Coloured pencil vs graphite

Dear wild ones,

I alluded, well actually, I overtly stated, in the post on value (did you catch it? You’ll love it, I promise) that working in a single coloured pencil completely different to the colour of the wild being I am honouring has afforded me an even greater understanding of value, and the necessity of getting enough value shifts.

I love graphite.

It is my first art love, and it is insanely portable and full of all the magic necessary to make highly detailed portraits and tiny loose sketches and everything in between. It will always, always, be a large part of my artmaking. I keep a graphite pencil and tiny sketchbook in my handbag, and always have a means to make art in the most delicious of ways.

I think we are very used to graphite as a sketching medium, since it has been around for well over 400 years. We are also very used to seeing imagery in black and white (or rather, shades of grey) after the invention of modern photography in the 1800’s and then moving picture films, so I think it is generally (and generalisations are not always helpful, I know) easier for us to see and understand value in grey monochrome. But using a different colour altogether is a different thing again.

Sketching a wild being in blue or green or purple adds a completely new layer to the adventure. You have to make the colour itself irrelevant as you work (or be a little school-kid excited about it and how quirky it feels) but concentrate on applying enough pigment to make the shadow and marking areas dark enough, but to also work through a series of values (comparing to grey scales) for the drawing to look realistic, and not flat and poster-like (only black and white).

Coloured pencils also lay down very differently to graphite. Their pigment is suspended in oil or wax so on a fundamental level they feel different and adhere to the page differently. You can erase them to a certain degree, but they don’t come off the page as well as graphite does. I use a tissue to soften my graphite in layers, doing the same with a coloured pencil almost distorts the colour, mixing it with the paper white in a way reminiscent of adding white to paint - it is just different (not bad or good, no moral judgements here - just like there are no rules!). Your colour will determine how dark you can get your darks; a mid value orange is not going to get as dark as an indigo blue, for example, so your value scale may be more compressed (less value steps). What matters is that your light value remains as far as possible from your dark value, and you get at least a couple of value steps in between.

When I started working on sketching in a single coloured pencil (this was also a couple of the lessons in my very first online class in 2019) I felt a freedom that I didn’t realise I wasn’t giving myself with graphite. I was resigned to not being able to erase well, and I didn’t like the look of the ‘softened’ pencil (pushing it back into the page with a tissue) the way I did with graphite, so…I just went with it. You can see my working lines, the ways I have been moving my pencil around to find the form, connecting my hand with my eye, and seeing the reference ever deeper, and you know what? I love that. I love that it shows this page was worked on by a human being, not a robot, someone who is still learning, someone who has curiosity and courage. And yes, that was something I could then transfer to my graphite work too - I felt liberated, lighter, and more aligned with my practise over all. Embracing those movements across the page that become shape and form, giving myself permission to ignore the unhelpful aspects of perfectionism, embodying the dance of art making, literally letting my body become involved, to be looser, and more gentle.

So I think you can see that I love coloured pencil for sketching, for the little bit of magic and accessibility (you don’t need expensive supplies, remember!). The sketches here are from my course Drawn to Wild, which is available to join now - a new lesson every week for a year to fill our sketchbooks with colourful renderings of wild beings. In a gentle, reverential, compassionate and curious way. 

Next time I’ll talk a little more about my great love, graphite.

Tell me, what do you prefer to use for sketching? 

If you want calm, gentle, consistent wonder, come join me for a year of slow and connected in Drawn to Wild