Summer Fruit in Watercolor & Inktense Pencils

One hour sketch of a little bowl of summer fruit in watercolor (above)

Same sketch in Inktense watercolor pencils (above)

I finally tried out the Inktense pencils I got last week. They remind me of the really special coloring books I treasured when I was a kid that look normal until you paint on them with water and then color magically appears. With the Inktense pencils, the drawing is about 50% lighter before you add the water. First I tried doing self portraits with them and they came out ghoulish and awful–more like clowns or wanted posters. So I decided to try the Inktense with some bright summer fruit–a more appropriate application.

Once I’d done the ink drawing in my large watercolor Moleskine, I liked it so much I decided to paint it both in watercolor and the Inktense colored pencils. It’s so much fun to draw directly in ink this way– it teaches me about acceptance, I think, in just taking what I get and not fretting if it’s not perfect (a favorite mantra: You don’t have to be perfect to be wonderful and neither does your drawing!).

Since I wanted to use the same drawing twice, I scanned it and then painted the 1st drawing in my Moleskine with watercolor. Then I printed out the scanned drawing, and using a lightbox, traced it onto the next page of the Moleskine. I colored the second drawing in with the Inktense pencils and then brushed on water. One trick to controlling the Inktense pencils with water is to not use too much water and to frequently rinse the brush and slightly dry it. Otherwise you pick up too much pigment and smear it around where you don’t need or want it. Also, even though the pencil looks pale, apply it lightly or you end up with way too much pigment.

Inktense are fun, but they won’t replace my trusty watercolors. I know the Inktense drawing looks brighter and more vibrant, but it seems all tarted up to me somehow.