Hi! This week I'm going to talk about
some of the major differences between wet and draw traditional art
mediums. I won't go in to express details but just some general
things to keep in mind.
be soft and oil pastels as they are neither
brushed on nor always in pencil form but are closer to being small
blocks most of the time, but you can but soft pencils in some places
as pencils.
Okay, lets begin!
Control-ability:
This is in general easier with dry
media; Colored pencils and charcoal pencils can be sharpened to a
point and do fine details, whereas things like watercolors and
gouache is a lot harder to control because you need brushes and
water. Markers are much easier if you want wet media, and the harder
medium for dry would
be soft and oil pastels as they are neither
brushed on nor always in pencil form but are closer to being small
blocks most of the time, but you can but soft pencils in some places
as pencils.Blending:
 |
| Blended with baby-oil and blender pencil |
Blending things like colored pencils
is based off of layering and burnishing , there are many techniques
including using a blender pencil, a white colored pencil, or baby-oil
to blend colored pencils. For graphics pencils and soft pastels there
are blending stubs that are made to blend the more powedery medium
together, you can also use cotton swabs you buy from the bath section
of he store or your finger, but I've had some unhappy accidents with
using my fingers for blending like forgetting which finger had which
color then I mixed and made an ugly color...ugggghhhh don't do that!
 |
| Watercolor blended with more watercolor and water |
For watercolors you need water to
blend, and water-based markers...well...you pretty much don't have a
good blending capability with them unless you want to use them also
as watercolors (how to do that will be
talked about another time).
For alcohol-based markers they're blended using a colorless blender
and eachother, different brands have colorless blenders and I have
never used one but I have watched many other artists use them and
they are quite useful.
Color Depth:
This is something that can be a bit
irritating but c'est la vie. With wet media the color you put down is
never the color that dries, it always dries lighter. Depending on the
medium and quality, the color, texture, and depth will change from
not so bad to drastic. For example, you can put down a wash of
watercolor from a decent brand, the color you put on is vibrant and
saturated, once it dries the white of the paper comes out a bit and
lightens the color. Markers are the same, and a side tip never
believe the color on the barrel of the marker, test it first, the
colors they put on the barrel are never accurate; But anyway back on
point... Here's another example: If you put down a medium purple but
it looks very dark wait a few minutes for it to dry it will lighten
up a bit.
 |
| Colored with Colored pencil - Background with watercolor |
Dry mediums on the other hand, the color you put down is
the color you get, there is no drying time so whatever you see on the
paper is what you will always see (as long as you consider aging
which cause things to fade over time). Another thing to remember is
the color of your paper will account for
the color of the medium you
put down. If you have a black toned paper, don't expect to see any
marker unless you have some kind of neon paint marker. If you use
something like colored pencils on the other hand, you're much more
likely to see the pencil. Lighter colors are obviously recommended.
____
Okay, after reading these 3
contrasting differences which one do I think is better?
None! Each are different, and special,
taking days, months and/or years of practice. And to be honest, I
generally do not use only one medium in a drawing. Even in a colored
pencil dominated drawing I will use watercolor for the background
and/or pastels. For a marker piece I'll use colored pencils to shade.
For watercolors I'll use water-based markers and colored pencils to
shade. Just because these things are different doesn't mean they
can't work together. I find it a bit amazing actually that each one
of these mediums when used alone or together can all make
photo-realistic artwork or super cartoony artwork. Some do it better
than others, but the results are astonishing.
So where to start? Well, that's also
for another time, but if I was to say anything, I'd say a graphite
normal pencil, an eraser that works, and a sketch book. That's really
all you need.
Now go out there and draw something!
The world is looking for new things to discover!
Thank you for reading.
~ God Bless ~
~ Firefly
