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WHITE HIGHLIGHTS: WHICH SUPPLIES ARE BEST?
Would you like to add touches of light to some areas of your drawing or your painting by using white highlight techniques? This foolproof method allows you to create light notes within a drawing or painting to emphasize the brightest colours. Gouache, pencil, pastel or eraser: learn about all the different supplies that will add white highlights to your drawings and paintings!
WHAT ARE WHITE HIGHLIGHTS?
White highlights are frequently used in pictorial art to provide light and structure to the picture or drawing, and are part of a technique that aims to contrast bright colours and darker shades in a work.
White highlights: a technique used to add brightness and structure to your artwork
When drawing a portrait do you want to add some life and sparkle into the person's eyes? Adding just a few touches or lines of white to your canvas allows you to create shifts in perspective in your landscapes and portraits. White highlights first and foremost inject brightness into your works. In your drawings or paintings this light touch will highlight and emphasize the area it's applied to. By highlighting a specific part of your painting you are drawing attention to the details in your work.
Last but not least, white highlights give structure and depth to a drawing. For example, if you've drawn a landscape on black paper you can create the white that's missing from your art by adding a touch of white highlight. This will help delineate areas of the drawing or painting. By using white highlights, each pencil line, brushstroke or dab of white will brighten a smile, make a lighter sky or, in the case of a still life, make a piece of fruit shinier and prettier.
Last but not least, white highlights give structure and depth to a drawing. For example, if you've drawn a landscape on black paper you can create the white that's missing from your art by adding a touch of white highlight. This will help delineate areas of the drawing or painting. By using white highlights, each pencil line, brushstroke or dab of white will brighten a smile, make a lighter sky or, in the case of a still life, make a piece of fruit shinier and prettier.
WHICH TOOLS ARE NEEDED FOR WHITE HIGHLIGHTS?
Several tools are available to you when it comes to creating white hightlights in your drawings and paintings, depending on your favoured medium and what end result you're looking for. Here are just some of the tools and supplies that are most commonly used for adding white highlights to your surface.
Dry or wax pastel pencils
If you're looking to add very fine and precise details to your drawing, you can use a white pastel pencil. This tool allows you to add sparkle to someone's eye, touches of light or details in the lighter areas of your creations. White pastel pencils can be used to highlight and emphasize details that do not yet stand out.
White colored pencils
With its fine point that allows you to work with precision, a white colored pencil is a particularly efficient way of adding bright details to colored or dark paper. Highlight a detail of your portrait with a white colored pencil. The Luminance 6901™ "Portrait" assortment of pencils is perfect for bringing hyper-realistic details to a drawing.
White paint applied with a paintbrush
Would you like to add a white highlight to your painting? Opt for white paint that with a paintbrush you can delicately add on the minute details of your work.
● If you're working with watercolour paint or water-soluble gouache, you can use a round brush which has short and flexible bristles. These paintbrushes will let you control of exactly how much white you wish to add and get fine details on monochrome wash.
● If you're working with acrylic paint, opt for a round or flat brush with stiffer bristles. These paintbrushes are good for adding wider highlights.
● If you'd like to add very fine and small elements, use a fine-tipped or liner brush to add precise details and thin lines in white.
● If you're looking to create texture with your white highlights, use coarse paintbrushes or specialty ones such as fan brushes, angled brushes or filbert brushes.
● If you're working with watercolour paint or water-soluble gouache, you can use a round brush which has short and flexible bristles. These paintbrushes will let you control of exactly how much white you wish to add and get fine details on monochrome wash.
● If you're working with acrylic paint, opt for a round or flat brush with stiffer bristles. These paintbrushes are good for adding wider highlights.
● If you'd like to add very fine and small elements, use a fine-tipped or liner brush to add precise details and thin lines in white.
● If you're looking to create texture with your white highlights, use coarse paintbrushes or specialty ones such as fan brushes, angled brushes or filbert brushes.
Sketcher pencil and blender
Bring your art to life with Caran d'Ache's sketcher pencil and blender!
These tools are perfect for multi-technique uses on paper, cardboard, wood, stone or earthenware, and complement other instruments such as colored, graphite or pastel pencils, allowing you to blend, unify and intensify colors within a drawing.
Thanks to their composition, these pencils bring light and shine without altering the original colors. Applying them to your paper will also make your work more resistant to UV lights keeping it brighter.
These tools are perfect for multi-technique uses on paper, cardboard, wood, stone or earthenware, and complement other instruments such as colored, graphite or pastel pencils, allowing you to blend, unify and intensify colors within a drawing.
Thanks to their composition, these pencils bring light and shine without altering the original colors. Applying them to your paper will also make your work more resistant to UV lights keeping it brighter.
Kneaded erasers and blending stumps
Often used to soften, blend or carefully remove lines made with wax, pastel or charcoal pencils, kneaded erasers or rubbers and blending stumps can also lighten areas on a drawing, bringing subtlety and nuance or creating a colour gradient.
💡 Other accessories such as a white gel pen, fabric or silver add-ons can also bring bright and luminous effects to pieces that will stand out in their originality.
Our advice: your choice of tool needed to add white highlights to your work will depend on the desired end result and what supplies you're working with. Try experimenting with different supplies to see what looks good and which highlights work best with your style and project, whether you're working on tracing paper, with washes or with watercolour.
🧑🎨 Are you looking to develop your drawing and painting skills? Follow our online Creative Class by Caran d'Ache and deepen your creative know-how thanks to the varied practical classes offered by certified artists!
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