get my chopsticks free whenever I order sushi or chinese food They always give me extras. I have also tried different inks and found that Mont Blanc fountain pen ink works great. You can dilute it with water to give different tones. Some of my friends use Lami inks and they like them, but I have not tried them. Ink does get a bit messy when you are sketchcrawling .. you need to be careful.

Anyway, if anyone has questions send me a Personal Message and I'll be glad to answer.


PS: I carry an old used iTunes card as a straight-edge. Better than losing a credit card or debit card and pretty small and compact.

Cheers
CyberDave
Vancouver, Canada

ethangeorgi wrote:I gave up on colored pencils recently and went with my watercolor pencils. They're Staedtler, and I like them. The next thing I got was a waterbrush. I actually read about it on one of the sketchcrawl.com pages. It's like a brush pen, with a reservoir for water. It's got a cap. I keep it with the pencils, and I don't need to carry a brush and a jar for water. I haven't used it much but it seems really convenient. I should get out and try that some more tonight.

I use a really nice Sailor brushpen with its converter filled with water to extend my smallest mini-sketchkit. I sketchcrawl on my own all the time (although I'm looking forward to organising/joining in group ones!) and like to carry as little as I possibly can! I always carry a tiny contact-lens holder of water, too, for cleaning off my brush occasionally and refilling if necessary.