Early on in my watercolor practice, I googled this, with lackluster results. It seems that I had finally stumbled on a concept so tangential, trivial, and mundane that nobody bothered to post about it. Well that’s my wheelhouse baby!
The Problem
I’m not talking about watercolor pencils (that is, water soluble colored pencils), but about the choice of pencil used to make a drawing over which you will paint with watercolor. It’s useful to sketch your scene in pencil before you paint over it so you have a guide as to what goes where. (The practice of painting with no undersketch is rare enough to have its own name: direct watercolor.)
I don’t like to see a lot of pencil marks in my finished watercolor. Yet, when I have tried to erase the pencil after painting over it, it tends not to work well. When you paint over graphite with water and then let it dry, it makes the pencil marks harder to erase.
You therefore have a few options:
- Draw with pencil, but very, very lightly.
- Direct watercolor. Skip the sketch.
- Embrace the pencil marks. Make it part of your style.
- Embrace ink as part of your style and use a multistage approach (pencil, ink, erase the pencil, color).
- Use a projector or light box.
I tend to go with option #1, since it is simplest and allows me to aim for the “watercolor only” style that I desire. (Actually, sometimes I do #2, but complex scenes are a lot easier with some kind of sketch.) So I wondered: are there steps I can take to mitigate the pencil marks? Does it matter what kind of pencil I use, for example?
Pencil Options
Hardness
Art pencils come in various hardnesses.
- Bold pencils come in 1B (or B) to about 8B, with higher numbers being softer. “B” pencils are soft, dark and smudgy.
- Hard pencils come in 1H (or H) to about 8H, with higher numbers being harder. Hard pencils make light-valued, precise marks.
- Your standard yellow #2 school pencil is HB, right in the middle.
So where along the hardness scale is ideal for the pencil you use for your underdrawings? I tried various things and found that:
- The dark marks of bold pencils are extremely visible. Softer pencil lines can also smudge with handling (like if your hand passes over them), and darken when painted over. The softer the pencil, the worse the problem.
- Hard pencils were certainly lighter valued, but tended to emboss the paper, creating permanent marks even once the actual graphite is completely erased. The harder the pencil, the worse the problem.
Therefore, the best pencil hardness is just about HB.
What about Blackwing pencils?
I like them for writing but mostly they’re too soft for underdrawing.
| Blackwing Line | Blackwing Description | Softness Equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Matte | Soft | 3-4B |
| Pearl | Balanced | 2-3B |
| 602 | Firm | B/2B |
| Extra Firm | Natural | HB/B |
Width
A friend poking through my pencil drawer couldn’t believe that I draw with a 2mm lead holder. If you’re used to 0.5mm mechanical pencils, the lead holder looks like a mechanical pencil with comically thick lead, maybe a colored pencil for babies. Many people assume that thinner, sharper pencils are the best for artists because they are more precise. Personally, I find the opposite to be true. I am not a draftsman, and my sketches are loose. Thicker, blunter pencils are more forgiving of approximate linework.
Thin, sharp pencils also tend toward the embossing problem that hard pencils can have; blunt, rounded pencils are easier on soft or delicate paper.
For this reason I enjoy the 2mm lead holder, 0.9mm mechanical pencils, or wooden pencils. At thinnest I will use a 0.7mm pencil, lightly. 0.5mm mechnical pencils are not for me.
Color
What about color? Is standard gray pencil lead the best?
Usually, I would say yes, for erasability. Mostly, colored pencils are not very erasable.
I am aware of four three general categories of colored pencil:
Wax-based, like Prismacolors. Wax is a water resist. Painting watercolor over wax-based pencil marks tends to have interesting effects, similar to painting over crayon, but you can’t say it’s unobtrusive.Oil-based, like Faber-Castell Polychromos. These don’t play nicely with watercolor. They tend to smudge and make your brush stucky. And they’re also not unobtrusive.- EDIT: I have been roundly corrected! All traditional colored pencils are wax and oil based. The “wax vs oil” thing is apparently a myth. At any rate, I find artists’ colored pencils to not work well with watercolor.
- Watercolor pencils. These are designed to turn into watercolor when you add water. Again, very interesting and fun, but not what you want for an undersketch, since they will add additional paint to the painting.
- Erasable colored pencil, like Pilot Eno or Prismacolor Col-Erase. This is the only kind of colored pencil I would use for an undersketch.
Having tried erasable colored pencils lately, I do quite like them. Pilot Eno are 0.7mm mechnical pencils that come in a handful of fashion colors, and they are indeed highly erasable. The light blue is nice because it’s similar to the “Non-Repro Blue” that didn’t show up on old Xerox machines. Since it’s difficult to scan, it tends not to be too obtrusive in scanned work. But even in real life, I find it usually recedes to the background in a painting, especially one which has lots of blue in it (e.g. a blue sky). For paintings where warm colors dominate, pink or orange might be a good choice.
Eraser Options
I’ve found that choice of eraser matters more than choice of pencil.
Avoid standard plastic erasers, which can damage watercolor paper and leave lots of dust that can get into your washes.
A gummy or kneaded eraser is a must; it is gentle and leaves behind no dust. It’s not as effective as the plastic eraser, but that doesn’t matter if you are already sketching ever so lightly.
A weird trick that I find helps with undersketches is to almost completely erase your undersketch before you begin painting. You would think that this undoes the work of your sketch, but a kneaded eraser mainly just lightens it, and leaves behind random stray marks as guideposts.
Conclusion
My favorite pencils for undersketching are about HB, balanced between soft and hard, and tend to be blunt and rounded. What does this describe? …Oh yes, the standard #2 school pencil!
This explains why nobody writes about this: most people pick up a regular ol’ pencil and just use it and there is no problem.
What I use…
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Lead Holder
Alvin Pro-matic Lead Holder, 2mm, metal body: Blick | Amazon.com
Pacific Arc Lead Holder, 2mm, plastic body: Amazon.com
Comically thick for a pencil, surprisingly great for loose sketches.
Erasable Colored Pencil
Pilot Eno 0.7mm, Soft Blue: Amazon.com
Pilot Eno 0.7mm, Pink: Amazon.com
Pilot Eno 0.7mm 8-color Set: Amazon.com
I have a light blue one and a pink one, for use with different color schemes.
Kneaded Eraser
Lyra Kneadable Eraser with case (single): Blick
Faber-Castell Kneaded Eraser with case (single): Amazon.com
For erasers, kneaded is the way to go. I chose the Lyra one because it was super cheap on Blick and comes in a protective box, so it doesn’t stick to stuff or get stuff stuck to it. Faber-Castell is also a good option, and Amazon has the one in the box.
Regular-Ass Pencils
Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2 HB Pencils, Neon, 10ct: Blick | Amazon.com
Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2 HB Pencils, Pastel, 10ct: Amazon.com
Classic for a reason! You can get these anywhere. These are regular graphite, not colored pencils (only the barrels are colored), so the standard yellow ones are exactly the same; you probably have some in your house right now! But just in case you want a treat, I found a few cute ones for ya.
Pencil Sharpener
Blackwing Pencil Sharpener, white: Blick | Utrecht
Blackwing Pencil Sharpener, black: Blick | Utrecht | Amazon.com
If you’re going to use wooden pencils, you need a sharpener. (You don’t need this if you’re sticking to mechanical pencils, like the lead holder or Eno’s mentioned above.) I have found that the quality of electric sharpeners has really gone downhill in the last few decades, and I don’t need to do that much sharpening, so I stick to manual. The one I use is this all-metal Blackwing model.
I use colored pencils – either erasable Prismacolor Col-Erase, or Polychromos. I don’t have the smudging problems you’ve mentioned (especially compared to the actual smudgy mess of graphite). With a light hand I can get it as unobtrusive as I like. In the case of Polychromos, I use 2–3 colors closest to the dominant local colors, so they blend in very nicely with the subjects.
For landscapes I use a Light Blue Col-Erase and it never shows in the final painting.
Wax vs oil isn’t a meaningful difference in colored pencils, despite people repeating this misinformation online over and over. All colored pencils contain mostly wax. The hardness and smudginess comes from the different types of wax. Both oil and wax resist water. Individual colored pencil brands have different properties, but they can’t be fitted neatly into two categories of “contain oil” vs “no oil”.
As for erasers, I recommend Koh-I-Noor Era pencil-shaped eraser. It’s the only brand I’ve tried that actually erases without damaging the paper, and the narrow tip is very useful for details.
Do you ever have issues with the wax resisting? Are certain pencils better or worse for that kind of thing? I find it frustrating to work on a sketch only for my paint to flow away from the lines. I’ve actually had lots of issues with ink (especially shellac) resisting and leaving a white area around the line. I’m wondering if coloured pencils might actually behave more nicely, since they don’t soak into the paper.
I’ll second that col-erase pencils are nice to work with. If I ever find a 2mm version for lead holders that writes similarly, I’d be over the moon. I’ve tried the steadler coloured leads, and I guess they’re alright, but the col-erase is just a straight up better experience.
I can’t speak for Nela’s method but I’d never use regular coloured pencil under my watercolours for that very reason! Depending on which type/brand and even specific pencil I’m using the “resist” effect is more obvious but they will all do that. Using a water-soluble (aka watercolour) pencil is how you’d most effectively hide the under-drawing.
I disagree with Nela’s main argument because it’s obvious in the feel as you use the pencil which is more oil based than wax. Try a Pablo or a Luminance (Caran d’Ache) and a Lightfast (Derwent)- they all are generally speaking beautifully creamy opaque pencils but handle very differently. Apologies as US pencil brands aren’t something I’m familiar with.
It’s definitely true that different pencils have different feels. But I have been assured by multiple sources that the wax vs oil thing is a spectrum, not a binary, and comes down to marketing more than the makeup of the actual pencil. Here’s an explainer: http://www.theartgearguide.com/home/wax-or-oil-colored-pencils-myth-or-fact-
That’s a great resource on this topic that I also wanted to suggest. Quite long-winded, but a very rare case of “straight from the horse’s mouth” information, because art supply brands actually respond to Harry’s questions!
He’s not the only person who researched this and reported on it, but he’s definitely been the most thorough.
I actually found this to be a problem only with my light blue Col-Erase, because I tend to go harder with it since it’s so light. I need to be mindful not to put on too much wax.
Polychromos I find don’t leave as much filler, and even when I try to use the resist technique on purpose, this brand is the worst at it. Since they are more difficult to erase, I’m careful not to press too hard, and honestly haven’t had any problems.
I use 0.5mm Staedtler color leads too, but they’re so brittle. It’s quite frustrating to sketch with them breaking all the time 🙁
Thanks for the correction and recommendations!
I’ll stick with my water-soluble graphite! Faber-Castell 2B or 4B are my faves but I’ve a few different brands. Soft grades are my sketching go-to as they’re easy to erase and don’t dent the paper. That combined with my gummy eraser (currently a yellow Faber-Castell) suits for now.
I have used coloured watercolour pencil but certain colours are too firm… more work required to figure which colour works best for the brand and the work. Each pencil has its own characteristic- yep even within brand lines. It’s a pigment thing I’d bet. Good old graphite/gummy combo works every time or heh I’m lazy !
Thanks for the article.
It’s funny that we came to almost exactly the same conclusion about pencils. When I was a teenager, I tried all the Bs and the Hs and came to the conclusion that HB was actually just a great balance between the two, go figure. And, frustrated with how messy and short-lived wooden pencils are, as well as how brittle and expensive the 0.3, 0.5, 0.7mm mechanical pencils were, I arrived at the 2mm lead holder. I have enough leads for it to last me probably for another decade.
I think the only place we diverge is that I’m much more picky about the quality of my pencils, I cringe every time I see a cheapo yellow pencil. I associate them with lead that is reluctant to make a mark or has an irregular/gritty texture that interrupts my work. I was constantly running out of art supplies growing up, so I became very opinionated. I’m probably just lucky I missed the blackwing hype train.
I love drawing with the brush…I like script and swordliners for this reason. I’ve been undersketching with yellow ochre all april. But I’m still experimenting with the technique. It’s probably worth nothing that I’m used to a workflow where I rarely if ever erase, I don’t mind if my construction lines show through as long as they don’t attract too much attention. Yellow ochre lifts well enough and blends in well enough that I don’t mind layering over it.
Thanks again as always for posting your thoughts, I think a lot of what’s available online for watercolour is weirdly underdeveloped and very rote, so I’m glad someone is still out here blogging.
I’m also picky about my graphite pencils having bought a few more with my better budget. I use both sharpener required pencils as well as automatic and even clutch. Staedtler are routinely good; Faber-Castell do great water-soluble, matt and even jumbo (super-sized diameter); Pilot’s enox graphite are the only ones in my Staedtler automatic pencils; and my beloved chunky clutch pencil is a Shorty (German brand Woerther).
Caran d’Ache are beautifully made and priced to match. I’ve got some standard and coloured (yes really) water-soluble graphite. The regular graphite range they do are externally colour-coded so you know quickly what ones you need. I can’t use them all the time because of price (and arthritic hand) but they make me happy.
Apologies I don’t know any American brands. Am not allowed to buy graphite pencils for another decade or so anyway
I hate erasing, so I stick with 3 options: most often I use neutral watercolor pencil that matches the overall tone of the painting or sky blue, I consider amount of paint added minuscule; or I use erasable blue mechanical pencil, but I leave it be; or I use ink, both water-resistant and water-soluble, I sometimes like ink blooms mixing with my paints in loose sketches