How to get white in your coloring book pictures

Which white pencil, pen, crayon, mark-making device should I use to make areas of my project white? That’s one of the most asked questions in our Facebook group so I figured I should give you all my favorite white methods.

White Pencils

Of course, you have a white pencil in your set so one way if you want a large area to stay white is to color it first with the white pencil. You can also use your white pencil to blend other colors and to soften or lighten them up a shade. This doesn’t really work if you have already colored something in so let’s move on to another method. The Luminance White Pencil by Caran D’Ache is really the best white pencil to use for making things white as it is the most vibrant and you can buy it individually. It’s a softer method than those below but can be quite effective.

• White Luminance Pencil
• White Prismacolor Pencil
• White Faber Castel Polychromos Pencil

White Gel Pens

There are a couple that we love and it just depends on your uses. Hands down my favorite are the Uniball Signo White Gel Pens This is a 3 pack of the broad point and it just keeps out performing other pens and it dries quite quickly. It works over all types of colored pencils and even watercolors & some acrylic paint. The picture I colored above shows you how well the Uniball pens show up even on light pastel type colors.

The next in line is the Gelly Roll White Gel Pen,  this one can fade into the pencils a little more than the Uniball but it’s a great choice if you can’t find my favorite.

White Paint Pens

White paint pens are the trickiest of these 3 options but give you the most reliable coverage over your colored pencils. You have to shake them each time you use them and prime them the first use by pressing on a piece of paper with the tip LIGHTLY until the ink flows.. do NOT do this ON your coloring book!! (I may have done that and ruined a page… OOPS!) .

White Sharpie

The most economical choice is the Sharpie WATERBASED White Paint Pen. ( I can’t find these locally but maybe your store carries them. Just be sure it doesn’t say OIL on the packaging) These come in Bold, Medium, Fine & Extra Fine.

White Posca Pen

These take a little longer to get the US but are worth the wait. This set of 3 has all 3 of the sizes, medium, fine & extra fine.

Dylusions Paint Pen

I confess, these just came out and I bought this set with black and white paint pens in it but haven’t had a chance to try it yet. I love the other Dylusions products and these other two options are often hard to find so hopefully they are filling a niche that is needed in the art supply section. Click to order Dyan Reaveley’s Dylusions Paint Pens in Black & White.

There are so many uses for white in your coloring, the obvious things like snowflakes or highlights in the eyes, but you can also use them for detailing like I show in the picture at the top of the page. You can also use any of these three options to soften color that’s gotten too strong where you want it highlighted, the pencils you use by blending but both the gel pens and the paint pens are liquid when you apply them so you can take a damp paint brush or your finger (Yes.. my fingers always have colors on them) and smudge it in to get the effect you are looking for.