Additional Notes About Colour Pencils

Thank you for joining me on my Drawing Techniques and Colouring Pencils Workshop. I hope you enjoyed it, I certainly did, and thank you also for the kind feedback - it meant a great deal to me! As promised I have provided a little more information for you about pencils but if you have any questions do not hesitate to get in touch at hello@gaelhillyard.com, and don’t forget to subscribe at the bottom of the page for updates and news.

Pencils

Colouring pencils are usually made of oil or wax. Wax pencils are softer which makes them easy to blend although not to layer. The wax cores tend to be a little softer than oil based pencils which can mean it is a little more difficult to get a fine point or one that lasts. They are also more prone to breaking. The most popular wax pencils available at the moment are Prismacolour.

Oil based pencils can be easier to layer especially on good quality paper, and have stronger cores which makes them easier to sharpen and they retain a fine point longer. The best known oil pencils are Polychromos made by Faber Castell, or Caran D’Ache Pablo pencils.

Caran D’Ache also offer a combined wax and oil pencil called Luminance which, along with Polychromos and Prismacolour, are considered one of the highest end professional pencils available.

Watercolour or Aquarelle pencils are available which can be used in place of and achieve similar effects to watercolour paints. The pigment is held in a binder which is activated when moistened with water. One of the most popular watercolour pencils are Albrecht Durer by Faber Castell. The range echoes the colours and labels used throughout the Faber Castell product line and they are often used with Polychromos.