This week, in my Travel Sketching course, we are looking at shapes, and I use watercolour pencils (WCPs) a lot!

In all five watercolour pencil demos this week, I used them ‘dry’ and on their own. But in my everyday sketching in recent months, I typically have combined them with ink and often with watercolour as well. So, I thought I’d put together a collection of WCP sketches in this article.

Note: If you are signed up for Travel Sketching, you’ll see demos with WCP, ink, and watercolour next week, so stay tuned for that.

I love the ease and versatility of using WCPs. It’s just so quick to add a bit of colour to an ink drawing, and I can choose to keep it dry or activate it with water or watercolour. As mentioned in other articles here on the blog, I prefer adding watercolour over the top as it preserves the vibrancy and gives me the chance to adjust the hue.

Although the most logical order of combining ink and WCPs would be to draw in ink and then add colour with WCP, I typically start with a few WCP shapes and then add ink to a few important edges. And then, sometimes, I add watercolour as a third layer. I also like combining WCP ink and marker (last year, I used this combo for a week-long road trip – see here)

So here are a few WCP sketches from recent months. Some you might have seen before, but others are new.

Note: All of these sketches use the Travel Sketching collection of Albrecht Durer WCPs.

Ink and WCP (dry)

Ink, WCP and watercolour

I’m absolutely loving going through my new Travel Sketching course with the first cohort. It’s so inspiring!

If you’re taking the course at the moment, I hope you’re enjoying it and that the techniques are really helping your sketching.

The Travel Sketching will remain open as a self-paced course, and you can work through the lessons at any time. Find out more here.