Kutch - The new colored pencil: create luminous works with innovative materials and techniques

Mutual Admiration , Ranjini Venkatachari, CPSA, 2008, 34 24, water-soluble wax pastel and colored pencil on Pastelbord. Collection of Beth and Terry Gatto-Russeff.

In this piece Ranjini Venkatachari balances the visual weight of the objects by arranging them around the center of the composition, deliberately overlapping to create depth and further emphasize the design effect. Ranjini chose a textured surface, blending water-soluble Neocolor II wax pastels on it, followed by layers of colored pencils; the overall effect is a full, saturated painting with lots of detail.

THE NEW

COLORED
PENCIL

Create Luminous Works with
Innovative Materials and Techniques

KRISTY ANN KUTCH

WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS

Berkeley

Copyright 2014 by Kristy Ann Kutch

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Watson-Guptill Publications, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.watsonguptill.com

WATSON-GUPTILL and the WG and Horse designs are registered trademarks of Random House LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kutch, Kristy Ann.
The new colored pencil : create luminous works with innovative materials and techniques / Kristy Ann Kutch. First [edition].
pages cm
1. Colored pencil drawingTechnique. I. Title.
NC892.K885 2014
741.24dc23
2013027956

Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-7704-3693-3
eBook ISBN: 978-0-7704-3447-2

Design by Chloe Rawlins

Cover art by Kristy Ann Kutch
Front cover art: Poppyburst, Kristy Ann Kutch, 2008
Cover design: Chloe Rawlins

v3.1

This book is dedicated to my dear family:
Ed, Mary, Joe, and Eddie. You are the loves of my life!

I am especially thankful to these people who generously helped and supported me as I wrote this book:

Richard Berman

Bet Borgeson

Ed Brickler

Dana Brown

Walt, Susie, and Richard Bukva

Tim DePack

Kristen-Lee Derstein

John and Karen Divis

Barbara Faro

Sue Freudenthal

Diana Garrett

Janie Gildow

Michael Ginsburg

Nick Graham

Mike Grecian

Karl Haberer

Nora Hackenberg

Linda Lucas Hardy

Janet Hoeppner

Michael Kalman

Jeannie Lawson

Stefan Lhrer

Susan Marcus

Joyce McBriarty

Joe Miller

Leila Porteous

Andrea Pramuk

Ester Roi

Thomas Richards

Kyle Richardson

Linda Saft

Marc Schotland

Christa Trivisonno

Eric Valentine

Lori Villalonga

Eric Vitus

Bernadette Ward

And most of all, Edward Kutch.

Chambered Nautilus , Karen Coleman, CPSA, 2005, 10 8, colored pencil on Pastelbord. Collection of Merv and Judith Rosen.

This piece by Karen Coleman makes dynamic use of negative space. She captures the play of light on the colorful patterned exterior of the shell and creates contrast with the rich blue background, evoking the deep sea where it makes it home. Fuzzy La Carte pastel paper also allowed a dense and speedy buildup of colors.

Rusty Truck in Rain Forest , Jana Westhusing, 2010, 10 8, colored pencil on Stonehenge paper.

Jana Westhusing chose Prismacolor pencils and Stonehenge paper because she likes these materials for their ability to enhance fine details. The combination allowed for the photo-like quality of this art.

From the first time I picked up a colored pencil in my local art league class, I have been intrigued by the medium. More than two decades have passed since that course, and I have embraced the growth of colored pencil as a fine art medium with great enthusiasm. Since my first book, Drawing and Painting with Colored Pencil , was published by Watson-Guptill in 2005, there have been many product and technique developments. With a spirit of fun and adventure, I have incorporated new pencils, wax pastels, tools, and approaches into my own art. Whether I drew, brushed, grated, spattered, or even blew pigment through a screen, it has been an enjoyable and satisfying experience. In recent years, many new varieties and types of colored pencils have emerged, each with their own merits and characteristicsand sometimes inspiring new techniques. The varieties of pencils and the palette of colors in which theyre available have grown beyond wax- or oil-based permanent traditional pencils. Water-soluble drawing products now include new types of watercolor pencils, including ink-like pencils and even tinted aquarelle graphite pencils. Pigments are rich and dense, and more emphasis has been placed on lightfastness for the permanence of ones art.

The emergence of water-soluble wax pastelswhich may look like crayons but which offer much more in terms of quality, speed, and versatilityhas been perhaps the most surprising development in the world of color drawing and painting. Aquarelle wax pastels swiftly cover large areas with rich pigment that dissolves instantly with the sweep of a damp brush. The wax pastel can also be sharpened to a point, or the pigment can be stroked from the tip with a wet brush. This type of aquarelle wax pastel can yield a highly pigmented liquefied wash which can then be applied with a brush.

New and diverse drawing and painting surfaces that are colored pencilcompatible have emerged, too. Longtime favorite lines of paper have expanded to include more colors. New brands of papers have appeared with a variety of textures, to appeal to artists wide-ranging tastes. Versatile illustration board ideally designed and textured for wet media as well as dry is now on the market. Translucent filmlike vellum, acid-free and of high quality, offers speedy, rich laydown of colors. From fine-toothed silky paper to sandy-textured boards, dazzling pure white or toned to a range of colors, such supports offer an aspiring array of textures, hues, and unique traitsthe potential unfolds with great possibilities.

Colored pencil is ever-blossoming as a fine art medium, bringing with it new materials and surfaces, even an expanded concept of what drawing a painting in color means. This book presents many possibilities and techniques for widening those colored pencil boundaries.