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Start Art 5 47 www.painters-online.co.uk Using the three colours (mustard, hot red and green aquamarine) gently apply the colour to the strawberry as shown, but apply it in a bolder more linear way for the leaves. Make sure your drawing lines go in the direction of the leaves. The more pressure you apply with the pencil, the deeper the colour will be once wetted 4 WET-ON-WET Using the same palette method, and the pigment as paint, the colour can be applied with a brush onto the wet paper. Begin with an outline drawing using the Outliner pencil. This keeps the drawn shapes while allowing the paint to flow freely over the lines. Wet the strawberry and hull area, then using the brush and your paper palette, touch the wet surface with the point of the brush, allowing the paint to flow into the water. The colours will run only where the paper is wet, and the drawn outlines will remain – the intensity can be adjusted by adding more colour from the palette. Whilst this area is still wet, wet the large leaf area; if the brush touches the previously painted section it will run onto the clean wet area. Where a gap is left, the paint will remain in that shape. By letting the paint run in places a soft painterly technique is achieved which can be adjusted by dropping in more or less paint as required 3 DRY-ON-WET For this method the paper is wet with clean water (or watercolour paint can be used) and the pencils applied directly onto the wet surface. If the pencil is applied directly onto wet paper it looks like a marker pen mark, bold bright colour, which does not run unless the paper is extremely wet. Colour can be applied on top of another colour but blending is not practical using this technique. The lines created cannot be removed though, so care must be taken when using this method. The Outliner pencil does not run, even on the wettest of surfaces. To achieve the speckled result on the background allow the previous section to dry then wet the paper with clean water in the background area. Using a craft knife, shave the pencil, allowing the tiny fragments of dry pigment to fall onto the wet surface. The pigment will only remain where the surface is wet, so any pigment that falls onto the dry surface can be blown away Using your wet-on-dry palette, as described above, you can apply your colours. The pigment can be used highly concentrated, or quite dilute to achieve lovely colour mixes. Just like using watercolour, if the wet edges touch, the colour will run. If a small gap is left the colour will not run 2 WET-ON-DRY A palette can be created with the colouring pencils by scribbling strong colour onto watercolour paper in separate blocks, then wetting the individual colours with a brush, as if it is a paint palette, then applying colour to the dry paper. Begin wetting the picture, start at the base of the strawberry, moving up and into the red. If your brush is well wetted you won’t need to re-wet it. Use the whole length of your brush, not just the point. Rinse your brush out then wet the small hull leaves. If the wet areas touch, the colour will run, just as it would with watercolour, so if you want to avoid this, wait for each wet section to dry before continuing. Letting the colour run a little creates a more painterly effect, which can give very pleasing results. Wet the large leaf section, moving the brush in the direction that the lines are drawn. If you wish to remove any of the lines, gently rub the brush in that one area until the lines disappear. You can see on the example where I have left little gaps and where I have let the paint run Using the Outliner pencil (which won’t dissolve in water) copy or trace this image 4 4in. (10 10cm) onto watercolour paper. You will need to prepare four traced images in order to practise all the techniques ▼ ▼ ▼