Impressed Line Drawing

This technique involves making impressed lines on the paper with an embossing stylus before applying the color. The impressive result is a whimsical drawing that gives you permission to color outside the lines! The traced design is impressed into the paper using a heavy hand. You can shade with light or dark colors and the impressed lines will stay bold and bright white.

Materials

Colored pencils
Embossing stylus
Small piece of paraffin wax or old candle stub (not colored wax)
Low-tack masking tape
Tracing paper
Permanent pen with fine tip
Watercolor paper

Impressing the Pattern

First, tape tracing paper over the design with low-tack tape and trace just the out-line of the design with a fine-tipped permanent pen. You can overlap the motifs, group motifs together, or choose to leave out certain elements. You are the artist, so create the drawing you want.

Next, place the traced pattern over the watercolor paper. With a heavy hand, trace the motif with the embossing stylus. I work on a semi-padded surface, such as a piece of craft foam or cardboard, to maximize these impressed lines. To minimize drag, rub the stylus in paraffin wax to lubricate it. Work with a strong light directly overhead to see the subtle white-on-white impressed lines you are creating. Remove the tracing paper pattern to reveal the impressed line outline of the motif. You can go over these impressed lines again with the stylus to make them even more pronounced. After the main lines are impressed, add filler design lines. Do this freehand and press hard to create the deepest impressed line possible. These lines will be crisp and bright white. Vary the outline and the filler design line weights by using both ends of the stylus.

Coloring the Design

Start with a light shading of the color fields. Use a light touch and smooth move- ments. I go over and past the impressed outlines of the motif to make the line show up. It also adds a fanciful effect to the drawing.

2. As you continue to shade, press harder with the pencil for more intense color. The pink in this example has been shaded darkly and a lime green has been added and blended into it.

3. The final stage of shading uses darker colors and the heaviest shading to create the finished look. Do not be afraid to add lots of layers of different colors and dark- er hues for the most interesting drawings. While solvents and a colorless blender are great for blending colored pencils, they do not work well with the impressed technique. The color blends into the impressed lines, causing you to lose the design. You can use a blender if you feel the lines need to be toned down in a larger drawing.

Tips

This technique works best on watercolor papers, because you get a bolder white line using these soft, heavy papers. Choose the paper that you prefer; cold pressed papers are rougher, giving a little texture and allowing more of the white to show through, while hot pressed papers are smooth and make the white lines thinner. They all work wonderfully. To create colored impressed lines, as shown in the sample below, shade the paper with colors before impressing the line. Shade on top using a darker or contrasting color to make the colored impressed lines show up clearly.