Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Colored Pencils
by Carrie Lewis
I used light pressure and the sides of the pencils for both colors. Then I blended the colors
together with a medium-sized sable flat brush dampened with clean water. I blotted the brush to
remove most of the water before blending, because Im not using watercolor paper. I also used
no more than one or two strokes over any area, because additional strokes tend to remove or
pull up color.
the pencil by dipping the tip into water and tapped color into place. I used this stippling
technique to create an interesting edge between the trees.
Next, I added Olive Green Yellowish with loose, vertical strokes and light to medium pressure.
I used the tip of a slightly blunt pencil and the side of the pencil for the first layer and diagonal
cross-hatching with the point of the pencil for subsequent layers. In the latter layers, I kept the
pencil well sharpened to fill in paper holes and put down maximum color with medium
pressure. I followed up with the sides of the pencil and circular strokes to even out color and
value.
To darken the trees, I layered Blue Violet and Cobalt Turquoise with the pencil point in circular
strokes and the side of the pencil with a variety of strokes for both colors. The objective was
smooth color so I also blended with a finger to remove visible strokes.
Next I blurred the edge of the fog by rolling a piece of Handi-Tak into a ball, then rolling it
back and forth between my palm and the paper. That not only lifted color, but put down color.
The resulting randomness of value and color was perfect for duplicating the appearance of fog
and creating ragged and blurred edges.
I also used Handi-Tak to develop the sun beams. This time, I formed the Handi-Tak into a thin
shape and pulled it through the color beginning at the light source and stroking away. I used
heavier pressure at the beginning of each stroke and decreased pressure as I lengthened the
stroke. Each stroke picked up a lot of color at the beginning and diminishing amounts as the
stroke lengthened. The less color was lifted, the dimmer the sunbeam became. I had worked
around the sunbeams with most of the colors but lifting that color brought them to life.
The foreground needed to be nearly black with a greenish cast, so after the initial work with
Olive Green Yellowish, I added Helioblue Reddish with vertical strokes, long in front, shorter
toward the back. I used medium pressure in the foreground, decreasing to very light pressure as
I worked toward the horizon. In the background, I added Cobalt Green then Light Phthalo
Green with vertical strokes of varying lengths using the pencil point.
To unify the color of the trees with the rest of the landscape, I layered Helioblue Reddish,
Emerald Green, and Helioblue Reddish into the trees. I used medium pressure and worked
horizontally and vertically to create a solid band of color. I worked around the bands of
sunlight, stroking color in the same direction as the sun beams and finished with a glaze of Deep
I then layered Helioblue Reddish, Deep Cobalt Green and Van Dyke Brown over the horse and
added Van Dyke brown to the foreground grass.
Finally, I did a very limited wash of the grass and the pines with a damp brush. I didnt want a
complete blending, so I didnt use a lot of water in selected areas and left other areas untouched.
Like last time, Im using a combination of pencils and methods including water soluble FaberCastell Art Grip Aquarelle, traditional Faber-Castell Art Grip, and Prismacolor Premier. Today
Ill also be using Prismacolor Verithin pencils.
Lets get back into it!
The areas in the foreground that I tried to wash earlier (see part 1) didnt turn out well and has
never looked right, so that area needed to be corrected.
I began by layering Peacock Green over the entire area, followed by Olive Green and Grass
Green. I would have used Dark Green next, but didnt have any, so I used Indigo Blue applied
with medium to heavy pressure. The darker color covered the problem area very well.
But what really did the trick was burnishing with Peacock Green. I ended up doing all of the
foreground in short, blunt vertical strokes with heavy to very heavy pressure. I left the strokes
open so some lighter and darker areas showed through, but I covered the entire area below the
horse and worked up into the area just beyond the horse.
The further into the background I moved, the lighter the pressure I used, until I was using light
pressure in the areas that disappear into the fog.
BLENDING TIP: When blending, I poured a small amount of rubbing alcohol into a small
container, dipped a clean cotton swab into the alcohol, then rubbed the swab over the parts I
wanted to blend. Choosing a swab instead of a bristle brush keeps the blended edges soft and
blurred. And, using a swab instead of a cotton ball allows me to work in smaller areas.
Warm Grey 50%, Sepia, Dark Umber, Black, Indigo Blue, Black Grape, Peacock Green,
Cream, Jasmine and Lemon. I next layered Cream heavily over the foggy area, working over
parts of the posts to push them into the fog. Next I blended with rubbing alcohol.
I wanted to see if I could add better highlights after blending with rubbing alcohol, but there
was too much wax on the paper. So after the paper dried, I gave it one or two light coats of
retouch varnish to restore the paper tooth. Once the retouch varnish dried, I worked over the
posts again, brightening the back lighted edges and darkening the darkest shadows.
Ordinarily, I let a finished drawing sit for as much as week just to make sure there are no other
corrections to be made. But this was a Christmas portrait and the deadline was rapidly
approaching, so I fixed the drawing with another coat of retouch varnish and it was ready for the
client.