It's Not You, It's Your Paper! Tips for colored Pencils & Paper
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- Опубліковано 5 гру 2023
- Hi friends! Don't beat yourself up when you are fighting with your art supplies, try changing the paper instead! In this video, we will draw two subjects on 2 papers and see what is causing struggles.
Supplies (affiliate links used)
Artisto colored pencils: amzn.to/47u9nhQ
Good All around paper (so you won't struggle) Stonehenge white: amzn.to/3MUl5dv
Clear alcohol marker (optional) amzn.to/3MRtxKA
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Credits:
Video production and Craft ideas: Lindsay Weirich
Music: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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#thefrugalcrafter #watercolor #art - Навчання та стиль
I’m still intimidated by colored pencils but did make a stamped card with my husband using them. That was nice to do together. He doesn’t Art at all
Wow! Kiddos to you for getting your husband to do art with you! The paper I used when starting with colored pencil almost made me give up- try a different paper and try a few different brands of pencil by buying just one or two open stock to see what you like- I did this in Lindsay’s advice and I’m so glad I did!
Awesome!
Starting a drawing with color pencil on really nice cold press, and then instantly thinking just NOOOOOOO!!! - Yep, we have all done it. 😅 The bird still turned out lovely though!
Paper I like for color pencil are Strathmore Toned Sketchpaper, Strathmore Visual Journal Mixed Media, Fabriano Studio Hotpress, Clairefontaine Paint On and Canson Mi-Teintes. Also, a good piece of just regular run of the mill white drawing paper goes a long way.
Great recs!
schut artist drawing paper 225 (red) is by far my favorite for colored pencils. It is a lesser known Dutch brand but I love this paper and it is great for mixed media due to the heavier weight. I was extremely happy when I found it back online, after my local art shop stopped selling it.. it always sparks something in me. Although I don't draw or sketch as much.
I am a colorist and coloring books always are a hit or miss so I decided to stick with one brand.. because a coloring book with bad paper will be in the naughty corner and collect dust.
Good tips!
this looks fantastic, it looks wonderful ❤❤
How cool! I never would've thought of using an alcohol marker to blend pencil. 😊
After you mentioned the alcohol marker blenders for blending, I tried my Tombow blender on my Polychromos and was pleased to see how well that works! Thank you!
Just love watching you do colored pencil. So fascinating.
Thank you so much 😀
Arches Hot Pressed paper is my go to paper for detailed work, I also love pastelmat for furry animal subjects, especially if I want to add a background in Pan Pastels. Stonehenge isn’t the easiest paper to get hold of here in the UK unfortunately!
Thanks for sharing!!
Love watching you paint or draw! I recently bought the 150 Prismacolor set of pencils that were on sale and can’t wait to use them. Thanks for the tips on papers to use and also to use the colorless blending markers❤️
Have fun!
They're both pretty, but the info is very helpful to make them less frustrating to do. Thanks so much.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for posting. Love the bird came together very quickly. Cherry was a fun watch too. Aww favourite paper for pencil Mi Tides love this paper for pencil im addicted to using the buff/ soft yellow as backgrounds. Something about this colour I love. Have a great rest of your week.
Thanks so much 😊
Hullo Lindsay, I really enjoy watching you work. I like Legion's Black watercolor papers the Cold Press and Hot Press! I purchased full sheets of Shizin papers after I bought Rosi's light and dark series sketchbooks with Shinzen pastel papers! they have such a unique surface and it really works in most every medium I have used on it! I love the different colors too, it saves me on backgrounds so MUCH!
I have become more open to mixing my mediums after watching your videos! I have used watercolor pencils on my watercolor paintings in the past, yet I never thought that was mixed media! Now watching s omany artists like you use everything together is just so eye opening! Thanks for keeping all of us going!
You are very welcome!
I have a lot to learn about paper. I appreciate it when you share your knowledge.
My pleasure!
Good video, Lindsay , thanks for sharing! I agree re: Legion Stonehenge. I had always used arches hot press for colored pencil and then tried Legion hot press-the difference was astounding. I will look for their printmaker paper. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for sharing!!
So beautiful,happy holidays ❤
Thank you! You too!
Thanks for the comparison Lindsay. Wouldn’t have thought to use either of these papers for coloured pencil work. Love that glossy sheen on the cherry.
You are so welcome!
Strathmore toned tan and Canson black papers are my favourites for coloured pencil, followed by any hot press watercolour paper. Sometimes I put down a layer of gesso beforehand, it makes the colours pop, but it does wear down the pencils quite a bit.
You are a fantastic teacher. I love art and crafting but knew very little about how to use color or paints. Artist I am not. I have been following you for several months and now understand so much about color, blending, art media (papers, brushes, paints) than I have ever. Thank you for being patient and caring in your presentation. You make me less intimidated about trying.
Aww, thank you so much!
Nice demonstration! I like the Strathmore Bristol Vellum paper for colored pencil work. The paper is basically smooth, but has enough tooth. Also, I recently bought a set of Arteza colored pencils and I really like them.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Lindsay. Thank you for your video.❤.🎉.
You are so welcome!
I think you would be amazed how many people think the right paper for the right product is not important.
A few weeks ago at my art group when we were working on a project we were given some black paper which was more like card stock to do some blending with coloured pencils. I was using my chameleon colour tones pencils that I have had for a few years now and the paper really wore them down.
Love colored pencils, I have been doing a lot of coloring book pages to teach myself shading, I just bought a small strathmore vellum sketch book from Amazon when they had the sales, I want to draw some simple things, I drew a fox & didn’t want to mess it up so it’s sitting uncolored for now silly I know. Thank you for showing colored pencil work today.
You got this!
I have some hot press Arches paper that I don't much like for watercolour, but I enjoy it with colour pencil. The cherry looks fantastic, but I love the bird as well. It looks so sassy!
Thanks for sharing!
I love Bristol Smooth paper from Strathmore for colored pencil work. But I don't do much colored pencil anymore because of my carpel tunnel.
Ouch:(
Love to watch you draw, Lindsay! I haven't reached the drawing stage of my art journey yet - still training my eye and brain to "see" like an artist first. :) Curious - have you ever used the Holbein Meltz blender pen for blending coloured pencil? I did a comparison of a lot of different ways to blend coloured pencils (and watercolour pencils) and the Holbein pen is surprisingly versatile - and you can buy a refill container of the blending solution so you don't need to just toss the pen - win, win! I bought mine from Jackson's Art. It does a great job blending the softer coloured pencils and (this is the surprising part) watercolour pencils. For harder coloured pencils, I found the Derwent blender pens worked best. I found with those two pens, you can blend pretty much anything. :) Just wanted to share in case you hadn't come across the Meltz pen previously - it's a great little blender pen! Cheers, Connie
I haven't used that, neat.
This is so true. Since I work only on muslin, it is always rough. So I use a very rough wc paper to practice with. I use only wax based pencils. Except when I'm using ink based pens. The Artisto seem softer than my others and I have to be careful when I put the medium on later to make the piece machine washable.
Thanks for sharing!
Good tip about printing paper!. i accidentally discovered Fabriano Unica paper (50% cotton) which is also a printing paper. It works great with coloured pencils and amazingly with watercolour and inks. I have t come across this Strathmore paper, so I will give it a go.
Thanks for sharing!
Surprisingly one of my new favorite papers for pencils and markers is this sketchbook I found at Five Below. It seems just a bit thinner than regular printer paper but it’s nice! I had bought 2 sketchbooks. But when I realized how much I like it I ran back and got FOUR more! Sketchbook floozie in training. 😂. Oh and I do have all the usual papers Arches cold and hot press, and several others. Even a ton of mixed media paper. But these sketchbooks are my go to, plus the small size works for me. I just love your videos. Never stop.
That's great and very accessible. Can you say the size and what it looks like incase anyone else here wants to grab one?
@@thefrugalcrafter Yes they are 6”x8’ and on the front says HQ Fine Stroke
thanks!@@Gypsisoul1111
I love your drawings, and the bird is my favorite! I would love to see you do a video on which colored pencils are waxy vs. ones that are oil-based. Maybe you've already done one, and I somehow missed it? I get so confused about which is which, especially when it comes to buying budget pencils. As always, thanks for sharing! 🎄
The truth is all pencils are a combination of wax and oil (and sometimes clay) and many budget brands advertise based on popularity vs actual composition. I would pay more attention to how they actually behave vs what it says on the box. Oil pencils tend to be transparent (but not always), harder, and layer more than they blend. Wax pencils tend to be opaque (again, not always), softer, and blend more than they layer. That said, there are plenty of hard wax pencils, and Arteza expert are very transparent even though they are wax. Look for a pencil that behaves the way you want it to. Look for videos of people actually using them vs reviews/swatches and you can see what they do on paper.
ua-cam.com/users/live2OlVSvNiZlc?si=nCoTozTixn0hYBbp this is a couple years old but it compares 15 brands. More legacy ones, not many of the newcomers but you can find reviews on those on my channel too.
I haven't enjoyed using colored pencils or even really enjoyed using them for added touch ups on my watercolor paintings, but now I'm thinking it's because of the paper! I need to try again.
I bet it is! If you want to try before you buy, you can get samples from me 😆 I feel like I have them all 😆
@@thefrugalcrafter I might just take you up on that! I may try to see how they work on the Canson XL Watercolor paper in my sketchbook. It isn't very rough.
@@thefrugalcrafter I have recommended Cheap Joe's sample sets of watercolor papers, they can even mix brands if you call and ask for help! I have purchased 1/2 and 1/4 sheet packs. If you want to save the most money buy full sheets and get help mixing and matching for testing out your techniques!
I recently did the opposite thing and started a colored pencil piece on paper that's great for a lot of things, but not toothy enough for colored pencils! (Blick Sulphite Drawing paper, I love the 24x36 size). It didn't help that they were Prismacolors and I guess they are hard to layer. I'm a colored pencil noob and didn't think about it. Thanks for this great demo. I definitely have some better paper to try.
Thanks for sharing!!
I have Arches, both the cold press and the hot press and would certainly not want to try using the cold press for colored pencil!!! I do love the hot press and the stonehenge as well although if you use oms it does soak it up a lot so takes longer to dry between blends. I just start working on another area, though it's still only about 10-15 mins to dry. I also find the Canson Mi Temtes pastel paper is great on the smooth side... good tooth for colored pencil.
Great suggestion!
I really like fabriano 1264 drawing paper (200 gsm). It obviously has some tooth, but not so much it takes ages to get rid of the white.
The clairefontaine Painton is also really nice - and in multiple colours
I've never used the Paint On paper bur several have recommended it!
I like fabriano hot press for nearly everything, and i use the moleskine watercolor books for drawing but not for painting 😇. Unfortunately, it's multiplied many times in price in Australia, and the Chinese dupes are nearly the same. I'm on the hunt for something new.
You might like the baohong hot press.
I use pencils over alcohol markers and use Hot Pressed Grain Satine, my favourite is the Langton by Daler Rowney
The shine on the cherry and metal things you have always blows me away. I really enjoy doing birds. I ordered the colored ink fountain pens to try the birds picture.
I have prismacolor pencils.
What do you recommend for a harder decent pencil?
Thank you for this video and tips.
Probably polychomos if you want higher end or Markart if you are on a budget.
@@thefrugalcrafter Thank you.
I've been using Strathmore Vellum Bristol paper for a long time with my colored pencils. It has a bit of tooth, but is still pretty smooth, albeit not as smooth as the smooth bristol paper. I only use them for card making - basically coloring stamped or printed digital images - not "fine" art. But the bristol seems to do well for me. I use Prismacolor Premier pencils, btw. I picked up a couple of pads of colored pencil paper (I forget the brand, probably either Canson or Strathmore, though) at Michael's a while back, just to try after my vellum bristol runs out. Just looking at it & feeling it, it seems a lot like the bristol. As I haven't used it yet, I'm not sure if it will react to the pencils differently. The main reason I got it was it was on sale and I think I had a coupon on top of that. And I know I'll use it, sooo.... :) I was interested when you mentioned that for layering, harder colored pencils are better than softer waxy ones. I am curious now if you have a brand or brands you recommend for harder pencils. As I said, I only have the Prismacolors, which I know are on the soft side. I do work in layers, although not a ton of layers, & so try to use a light touch for that. I think I get at least pretty good results, though. I'm fairly happy with them, at any rate! :) Thank you for sharing your artwork, Lindsay! I love both your drawings. I don't know if I've ever seen using an alcohol colorless blender marker for blending colored pencils. I have used either a light-colored pencil in the same hue, a Prismacolor blending pencil, or Gamsol on a paper stump. Mostly I leave the pencil texture, though. More out of laziness at not wanting to employ blending techniques than anything else. LOL Thanks also for the advice on papers for colored pencil work. It was very interesting. I hope y'all are not freezing too badly. Thankfully, here in East Texas it's been pretty mild overall. Take care, & I hope y'all have a wonderful holiday season! :)
Another paper that works good with colored pencils at Michaels is the Canson Mi Temtes pastel paper on the smooth side. It has just enough tooth I find although I do use oms to blend as well. It takes quite a few layers.
Markart is a harder pencil, great color and great price. POLYCHOMOS is good too muted more expensive.
thank you ,i love bird art ,i have a 7.99 electric staples sharpener i got 10 years ago at goodwill ,it great ,i have a hard tim sharpening my charcoal pencils they break bad,your videos just keep me inspired,did you know art whale has gouache cups ,42 50 ml cups with lids 59.00 if they go on sale i may try them,
Yes, I like that they have lids.
@@thefrugalcrafterLids!?! Gasp!😮 Oh yeah!🎉🎉🎉
I like the bird for its rough feel. And the cherry for its gloss.
I've used Bristol with lots of light layers that even worked for me during the gemstone trend. Tried the colored pencil paper but that is a one trick pony-the dots made me crazy. I have some of the print paper that I was wondering what to do with since watercolor on it was just one blur after another (yeah, I did that)
Have you tried hot press? it seems good for detail work in wc... or soft press?-am looking for a reason to buy some soft press....😁
I have, I don't use it too often tho. Try Paul rubens hot press, it's not slick like arches but it has better sizing compared to the fabriano artistico in my opinion.
I love the bird! You're so good with them. I thought he was lovely. Question: if possible, can you show us the covers of the papers you're using? I wasn't entirely clear on the Stonehenge one, a paper I do not like at all. The cherry was so shiny! :)
Next time I will, I did link to it tho:)
Duh me! I am so sorry I didn't think of that. I've gotten so used to you doing everything for us, we're spoiled! :)
While I like smoother paper, sometimes rougher paper works for your subject. For example, the Dreamworks movie Trolls is set in a world where nearly everything - from the characters to the landscape - is made of, or covered with, fuzzy fibers. The rougher paper gives an automatic fibrous look to my scenes, which I like very much.
This video is loaded with great info for working with colored pencil. Never thought to use a colorless blende to blend my pencils. Really great tip because you can buy a whole set from ohuhu at a great price that you use with your markers!!! Do You make your own sketchbooks????
I didn't make this one (it's from artsirosi on etsy) but I have made a few tecently and enjoy the process.
I am heavy handed with evrything I do; I tend to prefer patelpaper like mi teintes from canson and pastel mat; mainly bc it captures light over dark meaning I dont have to erase as much. For smaller pieces I find Hahnemule expression to work nice for pencils as well as fabriano fine grain; it does not work as great for stamping as I thought it would but works great for colored pencils. Another tip is the graphix translucent paper; the profit there is that it is that ofcourse that it will match any matting and you can trace a picture for scale; being translucent it works on both ends but its paper is to pricy for my liking;for artists who do this as a job I would like to reference to Bonny Snowdon who uses the latter for her beautiful pencil art work and has great tips on her channel for it
Thanks for the recommendation 😀
This is so true. Paper makes the world of difference and different pencils work better on different paper ( I hate the feeling of some pencils on certain paper but tried on another, and I loved them!). And so important, paper can dramatically improve results which in turn helps people’s/ artists confidence.. Thank you for making people aware of it 💙
Edit so sorry- different topic! I would love to get into oil pastels. Portraits specifically! May I ask do you know or think the sennelier portrait set would be a good start? Strange as it sounds, I found that often ‘portrait’ sets don’t typically have the best selection at times! Which probably sounds odd! I’ve never mixed oil pastels or know how best to use the colours. Will look into it but thought I would ask your opinion first ☺️ or perhaps do you have any colour suggestions for portrait colours? With pencil and watercolour, often incorporate blues and purples etc too …
The set has a good value range. Mixing colors is easy with them because they are so soft. You may want another color here ir there but I think you could nanage nicely with this set.
@@thefrugalcrafter thank you so incredibly much ! Now I’m wondering if it would be worth just getting a big set or this set and playing with it first… but altogether that would be a big outlay?! Perhaps better to play with a smaller set first 🤔 or just a few and then decide?
it never hurts to buy a couple open stock and see what you link, worst case is you end up with a couple of duplicate colors but it might save you a costly purchase if you dislike them.@@paigeme886
@@thefrugalcrafter tried a few… oh goodness I think I fell in love! Perhaps I should invest in portrait set first though and play for at least a month to really make sure!?! Need to save for a large set ( or dream about it…)
I like fabriano hot press for nearly everything.. Unfortunately, it's multiplied many times in price in Australia, and the Chinese dupes are nearly the same. I'm on the hunt for something new.
Do you ever use Gamisol to blend colored pencils?
Yes, on larger peives with lots of layers. It works great!
♡♡♡
Hi Lindsay, I've heard that you can use watercolor pencils like Arteza as colored pencils. Would you agree with that statement? I'd think that you can't get the same effects of good colored pencils due to the difference in ingredients used for watercolor pencils.
I don't like to do that for 2 reasons:
1. Watercolor pencils when used dry look rather flat and weak and lack luminosity that wax or oil pencils have when you build up layers.
2. If a drop of water gets on the art it will run or smear because watercolor pencils are meant to be thinned out with water on the paper and not used thickly.
@@thefrugalcrafter thank you Lindsay for your feedback. The suggestion to use watercolor pencils came from another utuber who claim to be an artist. But clearly their suggestion shows that they don't have any experience with the medium yet their whole channel focuses a lot on colored pencils. So thankful for channels like yours where people can actually get real artist experience and perspective on all things related to art.
@@thefrugalcrafter PS: do you plan on doing a review on kalour colored pencils? What do you think of them? Worth buying??
@@Katubes Thr pastel; ones are great, I don't plan on buying them because I think they are the same as Marco tribute. I think Pamela 's passion for pencils has a review on them, I'd trust her review.
@@KatubesI know some artists that prefer using watercolor pencils dry instead of regular color pencils because they like their softness and texture. It doesn't mean the artist doesn't have any experience, or that they're wrong to do this. It's a personal preference. Watercolor pencils are versatile. Often the final layer of details is done without dissolving them. Unless someone wants to use regular color pencil just for the final layer, but why buy two sets where one will do?
I love using 1000 grit sandpaper.
I usually end up putting gamsol on my colored pencil drawings, maybe I just don't like them .
hot press watercolor paper and mixed media paper.
Nice!
Very beautiful. Can you draw me a picture please, aunt