I love to experiment with different materials, and one of my favorite drawing tools is a water-soluble pencil. I also draw with pen and ink, which is very different than the “blendable” graphite of a water soluble pencil. With a water-soluble pencil, if you run a wet brush over the marks, they smear a bit and fix the graphite to the paper.
I like to make several tiny sketches each day. I don’t use anything larger than standard-sized 8-½ x 11 paper. There are several kinds of water-soluble pencils. On my desk right now I have a black Staedtler watercolor pencil and a Derwent Sketching (medium w)ash, which also comes in light and dark wash. This cute little sketch was done with these water-soluble pencils. Here is before and after. In the “after” drawing, all I added was water.
