Watercolor Pencils Were Made For THIS

So many people ask me why watercolor pencils even exist when traditional watercolors already do the job. And honestly, watercolor pencils were made for specific frustrations artists quietly struggle with all the time. And that's the part almost nobody talks about. Today, I'm painting from a reference photo I took during a trip to beautiful Lausanne, here in France. And this piece actually became a huge experiment for me because forests can be surprisingly challenging with any medium. I didn't paint many of these with these pencils and along the way I experienced challenges that prove exactly how fantastic these pencils are. I take a piece of sanding paper, around 220 grit or so, and I shave pigment directly from the pencils onto the paper. And already this feels very different from traditional watercolor. We're not worrying about water to paint ratios or painting a perfect flat wash. We're almost working like pastel artists here. Because one thing that can be really frustrating with watercolor pencils is streakiness. You carefully color something in, activate it with water, and you still see pencil marks underneath, especially in large areas. And I think this is one of the main reasons people give up on them too early. So I started experimenting with very different ways to use them and this became my favorite approach. Then I use a paper towel in circular motions to softly smear the pigment around and you can see how smooth this is already, with barely any effort on my part. Before activating anything, I overlap colors so the background doesn't end up just green. I want real color harmony, so I add touches of brown, red, yellow, and blue throughout. I know watercolor pencils become much more vibrant once activated, so I'm not worried that this is looking too light. All there is to remember with this technique is to finish the background before adding water, since we'll do this in one go. And now watch this. I spray water over everything and suddenly the dust transforms into something that looks almost like watercolor paint. The colors become incredibly soft and vibrant immediately just with the spray. But unlike traditional watercolor, little traces of pigment textures still remain in places where the water didn't fully reach. And sometimes I like to keep that effect on purpose because that combination looks so beautiful and organic. I also love tilting the paper and letting the drips run downward because it creates these natural leaks and transitions that are slightly unpredictable in the best possible way. And because I'm not even using a paintbrush, there is actually much less risk of muddy colors. Everything stays spontaneous. And this is exactly the kind of thing watercolor pencils were made for. Fast, expressive, and low-pressure experimentation. This technique here is also inexpensive, incredibly fun, and honestly anybody can do this. I use it constantly because it creates effects that feel more difficult, more technical to achieve with traditional watercolors I find. Even though, funnily enough, that's what watercolors are known for. Before I go on with more amazing stuff that watercolor pencils can do, I also have to mention how convenient they are. A small set is enough. It's lightweight, non-messy, and you can literally paint anywhere, even in a sketchbook, without stressing about setup. And unlike traditional watercolor, they also behave much more consistently across different papers, which makes them incredibly reliable when you just want to create on a budget. Now I want soft hints of fir trees in the background. And this is another thing I think people misunderstand about watercolor pencils. They're often compared to watercolor as if they're trying to replace watercolor. But for me, they're just another painting tool entirely. So instead of coloring directly on the paper, I scribble pigment onto the rough side of my palette. Although a scrap piece of watercolor paper works perfectly too. I wet the palette first, but you can scribble and activate next with a paintbrush. And yes, that's almost like creating watercolor paint on demand. With this, I love that it's so fast and easy to adjust colors. For example, if I want a cooler green, I quickly add more blue on the palette. So I use my colors to subtly suggest fir trees into the still damp background. And because watercolor pencils tend to dry a little faster than traditional watercolor, I don't have to wait for the trees to keep their shape, instead of completely melting everywhere or bleeding into unwanted places. It's less frustration, more control, but it's still soft and atmospheric. For a natural forest forest look, I add water splatters first, then color splatters with the pigment mixtures from my palette. And look at how much we've already created here. Soft background, atmosphere, texture, movement, color harmony. All of this was fast, easy, low pressure, and without streaky coloring. And we haven't even used the basic coloring technique everybody associates watercolor pencils with yet. The background is dry, and this is the stage most people recognize, coloring directly onto dry paper before activating. But this is where I think watercolor pencils get underestimated again. A lot of people use them almost like a sketching tool, but what I aim towards is a finished drawing, not just a sketch. And because watercolor pencils are water-soluble, we don't need the same level of perfection and precision as colored pencils or graphite, so it's a lot faster to draw. Because the background underneath already acts as a base layer, I don't even need to fully fill every tiny part of the paper either, and I prefer a slightly blunt lead. Just sharp enough for detail, but not too sharp so I can color fast. So I began with a light brown for the tree trunks, and then I immediately overlapped colors with touches of red and blue for shadows. This part is incredibly relaxing because everything feels predictable. There's no rush before a wash is dry, no panic, no ugly stage where everything suddenly looks ruined. You can stop whenever you want and continue later. And that's such an underrated advantage of watercolor pencils. I gradually built darker values to separate the trees from the background a bit more, and color mixing on paper became effortless, just like it was on the mixing palette earlier. I add yellow over some blue areas because I already know those sections will turn mossy green once activated. And like what happened with my background when I said I wanted it to be finished before activation, with coloring, the sign you're ready for water is when drawing itself already looks complete. The shapes, shadows, and structure are there. So I activate everything, and you can really see the trees come to life. And this is another major difference from traditional watercolor because all the information is already sitting on the paper. I only need a small amount of water to make it come through. And the best is that less water means less pressure, less chaos, and fewer to no accidental blooms. In a lot of my other videos, I zoom in on how to activate watercolor pencils properly, so if you need guidance with that, you can take a look later. Now this is where something unexpected happened with this painting. I started adding a fir tree in the foreground, and I didn't like it at all after it was activated. The shape felt awkward and stiff to me. With traditional watercolor, moments like these can feel terrifying because correcting mistakes often means disturbing everything underneath. But watercolor pencils make fixing that kind of stuff much easier. So I just wet the tip of my pencils directly in water to create foliage, which I had planned to do either way. And this technique is so much fun. Quick note that a lot of people worry about water getting on the wood casing and ruining the pencils, and yes, mainly we want to wet the lead itself. But honestly, a tiny bit of water on the wood is absolutely no big deal. The real issue would be leaving your pencils soaking in water. With a wet pencil tip, you can see the pigment becomes rich, creamy, and incredibly vibrant. I let colors overlap directly on the paper again. And what's funny is that this technique completely saves the painting. You can see it as I cover the awkward fir tree almost entirely. This is one of my favorite things about watercolor pencils. You can adapt, layer more, change direction, correct things, and keep going without feeling like the entire painting is ruined. Detailed work also becomes incredibly satisfying to do with that wet lead technique. With a pencil that's sharp enough, look at how I create fine branches almost instantly. I also add touches of color into the ground so everything feels connected. And I love to use a white watercolor pencil in my works. As you can see from the size of it, it's one of my most useful pencils because it creates crisp little highlights that still feel natural and integrated into the painting instead of harsh and artificial. And just like that, we went from almost nothing to something rich with texture, atmosphere, detail, and movement without needing complicated supplies or stressful techniques or even knowing how to draw really well. Mistakes were easy to fix and just a few colors went an incredibly long way. And that's what I love about watercolor pencils and I wish that more people knew. And I teach all of it and much more in my Signature Watercolor Pencil Mastery course that you will find in the description below if you want to check it out. And if you enjoyed this video, please leave me a comment. I always appreciate it. Thank you so much for watching and see you next time!