Getting your pounce pad ready really is key. It takes awhile, is not where you just fill it up and go with it. I have pink, blue, and white. They do work best with the stencils designed for them, but will work for others too.
I have vision issues and seeing lines on fabric is often very challenging for me no matter what color I use. For intricate quilting patterns on my busy multiple color scrap quilts, I am often quilting through paper. Yes, you have to take extra steps but to get the results I want sometimes this is what I have to do.
I buy rolls of parchment paper at the dollar store, $1 for 1x25 roll. I will buy a pantograph or other pattern and trace it on to the paper and then safety pin the paper to top and quilt through all. Then you have to remove the paper, a popsicle stick can be a great help but yeah, it takes time and makes a mess. If you use a standard pencil and white thread, you can have some issues with graphite coming off into the white thread, you can use a harder lead or other techniques to avoid that.