How to Use Watercolour Pencils Without Losing Control

By Carol Leather

Watercolour pencils look reassuringly like ordinary coloured pencils until you add water. Then the colour can deepen, spread, lift, stain, or turn into a smooth wash. That is the pleasure of them, but it is also why they can feel unpredictable at first.

The trick is not to use more water. It is to understand which stage you are in: dry drawing, wet activation, lifting, drying, or drawing back over the top. Each stage asks for a slightly different touch.

You can still use this page if you are new. Start with the dry-then-wet sections and treat the later texture ideas as optional extras. The watercolour pencils primer explains the materials in more detail, and the watercolour pencils hub gathers the full set of guides and tutorials.

The first rule is to test before you wet the page

Water changes watercolour pencil. It usually makes the colour stronger, but the change is not equal across the set. Pale yellows and delicate colours may only deepen a little. Strong reds, blues and greens can leap in intensity the moment the brush touches them.

Before you use a colour in a proper drawing, make a quick swatch on the same paper. Put down one light dry patch, one heavier dry patch, then wet half of each with a damp brush. You will see three things at once: how much the colour strengthens, whether the dry pencil line disappears, and how cleanly the pigment dissolves.

This is especially important if you are using a brand you do not know, a colour you have not wetted before, or a paper that is new to you. Watercolour pencil is more forgiving than tube watercolour in some ways, but it still deserves a scrap-paper rehearsal.

This is not a wasted strip of paper. It is where the pencil shows you how it behaves before you ask it to behave in a drawing.

Use watercolour pencils dry before you use them wet

Watercolour pencils are still pencils. You can use them dry for outlines, hatching, shading, soft colour transitions and early corrections. The dry stage is where you have the most control.

Keep the dry colour lighter than you think you need. A shaded area lifts and spreads more easily than a hard drawn line. If you press too firmly, the water may dissolve the colour around the line but leave the line itself visible. That can be useful for deliberate edges, but frustrating if you wanted a smooth wash.

Dry blending still works

You can soften dry watercolour pencil with a blending stump, cotton bud, or very clean fingertip. The effect is usually subtler than with waxy coloured pencils because many watercolour pencils have a slightly drier core, but it is useful for softening an edge before you wet it.

If you use a paper blending stump, keep it clean. A dirty stump can drag unwanted colour into a light area, and water will make that mistake more obvious later.

Correct dry pigment before water touches it

Dry watercolour pencil can usually be lightened with a kneaded eraser, low-tack tape, Blu Tack or WhiteTac. Dab or lift rather than scrub, especially on watercolour paper where you want the surface to survive the wet stage.

After water has been added, erasing becomes much less reliable. You may still lift a little wet colour with tissue, but the original tint often remains in the paper.

Activate watercolour pencil with a damp brush

The core technique is simple: draw lightly with the pencil, then stroke over the pigment with a damp brush. The word that matters is damp. A brush that is too wet can flood the area, push colour beyond the edge you wanted, or leave a pale puddle where the pigment has been diluted.

1. Lay the colour down dry, keeping the layer even.
2. Dip your brush in clean water.
3. Wipe the brush once on kitchen paper or the rim of the water pot.
4. Stroke over the pencil marks gently, following the direction you want the wash to move.
5. Leave the area alone until it is completely dry.

The beginner pear tutorial shows this dry-then-wet move in its simplest form. It is a good project if you want one small finished piece before trying the more experimental techniques below.

Brush choice matters

A soft brush is lovely for gentle washes. A firmer synthetic brush is better when the pencil needs a little persuasion to dissolve. Do not scrub with a good sable brush. Watercolour pencil can ask more of a brush than ordinary watercolour paint does, especially if the dry colour was pressed firmly into the paper.

For more on this, use the separate guide to choosing brushes for watercolour pencils.

Let layers dry before adding more

Most traditional watercolour pencils can be rewetted after they dry, meaning a damp brush can wake the colour up again. That is useful if you want to soften an edge, but it also means a new wet layer can disturb the one underneath. If you want clean layers, use a light touch and do not keep brushing back and forth over the same place.

Once the paper is bone dry, not just cool or slightly damp, you can draw over the wash with more dry pencil. This is where watercolour pencil becomes especially useful: the wash can cover the white paper quickly, while the dry pencil returns the detail and edge control.

Lift colour while it is wet, correct properly while it is dry

There are two different kinds of lifting. Dry lifting is correction. Wet lifting is adjustment or texture.

If you have put the wrong colour in the wrong place, deal with it while it is dry. If you have made a wash too strong, or want a cloud, a highlight, or a softer patch of foliage, lift while it is still damp with tissue or kitchen paper.

For clouds, lay a blue wash, then press a crumpled tissue into the damp colour. You are not drawing a cloud outline. You are lifting irregular patches so the paper shows through softly.

Make liquid colour from the pencil itself

Once you know how a pencil behaves in a simple swatch test, you can use the same control rule away from the drawing. Make the colour separately first, then bring it to the paper with a brush.

You do not have to wet pencil marks directly on the artwork. You can also lift pigment from a separate surface and paint with it, more like traditional watercolour.

Use a paper palette

Rub a patch of dry pigment onto a spare piece of textured paper, then lift the colour with a damp brush. Rough watercolour paper, cold-pressed scraps, sanded pastel paper, or a clean fine-grit abrasive paper can all hold enough pigment to work as a temporary palette.

This is useful when you want a smoother wash than direct pencil marks give you. It also keeps your pencil tips dry and can help maintain the point as you rub colour onto the palette surface.

Make a wash from pencil shavings

You can shave pigment from the pencil core into a dish, add clean water, and mix a small pool of colour. Use a sharp craft knife carefully, cut away from your body, and keep wood shavings out of the mix.

This method is useful for larger washes where you want a consistent colour. If you run out, you can shave more from the same pencil and match the colour more easily than if you were trying to remix from several paints.

Use tissue and shavings for texture

These techniques are less predictable than ordinary brush activation, so use them after you have tested the colour. Think of them as controlled experiments for texture, not as first steps.

Watercolour pencil becomes interesting when you stop trying to make every wash perfectly smooth. Broken activation, lifted colour and scattered shavings can all suggest natural texture.

Mist and tissue texture

Lay dry colour where you want gravel, bark, distant foliage or rough stone. Mist the area very lightly with clean water, then press tissue into the damp speckled colour. Some pigment dissolves, some stays broken, and the result looks more natural than a carefully painted pattern.

Direct shavings on paper

Sprinkle tiny shavings onto dry or damp paper, then touch them with a damp brush. The colour blooms in little broken patches. It works well for flower beds, rough rocks, mossy edges and other textures where regular pencil strokes would look too tidy.

You can also use a clean sponge makeup applicator to move shavings over damp paper. It gives a soft, unpredictable blend, useful when you do not want obvious brush marks.

Different water-soluble pencils behave differently

The same control habit still applies here: test the exact pencil before you trust it. Different water-soluble pencils can look similar in the tin and behave very differently under a brush.

Not every water-soluble pencil behaves like a traditional watercolour pencil. The label matters.

Traditional watercolour pencils

Most watercolour pencils use water-soluble binders with pigment. Once wet, they behave much like a controlled wash, and many colours can be softened again later with water.

Derwent Inktense

Derwent Inktense is ink-based, not traditional watercolour. It becomes very strong when wet and dries permanent. That permanence is useful for layering because the dry layer will not lift as easily, but it also means mistakes are harder to correct once activated.

Budget watercolour pencils

Cheaper pencils can still be useful, especially for practice, but expect more variation. Some have less pigment, some dissolve less smoothly, and some colours split into unexpected components when wet.

The practical answer is simple: test the actual pencil on the actual paper before you rely on it in a drawing.

A pocket paintbox made from watercolour pencils

This is the travel version of the same method, not a separate skill. You are still testing dry pigment, adding controlled water, and lifting colour with a brush.

For travel sketching, you can make a tiny paintbox from the pencils themselves. Rub heavy patches of your chosen colours onto a strip of watercolour paper before you go out. Let the strip dry if the paper has picked up any moisture, then carry it with a small brush, a water pot and a sketchbook.

On location, lift colour from the patches with a damp brush and paint as you would from a small palette. A mint tin or small lidded container can hold the brush and eraser on the way out, then serve as a water pot while you work.

This will not replace a full studio set, but it is a lovely way to carry colour without carrying a tin of pencils or paints.

Working on surfaces other than paper

Watercolour paper is the natural home for these pencils, but it is not the only option. Once you are confident on paper, two surfaces are worth a try.

Primed canvas, the kind made for watercolour or mixed media, holds and lifts pigment differently from paper. Sealed or primed wood panel gives you a firm surface with a little tooth.

Test a small patch first. How much water a surface absorbs, and how well the pigment grips, varies a lot. An unsealed or wrongly primed surface can repel the colour or let it pool.

Quick questions about using watercolour pencils

Where to go next

If you have not used watercolour pencils before, the most logical next step is a small project, not another list of techniques. The pears exercise lets you practise dry colour, damp activation and dry detail without risking a complicated subject.

Or, choose the problem that stopped you last time:

For mixed-media work, see how watercolour pencils fit with other coloured pencil techniques.