How to Use Colored Pencils
If you have been working with a simple pencil and a piece of paper for awhile, the idea of being able to trade in the color gray for an entire palette of colors is pretty exciting.
Here are some tips for using colored pencils that will help you maximize the "bang" color can deliver.
Applying them well can create some amazing results.
Fugitive Colors and Lightfast Pencils Fugitive colors are colors that fade over time from exposure to light.
Colored pencils do have some fugitive colors, but so do pastels and watercolors.
A good spray-on fixative will help protect your drawings from UV rays that would accelerate the fading process.
You can also buy "lightfast" colored pencils that are far less likely to show any fading over time.
Good-quality brands include Prismacolor, Staedler, Faber-Castell and Prang.
You will also need a high-quality pencil sharpener that will allow you to sharpen your pencils to a very fine point.
"Painting" with Pencils This is how many artists refer to working with colored pencils.
In other words, you don't draw with colored pencils, you paint.
That's because the traditional way to do a colored pencil "drawing" (or painting) is to draw the image with a standard lead pencil, then to color the image in, and then to apply a wet brush to fill on the spaces and blend the colors and create other effects.
Tips for Using Colored Pencils 1) Keep your hands clean If you tend to press the outside part of your palm on the paper as you draw, you may need to adjust that habit when you use colored pencils, or you will blend and smear the colors in ways that you probably did not intend to do.
If it becomes a problem try putting a small blank piece of paper under your hand and over the paper.
This will get rid of most of the smudging, but if you are pressing very hard you are still going to smear the colors on the paper a little bit.
2) Use different patterns for fills You can use the standard cross-hatching (short lines close together to create a pattern), but also experiment with curlicues, full circles (or bubbles), and any other design you can think of.
Fish scales are an option, for example.
So are triangles.
If you go to art school, at least once you are going to be asked to create a drawing that uses no line, just different kinds of patterns.
Colored pencils are a good medium to play around with this technique.
3) Use pencils on top of colored washes As mentioned before, you can paint with colored pencils, using the pencil "lead" as if it were dry paint on the page.
So you can create washes of color with the pencils.
After the paper is dry, you can also go back and apply the pencil to the dried wash, too.
4) Use solvents Solvents break up the wax that is in the colored pencil "lead".
By control use of the dissolving agents in solvents you can do interesting things with negative space, or spots where there is no color.
This can be effective if you are trying to show how light reflects on water, or the light reflecting off any shiny surface.
Here are some tips for using colored pencils that will help you maximize the "bang" color can deliver.
Applying them well can create some amazing results.
Fugitive Colors and Lightfast Pencils Fugitive colors are colors that fade over time from exposure to light.
Colored pencils do have some fugitive colors, but so do pastels and watercolors.
A good spray-on fixative will help protect your drawings from UV rays that would accelerate the fading process.
You can also buy "lightfast" colored pencils that are far less likely to show any fading over time.
Good-quality brands include Prismacolor, Staedler, Faber-Castell and Prang.
You will also need a high-quality pencil sharpener that will allow you to sharpen your pencils to a very fine point.
"Painting" with Pencils This is how many artists refer to working with colored pencils.
In other words, you don't draw with colored pencils, you paint.
That's because the traditional way to do a colored pencil "drawing" (or painting) is to draw the image with a standard lead pencil, then to color the image in, and then to apply a wet brush to fill on the spaces and blend the colors and create other effects.
Tips for Using Colored Pencils 1) Keep your hands clean If you tend to press the outside part of your palm on the paper as you draw, you may need to adjust that habit when you use colored pencils, or you will blend and smear the colors in ways that you probably did not intend to do.
If it becomes a problem try putting a small blank piece of paper under your hand and over the paper.
This will get rid of most of the smudging, but if you are pressing very hard you are still going to smear the colors on the paper a little bit.
2) Use different patterns for fills You can use the standard cross-hatching (short lines close together to create a pattern), but also experiment with curlicues, full circles (or bubbles), and any other design you can think of.
Fish scales are an option, for example.
So are triangles.
If you go to art school, at least once you are going to be asked to create a drawing that uses no line, just different kinds of patterns.
Colored pencils are a good medium to play around with this technique.
3) Use pencils on top of colored washes As mentioned before, you can paint with colored pencils, using the pencil "lead" as if it were dry paint on the page.
So you can create washes of color with the pencils.
After the paper is dry, you can also go back and apply the pencil to the dried wash, too.
4) Use solvents Solvents break up the wax that is in the colored pencil "lead".
By control use of the dissolving agents in solvents you can do interesting things with negative space, or spots where there is no color.
This can be effective if you are trying to show how light reflects on water, or the light reflecting off any shiny surface.
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