Working with Aqua Pencils and stamps

I know a number of people who have bought aqua pencils, and have done nothing with them!



Why... because it looked like a good idea, but they didn't really know what to do with them, or how to achieve good results.



So if you have some aqua pencils languishing in one of your draws, get them out, dust them off and I'll tell you what you can do!



In the top picture, you can see a pack of pencils. Obviously you need to have some water and a paintbrush... OR use a waterbrush (pictured)



A waterbrush has a built in reservoir, so you can use your watercolours/pencils wherever you are. No jars of water to accidentally knock over!


Anyway, if you are using moisture of any kind with your stamps then you need to use a solvent based ink, rather than a water based one, otherwise your stamped image will "run" into your colouring.


Stamp your image using the solvent based ink onto (preferably) some card - this means that there will be less "warping" when water is introduced to the image.

To achieve the gradual shading, as in the close-up picture here, colour only one side of an area with the pencil. Now use your brush gently over the pencil colour and "pull" the colour across the rest of the area. You should end up with a gentle faded colour from one side to the other, the darker area being where the original pencil colour was. As you can see it gives a "3D" effect because of the shading.

Make sure you turn your paper around to suit the direction you wish to "pull" the colour. Don't be afraid to turn your paper upside down if necessary to create the right vignette.



The final photo here is of some different coloured stamped images.