Another watercolor portrait, with only watercolor pencils!

I challenged myself not to use any pan or tube watercolors on this one, I was to only use my Albrecht Dürer watercolor pencils. So a bit different approach was needed. I shaded first some color areas with the pencils and then used wet brush and blended the colors. Rince and repeat. In the bottom I created a wet area and then wetted the strongly sketched colors from above areas and let it spread into the wet area.

Finished sketch:

I felt a bit constricted using just the pencils, not able to immediately add wanted strength of washes to large areas but having to rely on the colors I sketched with the pencils. (and most often I could have layered the pencils on more strongly) I also used more rough paper than I normally do, so I had a bit of a double challenge 😀 The pencils initially looked quite rugged on the paper, but blended nicely with brush and water. I used St Cuthberts Mill Saunders Waterford (26x18mm, 300GSM, cold press / NOT) watercolor pad. I also have larger pad of the same brand but in hot press paper, so I will split that into four sections and trial the pencils alone on that as well.

Inspiration from sktchy app, model and photo by: Ava Ahmadi