Watercolor Pencils Or Pastels Added: A Painting Or Drawing?

Watercolor is painting, but what if I use watercolor pencils over a watercolor painting?
Watercolor pencils were intended to be used by applying them over water, but they can be used just like colored pencils - dry over dry.  Simply use them after the underpainting dries. Perhaps this is were the confusion comes from - when artists do more than paint and decide to add watercolor pencil work or even pastels over the top.
When using watercolor pencils like colored pencils, I call it drawing. When using them in water to add to a painting, I call it painting.






I used watercolor pencils while the painting was still wet in this one. If you do it that way, the pencil lays down smooth as butter and feels like your using a small, very controllable paintbrush.

There is also a touch of India ink in this onion study, but the black primarily came from a black-colored watercolor pencil.

I consider this a painting.











This is one of my watercolor paintings that have India Ink added at the end.

I consider it still a watercolor painting as the majority of the work was done with paint.

The bleeding of the ink comes from applying it before the paper dried completely; which was intentional.

These have a lot of pastel over the top, but still is made up more of watercolor paint than pastel.  The underpainting is done entirely out of watercolor.  Besides, I consider most pastels I do paintings. Some would say that one is up for interpretation.

Someone asked me once, about the Peach Fuzz painting, "How did you do that?"  My answer:  I painted it in watercolor until I ruined it; than, I painted it in pastel until I fixed it.

This Poppy painting has a lot more pastel over the top of the watercolor underpainting. I would still call this a painting, but it leans more towards mixed media than the watercolor painting category.  The flowers and the background were painted in watercolor first.

The rule of thumb would be: if the majority of the painting is painted in a particular media then it is that kind of painting and if the majority of the art is drawn than it would go in the drawing category.  Otherwise it is mixed media.

For the watercolor category, if there are watercolor pencils or sticks applied over water in up to 50% or even more of the final work, I would still consider the art a watercolor painting.  Placing it in that category if it were entering into an art show, but specify in the description.


If I were to enter any of these works into a show, my decision for what category they belonged in would be between mixed media and watercolor not the painting and the drawing category.  For the purposes of google search, I tag them as drawings and paintings.  Just as I tag my work as paintings and pictures.  Many people will use either term and it is perfectly okay to use both in that case, but entries in an art show are more specific.  They want you to categorize the artwork as mixed media, drawing, watercolor or water media, and oils.  So, go with the rule of thumb I mentioned above.

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