This is a quick study I made before going to bed last night taking advantage of having the charcoal on hand as I had finished working some more on June’s Brother second lesson. It’s on regular sulfate drawing paper 9x12 with just vine charcoal. I plan on doing something very similar in soft pastels or acrylic if I get enough courage 
Or maybe just pastels haha
By the way I just noticed I dated it 7-‘25 instead of 6-‘25
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My focus right now is on watercolor pencils. This is just a little 5x7 drawing on Strathmore Illustration Board for Wet Media, but it still took over 20 hours to complete. Lots and lots of layers.
Terri Robichon
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@robichon are you activating every layer before you layer the next one on top?
I am often thinking about the techniques with water color pencils🥰
Ay, this tulip is beautiful 
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Hi Elina -
No, I don’t activate every layer. As a matter of fact, I seldom activate any layers. I’m kinda unconventional.
I started by diluting the tip of the watercolor pencil with water into a little pallet dish and then did an underpainting like I do with regular watercolors. I let the first layer dry. I basically do this to map out color locations on the entire drawing, keeping the color the same as the LIGHTEST that I see. When dry I start adding slightly darker values, letting it dry, etc. When I like my underpainting, I use the watercolor pencils the same as I would a regular colored pencil, again using very little pressure and layering colors to get the desired effect. When I have a bunch of non-activated colors in place I start to blend, often with a cream colored pencil. Or at times I may use a colorless blender from my colored pencils. I don’t activate these final layers because that is how I obtain smooth color transitions and sharp details.
Terri
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@robichon thank you for your explanation!
Interesting 
… like always!
… until today I activated every layer with a Pinsel. Today only sprayed water on the picture plane of this sketch in between layering.
Sorry, today was every photo dissatisfying.
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Hi Elina -
I’m still doing a lot of experimenting with Watercolor Pencils also. I have seen one artist do a fine sanding of a pencil for a sky background. And she did the background before anything else. Then with the very finely
sanded pieces just at the top of the paper she rubbed them with a dry paper towel. Next, she used a light spray of water to activate the pigment, followed by a flat brush to smooth the application. She got a beautiful consistent background that was darker on the top and faded to lighter color as she went down the page. But you may just want to take a blank piece of paper and try out a technique, before applying to a drawing that you have spent more time on.
Your paper selection also has a big impact on the outcome. I’m finding a good quality watercolor paper works best.
Terri
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@robichon also very interesting!
Isn’t cool, creativity never ends😃!
And YES the quality of the paper is very important! Meanwhile I experienced the big differences between watercolor papers…. Even different brands and kinds of pencils and this combined with some types of paper Leads to many possibilities of results
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What a wonderful Audrey. It is always a joy to see your drawings. Thank you for sharing your amazing skills in graphite.
Sonia Alonzo
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Absolutely beautiful!! Every single time…
Sonia Alonzo
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Here’s one I drew this morning. It’s 8x4 on pastelmat with pan pastel and pastel sticks
Reference image by Leo J Baduria from facebook
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Hi Sonia.
It’s always a delight to see what you create. Love the big clouds and little people.
Terri
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Terri @robichon
Thank you 
. It’s kind of sloppy but I was really itching for a fast-er soft pastels drawing.
I omitted a lot of little people because the piece is too small for good details. I am happy with the clouds though 
i can see some improvement on those.
Sonia Alonzo
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Sonia, that is absolutely amazing, it looks so real. Thanks for posting, Ron
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Thank you I was really pleased with this one x
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EyeDrawingTrainng with different Colores…small sketchbook at the beach…
Lyra Rembrandt, Faber Castel Black Edition Skin Colors, Derwent Metallic Pencils, Nevskaya Palitra Watercolors (first time and noooo experience with watercolor)
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A great way to practice eyes with different media. One of my favorite subjects!
The key to realistic outcomes is to focus on applying layers of color and focus on drawing shapes of light and shapes of darks.
You’re going in the right direction.
Sonia Alonzo
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@Meme5 thank you for your advice! Yes, they need more layers and shades. It helps so much to receive a different point of view!
I will work on this… the shading… it is interesting that there seems to be a kind of obstacle to go deep into it even knowing it makes the picture more realistic.
Last night I did one more with policromos
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