Watercolor Pens – Part 1
Watercolor Pens – Part 1

Watercolor Pens – Part 1

For Christmas hubby gave me a set of Chromatek watercolor pens:

the set of chromatek watercolor pens hubby gave me for christmas        the set of chromatek watercolor pens hubby gave me for christmas

the set of chromatek watercolor pens hubby gave me for christmas        closeup of chromatek watercolor pens from hubby

They’re like markers:

closeup of a chromatek watercolor pen from hubby

But when you draw with them on watercolor paper and then add water, the water “activates” the watercolor paint.  The set came with a small pad of watercolor paper & 4 hollow brush head pens which you fill with water and use to paint with after applying the color [only 3 are pictured – they roll away quite easily]:

watercolor paper that came with my chromatek pen set         watercolor paper size a5

The box came with a suggestion to try the Chromatek tutorials on YouTube, and their website has 6 templates you can download & print that go with the tutorials.  So that’s what I did for my first 6 paintings.  The watercolor paper is size A5, which you can see in the closeup.  That was important when trying to print out the templates onto the watercolor paper!  Amazingly after much trial and error I realized our printer tray actually has an A5 setting, and is a perfect fit for the watercolor paper:

watercolor paper size a5 fits in our printer         watercolor paper size a5 fits in our printer

I started with the Bird of Paradise plant and the pear, but was so wrapped up in following the tutorials I didn’t take pictures.  Next up was the feather.  I started with the printed out template [the templates aren’t detailed, they just provide you with a guide].  Then followed along with the YouTube video on the TV:

printout of a template from chromatek website for watercolor pens     i did the chromatek tutorial on youtube for painting a feather

i did the chromatek tutorial on youtube for painting a feather     i did the chromatek tutorial on youtube for painting a feather

The 4th tutorial was the jellyfish:

printout of a template from chromatek website for watercolor pens     i did the chromatek tutorial on youtube for painting a jellyfish

Here’s the first 4 tutorial paintings, completed:

the 4 finished watercolor pen paintings i did through tutorials

Next up was my favorite, the beetle bug [if you look closely at the printed out template you can see I erred by printing the bug over a previously wrong-sized pear], but no matter:

printout of a template from chromatek website for watercolor pens

The tutorial suggested you draw 3 egg shapes and practice highlighting and shading before attempting the bug:

i had to practice shading before doing the watercolor bug tutorial     i had to practice shading before doing the watercolor bug tutorial

Then I painted the blue bug:

blue bug chromatek tutorial on youtube - watercolor pens

Followed closely by a green version:

green bug chromatek tutorial on youtube - watercolor pens     green bug chromatek tutorial on youtube - watercolor pens

I like how they look together and want to paint more:

green & blue bugs chromatek tutorial on youtube - watercolor pens

I haven’t done the 6th template yet, which is a hummingbird.

In the meantime I had bought myself some larger watercolor paper on Amazon:

some larger watercolor paper i bought from amazon

A few weeks later I tried my hand at painting without a template.  I had seen a tutorial on YouTube by Kelogsloops about how to paint ocean waves:

And tried to follow along on the larger paper [I doodled a Hawaii whale-tail painting on the right].  My ocean waves = FAIL:

my attempt to paint waves with watercolor pens

My version is appalling.  But I will try again!  And again and again… He uses white calligraphy ink [#affiliate] and a tiny paintbrush to apply the white detailing after the watercolor dries.  I need to get me some of that.  I tried using white acrylic paint and it was not the same.

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11 Comments

  1. These look so fun! I may have to buy myself a set. Your tutorials came out great … can’t wait to see what you come up with on your own. I use Dr. P.H. Martin’s pen white for white paint (for whiskers, etc). It’s much denser than watercolor and covers well. It comes in a little bottle with a dropper. Eric also has a ball-tipped white pen which is OK for fine lines, but it skips on rough watercolor paper. When you buy more paper, I recommend Arches. I’ve tried others, but 140 lb. Arches cold press is my personal favorite — so far.

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