How to Colored Pencil Painting Basics

Most people think of art produced with colored pencils as a drawing. This two dimensional medium is referred to as a painting. Let's explore the basics of painting with colored pencil. This will be the first part of a series of lessons on colored pencils.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• paper of any kind
• colored pencils: Carmine Red, Crimson Lake, scarlet Lake, Tuscan Red
• graphite pencil
• gum eraser
• pencil sharpener

1. 
    

   Colored pencils come in three categories: Wax-Based, Oil Based, Water-Soluble, and Blender or colorless colored pencils. Wax-Based pencils are dry and the most common colored pencil. The leads are soft and thick or hard and thin. These pencils break most often. Oil-based pencils have harder leads which means less breakage and longer lasting. The pigment is bound together with vegetable oil. Water-soluble are the common watercolor pencils. An emulsifier is added to the binder, and the pigment can be liquefied and used like watercolor. Colorless colored pencils consist of binder without pigment These are used to mix colors together, and burnish. Colored pencils are applied with two basic strokes: Circular, and Linear. The circular strokes are most often used for smooth surfaces with granular textures such as sand. Linear strokes show strong contours and textures such as wood grain.

2. 
    

   A simple sphere is a good beginning exercise. This first step should all be done with a light touch. Once colored pencil is committed to paper, it can't ever be completely erased. To begin, draw a circle with a 2B graphite pencil. Using a Verithian colored pencil, draw lines next to the graphite lines. Now gently erase all the graphite lines with a kneaded eraser.

3. 
    

   Layering Technique: This is the basic colored pencil technique.
   
   1. Using a circular stroke, apply Tuscan Red to the outline of a sphere. This is the darkest value first.
   
   2. Layer Crimson Lake over the Tuscan Red. Let it overlap to the center of sphere.
   
   3. Start again at edge and over lap the first two colors with Scarlet Lake.
   
   4. Layer Carmine Red over the other colors, but leave a small part bear. This will depict a highlight.
   
   That completes the first lesson.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember to use a light touch with the pencil
• Use artist brand colored pencils (refer to chart above)
• For the purpose of this exercise the artist used Sanford Prismacolor, a wax-Based pencil and 3-ply Vellum

Resources

• http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=wwwehowcom04e-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1581806264&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

[sunshineandrose]

on 4/26/2009 Thanks! Very good lesson 5*

[shirleydee]

on 4/1/2009 Thanks, I hope that I will have time to try this someday soon!

[FrazzledNanny]

on 3/31/2009 Thanks for the easy to follow steps. Well written. 5*

[Marilynda]

on 3/9/2009 Good article on colored pencils. 5*

[1goldengirl]

on 3/9/2009 Great article. I want to try this.