Watercolor Goldfish

A clever way to draw pencil lines that disappear under the watercolor painting is to use the Derwent Graphitint pencils! Basically they are tinted graphite pencils, and for me, all lines were eaten by the first swipe of the loaded watercolor brush. I have a very light hand in whip-sketching so, note to self, will draw a little darker next time. That said, using these pencils is the ultra-way to lay down a quick image and not worry about having to erase, even gently, on the fragile surface of watercolor paper.

Looking very closely light sketching does become apparent. What I like about these Derwent Graphitint pencils is that they are naturally muted tones. Here I used some earthy neutral that, in case it did show, wouldn't look too badly with an orange glow over it.

Daniel Smith watercolors on 10" x 10" cellulose Daler Rowney watercolor paper