Colored pencils offer a vibrant spectrum, but achieving those smooth, seamless transitions between hues can feel like chasing a rainbow. You lay down one color, then another, hoping they’ll magically merge, only to be left with distinct lines or a muddy patch. Frustrating, right? That polished, almost painterly look seems just out of reach for many budding artists. But what if the secret wasn’t just about layering, but about introducing a little chemistry and the right tools into the mix? Utilizing solvents and specific blending tools can dramatically transform your colored pencil work, taking it from decent to dazzlingly smooth.
Why Bother with Blending?
Before we dive into the how, let’s touch on the why. Why is seamless blending so sought after? It’s about creating realism and depth. Think about the subtle shifts in color on a piece of fruit, the gentle gradient of a sunset, or the soft transition of light across skin. These aren’t typically achieved with hard lines. Smooth blending allows you to:
- Create realistic gradients and transitions.
- Eliminate the grainy texture of pencil strokes for a smoother finish.
- Mix colors directly on the paper for unique shades.
- Add a sense of volume and three-dimensionality to your subjects.
- Give your artwork a more professional, finished appearance.
The Old Ways: Dry Blending Basics
Traditionally, artists relied on dry blending techniques. This often involves heavy layering, where you meticulously build up colors, allowing the layers underneath to show through slightly. Another method is burnishing, where you apply heavy pressure with a light-colored pencil (like white or cream) or a specialized colorless blender pencil. Burnishing crushes the tooth of the paper and fuses the pencil layers together, creating a shiny, smooth surface. While effective to a degree, burnishing fills the paper’s tooth quickly, making further layering difficult, and it doesn’t always eliminate the underlying pencil strokes completely, especially with harder pencils.
Introducing Solvents: The Game Changer
This is where solvents step in. Solvents work by breaking down the wax or oil binder that holds the pigment together in colored pencils. When the binder is temporarily dissolved, the pigment particles are freed up, allowing them to flow and mix together much more easily, almost like paint. Once the solvent evaporates, the pigment resettles, leaving behind a smooth, blended surface without the heavy pressure required for burnishing.
Common Solvents for Colored Pencils:
Several types of solvents are popular among colored pencil artists. It’s crucial to understand their properties:
Odorless Mineral Spirits (OMS): Products like Gamsol (artist-grade OMS) are highly favored. They are effective at dissolving both wax and oil-based binders and evaporate relatively slowly, giving you decent working time. The “odorless” aspect is a major plus, although good ventilation is still essential. They generally don’t affect the paper structure too much if used sparingly.
Rubbing Alcohol (Isopropyl Alcohol): A readily available and inexpensive option. It works, particularly well with wax-based pencils, but it evaporates very quickly. This means you have less time to blend, and it can sometimes leave slight tidemarks if not applied evenly. Higher percentages (90%+) tend to work better than lower ones (like 70%).
Specialized Artist Blending Solutions: Brands like Zest-it (citrus-based) or other proprietary formulas are designed specifically for artists. They often have pleasant scents (or less chemical odor than OMS) and are formulated to be effective blenders. Their evaporation rates and effects can vary, so checking reviews and experimenting is wise.
Always prioritize safety when working with solvents. Ensure your workspace has excellent ventilation to avoid inhaling fumes. Avoid direct skin contact; consider wearing gloves if you have sensitive skin. Never use solvents near open flames or sources of ignition.
Tools for Applying Solvents
You don’t apply solvent directly from the bottle to your artwork! You need a tool to control the application. The choice of tool affects the blending style:
Paper Stumps and Tortillons: These are tightly rolled paper sticks, available in various sizes. Stumps are pointed at both ends, while tortillons are pointed at one. They absorb the solvent and allow you to gently rub the pigment around. Excellent for controlled blending in small to medium areas. They get dirty quickly but can be cleaned with sandpaper or a craft knife.
Cotton Swabs (Q-tips): Good for very small details or initial tests. They tend to soak up a lot of solvent and can sometimes leave behind lint fibers. Best used for small, less critical areas.
Brushes: Small, firm synthetic brushes (like cheap acrylic or watercolor brushes you don’t mind dedicating to solvents) work wonderfully. They allow for a painterly blending style and can get into tight corners. Ensure the brush is damp, not soaking wet, with solvent.
Felt Applicators: Some artists use small pieces of felt or makeup sponges. These can cover larger areas more quickly but offer less precise control than stumps or brushes.
The Solvent Blending Technique: Step-by-Step
Ready to try it? Here’s a basic process:
- Layer Your Colors: Apply your colored pencil layers reasonably lightly. You don’t need heavy coverage initially; the solvent will spread the pigment. Ensure you have enough pigment down for the solvent to work with. Overlapping the colors where you want the blend to occur is key.
- Prepare Your Tool: Dip your chosen tool (stump, brush, etc.) into a small amount of solvent. Blot excess solvent on a paper towel – you want the tool to be damp, not dripping wet. Too much solvent can make the pigment run uncontrollably or damage the paper.
- Blend Gently: Using light pressure, gently rub the solvent-dampened tool over the area where the colors meet. Use small circular motions or back-and-forth strokes following the form of your object. The binder will dissolve, and the colors will start to merge.
- Work in Sections: Blend smaller areas at a time, especially if using a fast-evaporating solvent like alcohol.
- Let It Dry COMPLETELY: This is critical! The paper needs to be bone dry before you add more pencil layers. Applying pencil over damp paper can tear the surface or create muddy results. Drying time depends on the solvent and paper but usually takes a few minutes to half an hour. You can often see when it’s dry as the paper returns to its normal color and feel.
- Build More Layers (Optional): Once dry, you can add more layers of colored pencil to deepen colors, add details, or refine the blend further. You can repeat the solvent blending process multiple times, allowing drying time between each application.
Paper Matters Immensely
Your choice of paper significantly impacts the success of solvent blending. Because you’re introducing liquid, you need paper that can handle it without excessive buckling or falling apart.
- Weight: Heavier paper (at least 100lb / 270gsm, preferably more) is generally better.
- Surface: Smoother surfaces, like hot-press watercolor paper or Bristol Smooth, often allow for easier pigment manipulation with solvents. However, papers with a slight tooth (like Bristol Vellum or mixed media paper) can also work well, providing grip for initial pencil layers.
- Sizing: Papers with good internal and external sizing resist the solvent soaking straight through too quickly.
Comparing Wax vs. Oil-Based Pencils
Solvents generally work on both wax-based (like Prismacolor Premier, Derwent Chromaflow) and oil-based (like Faber-Castell Polychromos, Caran d’Ache Pablo) colored pencils. However, you might notice slight differences. Wax-based pencils often break down more readily, creating very smooth, almost paint-like blends. Oil-based pencils might require slightly more effort or a bit more solvent, but they blend beautifully too, often retaining a bit more texture unless heavily worked. Experimentation is key to understanding how your specific pencils react.
Refining Your Blends
After your solvent blend is dry, you might want to refine it further. You can lightly go over areas with your colored pencils to sharpen edges, add highlights, or deepen shadows. Sometimes, a final light blend with a colorless blender pencil can unify the surface after the solvent has done the heavy lifting. The combination of techniques often yields the best results.
Don’t Forget Dry Blending Tools
While solvents are powerful, don’t discard dry blending tools entirely.
- Colorless Blender Pencils: These are essentially wax or oil binder in pencil form without pigment. They work by mixing and smoothing existing pigment layers through friction and pressure, similar to burnishing but without adding color. They are excellent for softening edges or blending small areas *after* or *instead of* solvent use, especially if you want to avoid liquids.
- Burnishers: While heavy burnishing with a colored pencil fills the tooth, dedicated burnishing tools (often plastic or metal) can smooth layers without adding wax, though they still compress the paper tooth significantly.
Choosing Your Path
There’s no single “best” way. Solvent blending is fantastic for achieving smooth, painterly effects efficiently. Dry blending and burnishing offer different textures and levels of control. Your choice depends on:
- The desired final look (photorealistic, painterly, illustrative).
- The type of pencils you own.
- The paper you are using.
- Your comfort level with solvents and safety precautions.
- The scale and detail of your artwork.
Embracing solvents and specialized tools opens up a new dimension in colored pencil art. It requires patience, practice, and attention to safety, but the reward is the ability to create blends and achieve a level of smoothness that might have previously seemed impossible. Don’t be afraid to experiment on scrap paper, test different solvent-tool combinations, and see how they interact with your favorite pencils. That journey of discovery is part of the fun, and soon you’ll be achieving those seamless blends you’ve been aiming for.
