Easy Way to Level up your Watercolor Landscapes with Pencils!

Welcome to a detailed exploration of how to enhance your watercolor landscapes by incorporating colored pencils for texture, depth, and dimension. Inspired by the techniques shared by Emma Jane Lefebvre of EmJ Watercolour Studio, this guide will walk you through the process of combining watercolor washes with the expressive qualities of colored pencils, elevating your landscape paintings with a fresh, illustrative touch.

Why Combine Colored Pencils with Watercolor?

Watercolor is wonderful for its fluidity, transparency, and the beautiful washes it creates, but sometimes it lacks the texture and depth that can make landscapes truly pop. Colored pencils offer a versatile medium to complement watercolor paintings by adding fine details, enhancing shadows, and creating subtle highlights that bring your scenes to life. Unlike watercolor pencils, traditional colored pencils provide a unique texture that stands out against the smooth watercolor base, making them perfect for layering and adding intricate marks without smudging or blending too much.

Emma has been experimenting with this combination and has found it especially effective for landscapes, adding a new level of interest and vibrancy to her work. This technique is accessible, requiring just a few additional supplies, and can be adapted to your style whether you prefer loose, stylized illustrations or more detailed compositions.

Getting Started: Materials and Preparation

Before diving into the process, it’s important to choose the right materials. Emma recommends using a smooth mixed media sketchbook like the Strathmore Mixed Media Sketchbook, which has a smooth surface ideal for colored pencils. Hot pressed watercolor paper can also work well. Cold pressed papers, with their texture, may make it challenging to apply colored pencils smoothly.

The colored pencils Emma uses are Luminance Caran d'Ache pencils. These are high-quality, traditional colored pencils—not watercolor pencils—which offer rich pigment and excellent layering capabilities. While watercolor pencils can be used if you prefer, the texture and layering effects of regular colored pencils provide a unique charm and depth that Emma loves.

Step 1: Planning Your Composition and Color Palette

Emma starts her process with quick sketches and color studies to get a feel for the shapes and colors she wants to include. Instead of copying reference photos stroke for stroke, she draws inspiration from the colors, shadows, and light sources present in the photo. This approach encourages creativity and personal interpretation, giving the artwork a stylized and loose feel rather than a hyper-realistic one.

For example, when painting landscapes, Emma focuses on how the light hits the trees, the gradations in the sky, and the arrangement of flowers or grass, using these observations to inform her washes and pencil work. This technique helps keep the compositions fresh and lively.

Step 2: Laying Down the Watercolor Base

The foundation of the painting begins with watercolor washes. Emma typically applies a first layer of a medium green for trees or a yellow wash for flower fields, followed by additional layers once the first has dried. For trees, she adds texture by dabbing with lighter and darker greens to simulate light and shadow. For flower fields, she keeps the wash loose and impressionistic, allowing the colored pencils to add the detail later.

In the sky, Emma often uses soft washes of blues and lavenders to create subtle clouds and atmospheric effects. She intentionally keeps these washes light and smooth, so the colored pencils can add nuanced texture and depth without overwhelming the area.

Step 3: Enhancing the Sky with Colored Pencils

Once the watercolor base is dry, Emma begins layering colored pencils starting with the sky. She adds darker shades like grayish lavenders under the clouds to give them depth and volume. By varying pencil pressure, she creates smooth gradients from dark to light, mimicking the softness of clouds.

One of the unique advantages of colored pencils is the ability to layer lighter colors on top of darker ones. Emma demonstrates this by using white pencils or crayons to add soft highlights and cloud details, which gives the sky a delicate, airy feel. This layering technique is difficult to achieve with watercolor alone but is simple and effective with pencils.

Step 4: Adding Texture and Depth to Trees

Trees are painted with two watercolor layers initially—a base medium green wash followed by textured dabs of light and dark green. After this dries, colored pencils add expressive details. Emma uses a variety of greens, from bright to olive to dark, applying small scribbles and marks that suggest leaves and branches.

She emphasizes the tops of trees with brighter greens to indicate sunlight and dark greens at the base or shadowed areas to add volume. Brown pencils are also used sparingly to hint at tree trunks or branches, layering over the greens for a natural effect. The pencils’ texture creates an impressionistic, lively quality, making the trees feel dynamic and dimensional.

Step 5: Enhancing Paths and Ground Elements

For pathways or dirt areas, Emma lightly scribbles colored pencils over the watercolor base to add subtle texture. She uses lighter tones in the center of paths and darker browns at the edges to create the illusion of depth and shadow. This technique helps ground the composition and gives the scene a more tactile feel.

Step 6: Bringing Flower Fields to Life

Flower fields begin with a wash of yellow and green watercolor, followed by colored pencil details to suggest individual flowers and grass blades. Emma uses a variety of yellows—bright lemon yellows, yellow ochre, and lighter, almost white yellows—to build layers of color and shadow.

She taps or scribbles yellow pencil marks over the wash to create texture without spending excessive time on tiny details. In the foreground, where flowers are closer, she adds more defined oval shapes and darker shadows to suggest petals and clusters of flowers. This gradual increase in detail from background to foreground adds depth and realism to the field.

For the greenery, Emma applies different green pencils with loose strokes to depict grass and foliage. She uses long, varied scribbles to imply movement and texture, layering dark greens around edges and lighter greens where sunlight hits. This layering technique creates a vibrant, textured field that feels alive and natural.

Step 7: Adding Highlights and Shadows to Hills and Trees

In another landscape example, Emma focuses on hills and trees. She adds yellow pencil highlights to the tops of hills to simulate sunlight and uses dark greens and browns to deepen shadows on the shaded sides of trees and hills.

Colored pencils allow her to layer light yellows over greens, a difficult effect to achieve with watercolor alone. She also adds texture to hillsides with small grass strokes using olive and green pencils. This variety of marks and colors creates a rich, dimensional landscape that feels warm and inviting.

Emma also adds subtle brown pencil marks to tree trunks and shadowed areas, enhancing the three-dimensionality of the trees and giving them a grounded, realistic presence without losing the loose, illustrative style.

Step 8: Drawing Flowers with Colored Pencils

For flowers in the second landscape, Emma uses bright pink and carmine pencils to paint loose flower shapes, inspired by tulips. She keeps the shapes simple—circles and ovals—but adds depth by shading one side darker and highlighting the other.

Because colored pencils can layer well over watercolor, she can add vibrant pinks over green bases without the colors becoming muddy or dull. She further enhances the flowers with green pencil stems and leaves, using light and dark greens to add dimension and connect the flowers to the ground.

Tips for Successful Watercolor and Colored Pencil Landscapes

• Use smooth paper: Smooth mixed media or hot pressed paper is better for colored pencils to glide easily and layer effectively.

• Layer thoughtfully: Start with light washes of watercolor, then build texture and detail with pencils in layers, from light to dark and back to light for highlights.

• Don’t overwork: Keep pencil marks loose and expressive. Scribbles and small strokes can create wonderful texture without the need for precise detail.

• Experiment with color: You don’t have to match watercolor colors exactly with pencils. Sometimes contrasting or complementary pencil colors can add interest and depth.

• Explore layering light on dark: Use white or light-colored pencils to add highlights or cloud details even on darker areas.

• Keep your pencils sharp: Sharp pencils allow for small, detailed marks that add dimension and realism.
  

Final Thoughts

Combining colored pencils with watercolor landscapes is a fantastic way to add texture, depth, and dimension to your artwork. This technique offers a playful, versatile approach that suits artists who enjoy a loose, illustrative style as well as those interested in more detailed work. By layering colored pencil marks on top of watercolor washes, you can create vibrant, dynamic scenes that feel alive and inviting.

Emma Jane Lefebvre’s approach is all about enjoying the process and embracing imperfection. Her use of quick sketches, loose marks, and layering encourages creativity and experimentation. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced artist, adding colored pencils to your watercolor landscapes can open up new possibilities and help you develop a unique artistic voice.

So grab your watercolors, pick up your colored pencils, and give this technique a try! You’ll be amazed at how much life and vibrancy you can bring to your landscapes with just a few simple steps.

Happy painting!