I bought some Inktense pencils this morning and had to try them out. Inktense pencils combine qualities of traditional watercolor pencils and permanent markers. The pencil marks dissolve with water but once dry, the color is bright and durable. I wondered how the Inktense pencils might work with gouache. Of course it will take a lot of time to figure out how to work with these materials, but so far, this is what I think.

Inktense works well alone on black paper. Some portions of this sketch, such as the hair of the two women in the foreground, are drawn with Intense pencils and then the marks were lightly dissolved with a water brush. I like the strength of these marks and how easy it is to use.

I am less impressed with adding the Inktense pencils over areas that I first painted with gouache. After the gouache dried, I colored over it with the pencils and then remoistened the marks with a wet brush. I was heavy handed with the Inktense pencils in the tree and less so in the sky. To be fair, I was clumsy with the technique, but so far think I can get a better look with only gouache.