Colored Pencil Art by Heather Anderson - Horses in Art Magazine

Colored Pencil Art

by Heather Anderson

Noblesse – This noble Morgan was painted in Colored Pencil by artist Heather Anderson.
Colored pencil, also known as an art pencil or pencil crayon, is simply an extruded column of pigment and binder encased in wood. However, to many artists, professional or amateur, adult or child, there is a simple, one-word description for them – magic!

The first time I drew a line with a colored pencil, I was hooked. Rich, lush pigment in all the colors of the rainbow were sitting there in a neat box, mine to command. I was advised that if I wanted to be an artist, I needed to use a serious medium and stop playing with pencil crayons. Briefly, I blundered around with oil and fought with pastel. After a long struggle, I finally came to terms with watercolor, and it remains a life-long medium of choice. Recently, I re-discovered colored pencils, and appreciate its growing poularity as a fine art medium.

The colored pencil has been around since the early 19th century. Originally, they were produced in the United States and in Europe, and the 15 to 20 available colors were intended for marking, not for fine art. The early pencils were not highly pigmented, and had far less wax which did not produce a smooth application like today’s pencil.

By 1924, Faber of Germany introduced 60 colors for artists, and the same year, Caran d’Ache of Switzerland became a leading manufacturer. Berol Prismacolors were introduced in 1938 and from the beginning were noted for their creamy, velvety texture and for the amazing rainbow of colors available.

Today there is a wide range of manufacturers producing quality colored pencils. The pencils themselves come in wax based or oil based. Each pencil consists of pigment or dye, a filler such as talc, kaolin, or chalk, a binder like cellulose ether or vegetable gum, and wax or oil. The casing holding the pigment mix, although once made of rolled paper, is now usually made of cedar.

Belgian Buddies – Colored Pencil by Tonya Holland.

Colored pencils today vary from soft to hard, large to thin that give minute, detail in close quarters. They can be water soluble for a beautiful watercolor-wash look. The color can be laid down, one delicate layer at a time, or put down more heavily and burnished, for a rich, sumptuous look.

One minor drawback to colored pencils is wax bloom. This is a cloudy haze that forms when the wax in the pencil works its way up to the surface, but it is easily corrected by buffing gently with a tissue, or prevented by spraying the surface with a good quality fixative.

Colored Pencil can be used on a variety of grounds, including colored pastel paper, sanded paper, illustration board, suede mat board, and other papers that are made especially for colored pencil. The resulting beautiful works of art vary tremendously in texture and visual effect. s Article written by Heather Anderson, a member of the Equine Art Guild. Visit her web site at www.kelpiestudio.com, and the Equine Art Guild at www.equineartguild.com.

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