Well, l think it has been over two years since l wrote a post! And l feel just like l did at the start, that weird feeling of talking to myself! l wanted to spend a bit of time talking about white pencils. I get asked repeatedly about white pencils. So first of all let me tell you right off that none of them will give you a brilliant white highlight over a darker colour. If you are seeing brilliant white highlights in a colored pencil drawing it is being achieved using a different method or a different medium and l will discuss ways of achieving a bright white in my next post. Here l will talk about the brands of white pencil l have used and what l think of them and what l use them for. Below is a photo showing different brands of white over dark. As you can see from the above photo, they are all useless! With no.1. the Polychromos being the most useless of the lot as l had to go over it four or five times to get that much color! The brightest there is no.8. the Holbein Soft White. Second best and my go to for adding ‘white’ (or more accurately lighter) highlights on top of dark colors is no.6 Caran D’ache Luminance in the Buff Titanium which despite being just off white is much better than the true white.
However, l do use most of these whites a lot and it different ways. So l thought l would explain how l use them because they are all better for different things. 1. Faber Castell Polychromos white, l use this a lot because it holds the sharpest point. I use this pencil to emboss white lines into the paper before adding other colors over the top. For example cats whiskers. I use heavy pressure to really texture the paper and the resulting indents won’t pick up as much of the darker colours over the top. 2&3. Caran D’ache Pablo’s and Supracolor they work equally the same and will often show up reasonably well over darker colors and oddly they show better if the darker color has been left for a few hours before adding them. l tend to use these where l want to lighten something (say feathers of fur and l want lighter strands) but still want to go over the top with other colors. 4. Prismacolor. Truthfully l never really use it. It is no better or worse than any of the other whites. It is good for blending final layers if you want a soft look, but not easy to layer over again. 5. Caran D’ache Luminance White. I use these where l want to preserve a layer of white or make a pastel color. Because it is more waxy than Polychromos or Pablo’s it resists darker colors on top better. 6. Luminance Buff Titanium l find gives me the brightest highlights over dark colours of all the readily available pencils. 7. Holbein White. Nothing special and l wouldn’t bother with the effort of trying to get hold of it. 8. Holbein Soft White. Now this is significantly better than all the other whites. It is a weird texture, feeling a little like an oil pastel to work with. But the huge downside is that unless you live in Japan it is really difficult to source individual pencils. In fact, l have not been able to. Which means to replace it you have to buy a set of pencils and the cheapest smaller set of pencils l found with it in was around £50 last time l looked! That makes it a very expensive pencil indeed and until l find a source for individual ones, l won’t be replacing it. 9. An odd ball thrown in because l saw it recommended , Conte a Paris, is actually a pastel pencil. As you see no better than anything else. Add to that the very thick core and it not fitting standard sharpeners, for me not worth bothering with. There is one more white l tried from Derwent, the Coloursoft. I couldn’t find it for this photo. Which should tell you, l don’t use it. The results are pretty much the same as all of the above. But it has a thicker core meaning l can’t get such fine detail. So there you have it. If you are looking for a white pencil that comes out white over dark colors you are on a fruitless quest. Although if you have found one please, please share. This doesn’t mean you can’t have bright white in your work if you want it. My next blog post will cover that.
12 Comments
Sallyann
3/17/2021 05:44:22 am
Hi Diana ,
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I forgot about Inktense! Yes, and that is quite opaque! Wet the tip and wait at least a minute for the watercolor pencils to soften and then work slowly and small, rewetting as needed. It is more comfortable than a brush and paint, and allows you build the white gradually or shade it back as needed.
Sallyann
3/17/2021 11:10:27 am
Hi again Diane for some reason it isn’t letting me reply to your last comment. Setting it and then leaving it is a useful tip. I haven’t tried that, but l will very soon. Thank you.?.
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Sallyann
3/19/2021 03:03:20 pm
Hi again, Yes! I'm laughing at my collection of white supplies, and how dissimilar they are to each other! I miss having a local art shop that lets you test before you buy. I just bought a 10 pack of white Neocolor II, and a 12 pack of white All Pencils for my work on black paper. Articles like yours help me really weed out the bad candidates. Luminance and Prismacolor white are my favorite nonwatersoluble. But scraping with a knife works best for very sharp thin lines like whiskers. Thanks!
Sallyann
3/19/2021 03:26:58 pm
Now it is very interesting you say that as l have had no success at all with the Xacto knife! All l did was ruin my paper!
Bobbette Williams
4/10/2021 06:26:04 pm
Hi I just wanted to share my go to white is the Derwent Drawing Chinese White. I also love that white in the new Derwent lightfast line of colored pencil & dick blick is having a sale on open stock lightfast pencils for $1.90 and $2.05 each. You could get the 12 set for starters & start buying colors as you need them to build a great set. The best watercolors I have used so far have been the Albrecht Durer Magnus large water color pencils they come in a set of 24 then there's 6 open stock pencils to complete a set of 30. You can get the whole set for around $65-$75 but they are large pencils you can color on a textured surface & then use a water brush or any brush & use them as watercolors with an amazing vivid range or colors. The other watercolor pencils I love are the Derwent Inktense and Graphitint lines. They have an excellent pigment & are just so amazing & unique to work with. I also love Caran D'Ache Museum Aquarelle. There is a cheaper set out there that's great it's Kuretake GANSAI TAMBI Watercolor paints you can get them on Amazon for I think $50 for a set of 48 it's a big watercolor set & it barely takes any paint the colors are incredibly vibrant there's metallic too. It will last you forever. I always say if you are just starting out with a new medium is get some coloring books & just have fun. Don't get overwhelmed at th he size of the picture either. I would take a piece of paper and just cut out a square and cover the page I was coloring and only color the part that was exposed in the little square I cut out. Then when I finished that I would just make the square (or sometimes I would cut it out in puzzle shapes) a little bigger so I would just continue to reveal the coloring page so it wasn't overwhelming and I just had high areas to concentrate on. It made it really fun too to reveal the next piece of the puzzle. Hope I shared some information I just like to try to help when I can too art is my passion.
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Sallyann
4/11/2021 02:22:04 am
Thank you for taking the time to write such a helpful and informative comment.
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Bobbette Williams
4/11/2021 04:42:34 am
I got my museum Aquarelle set on Dick Blick for under $200 for the full set. I have a Caran D'Ache Palette it's about $10 which is amazing to work with watercolor pencils and even watercolor crayons like Neocolor II. It has a smooth side & a textured side. I love using it for Inktense because you can just color on the textured side then use the water brush or any brush and control the color that way since it is an ink & cannot reactivate once it's dry on the paper unlike most watercolor pencils Also I like just touching my brush to the tip of the pencils to get my color too just wipe it off so it doesnt stay wet. I clean my palette with hand sanitizer and baby wipes it cleans right off except Inktense can stain it so if you happen to have simple green it's an amazing cleaner you can spray it & let it sit 5 min then come back & wipe it off & the stains are gone. The Derwent pencils are thicker lead but you can get a super fine point on it with the right sharpener or you can just rub it over a crystal nail file & get a sharper point. It's a great white. The new Chromaflow set by Derwent has a white in it and the pencils are thin about the same size barrel as a prismacolor & it's a pretty decent white too. The Chromaflow aren't bad but they only come in a set of 24. There are 2 sets of pencils I really love that give you a nice variety of colors & have a beautiful lay down I always pick up before Priismacolors that aren't too expensive either. I really like my Black Widow pencils. They come in 6 sets that make up the full 144 pencils. With their latest Monarch 48 set added it gives you beautiful pastels! Their 2 sets before that we completely devoted to skin tones 24 colors! Then there's Castle Arts. I fell in love with these because they are very vibrant & I am a little heavier handed so the fact they are a little harder lead makes me less likely to break any tips and I don't sharpen as often. They lay down smoothly too. I also like my Faber Castell Polychromos and they are a little more expensive but yes they will last you a long time. I follow someone who says never press harder than it takes for the color to appear & I try to keep that it mind when I draw & use my pencils so I'm more conscious of my pencil pressure & I slow down & take my time.
Sallyann
4/11/2021 02:04:04 pm
Wow! Sounds like you have more pencils than me! I love pencils! I am actually trying the Chromaflow for the first time this week. I will check out Blicks for the Caran D’ache, but l will get stung for import duty getting them here!
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