Everybody has heard a joke about white pencil crayons before. The internet is particularly nasty when it comes to dishing dirt against this poor inanimate object. We’ve all heard about how practically useless it is, and how it’s a waste of space in your crayon box. What’s worse is that even if you wanted to defend the little guy, you can’t do anything because even you can’t come up with a couple of ways to make it more useful. It also doesn’t help that the world is content with completely ignoring the white coloring tool.

Nobody’s trying hard enough to make art with these things, especially not the beginners.

But what if we told you that you can make the most out of the white pencil crayon? It’s not as absurd as it sounds! In fact, we’ll also throw in a couple of helpful tips about the white coloring pencil. The same principles apply to these two tools, so it’s very easy to learn.

Other than proving that the white colors are anything but useless, you could also take the time to learn these handy techniques in order to improve your artistic skills in general. Who says creativity is dead? If you’re resourceful, you can make anything and everything that your mind can come up with.

So with no further ado, here are some of our tips on how to use your white coloring pencil crayons effectively.

 

Work on a Dark Colored Paper

 

This should be the first thing that pops into your head when someone asks you to work with a white pencil crayon. You begrudgingly think of how difficult it will be, but deep in your mind you know that it can be done.

The reason why you probably aren’t motivated to use white on dark-colored paper is that you know how complicated that is. It’s no easy feat – we’ll tell you that. That’s mainly because you will be working backwards. Instead of having a space of white to fill in with color, you have a whole area of color that you have to define using white.

And that’s the main purpose of white pencil crayons. They won’t do the coloring per se. They will be defining the shape, the texture, and the depth of your image. Not bad for something that is generally regarded as useless, huh?

Try working on an entirely black piece of paper. Black is the most obvious choice, and it is also the most popular, but you can also experiment on darker shades of certain colors. Just make sure that the white will be seen prominently, so you’ll have control over the whole image. Dark brown works great, for example. The rest is a matter of preference and artistic style.

For the actual drawing, you’re gonna need to apply the principles of light and dark for it to work. Remember that the white will be used to make the details really pop, so shading properly is essential. This is where things get slightly tricky.

Instead of shading the dark areas, you’re going to predict where the dark areas will be and work from there to bring back the light. It’s gonna take lots of practice, but that applies to all forms of art anyway.

 

Use Black and Grey Pencil Crayons Too

  

  

If you plan on making art using white paper, then it’s gonna be even trickier to get the white crayon moving. For most professional artists, they will opt to let the white paper provide all the light they need while shading in the darker areas to contrast it. They will use the white paper instead of coloring something with full color and then adding in the white. This is where the white colors really get their bad reputation.

But an advanced technique involves using the white crayon to define which parts of the image will be colored in, and which won’t. It is used essentially for making invisible traces, so that you can color without fear of crossing into the white paper territory. Even when you can’t clearly see it, the white traces will guide you because you will sense it under your pencil or crayon, where the white should be. It prevents you from shading in an area that’s supposed to be white.