Testing Watercolour Pencils

I enjoyed using watercolour pencils as a child and loved that moment when you added water and your art turned into a painting. As with many things the memories from childhood are a little betraying. While teaching an art class recently, I was disappointed by the watercolour pencils I tried with my students. They seemed grainy and not very vibrant.

I was then challenged to try out different brands to see if the brand I had tried were weak or if my memory was failing me.

The four brands were:

• Prang
• Crayola
• Lyra
• Sargent Art

The girls got straight down to “work”!

We used a printed colouring sheet and dived it into four sections. We took care to use the allocated brand of watercolour pencil in the correct section.

Comments included:

• Prang- soft and makes chips or dust, kinda crumbly, it is hard to colour lightly
• Crayola- it has a hard lead, you have to press down hard
• Lyra- doesn’t erase easily, I like it best because it doesn’t dust
• Sargent Art- it has a hard lead, it takes too long to cover

These comments were shared while colouring. We did try to erase them all. Lyra was the most difficult to erase, while the rest were more successful. As you can see from the photo we were on a rough surface, not dissimilar to a school desk I imagine.

The excitement of adding water was quite the thrill!

The wonderful no spill water pot saved the day.

The girls enjoyed watching the colours blend together as they used paintbrushes and water. They did need to wash their brush off after each colour change but the results were beautiful.

Our favourites in terms of blending power as you added water, were probably the Crayola and Lyra with the Prang and Sargent Art coming close behind.

Yes, apparently my memory has failed me. While the watercolour pencils did what they needed to I was thinking more of these I think….

I guess I will have to try them next!