On my journey through different materials and techniques I find out about tips and tricks. In addition I also search for other content creators who pass their knowledge to their viewers. Since sharing is caring – I want to present you what I learned and I also want to spread my knowledge to encourage people to start painting and drawing and make this space richer of beautiful art. Between publishing my art pieces I will make little tutorials like this which will help you prevent the mistakes I had to make :). Whenever I publish something, I send out a notification on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/KassjanS
The topic of the day is coloring with colored pencils.
For starters: Use the right paper. If you want to use colored pencils, you don't want to have a rough paper. Rough paper makes it hard for you to color it evenly. So you already have to know that there is a difference between hot and cold pressed paper: Cold pressed paper is more rough. If you use a microscope you will find out that the paper, even though it seems to be flat, has valleys and hills. Those valleys and hills are taller here. Hot pressed paper has lower hills and valleys.
Here I made a sketch so you can understand what I mean
(top: cold pressed paper; bottom: hot pressed paper):
Now, when you use colored pencils, the color won't reach the valleys of the paper – only when you press really hard. But you don't want to flatten your paper immediately and I will tell you why. But first take a look at this sketch to understand what I mean.
So the first layer is on the paper. Your paper (hot pressed) now looks like this:
Pretty grainy, eh? To make it look more smooth you'll have to create additional layers. Now create another layer above and change the direction of your strokes. You will flatten the paper a little more and mitigate the grainy look. Again: Don't press too hard! Try to use also different colors.
I know, the process of creating layers costs time, but it also gives you the opportunity to create nice really nice shading and you can let the colors blend into each other.
The amount of layers you can create depends on the amount of pressure you apply. Once the paper is flat and has a lot of waxy layers lying on top of each other your pencil is not able to put anymore color on your paper. The color looks shiny now. Under a microscope it will look like this: flat. That means you are done with this area.
If you are doing complex shadings start with low pressure and use middle tones. From there you can work your way to the highlights and to the darker shadows. To use this technique you'll need colored pencils with a good quality. The reason for this is that the brighter colors are very opaque and can cover the middletones. If you don't have these good pencils, start from the highlights and go darker with every layer.
In my other videos I always tell you what kind of materials I am using in case you need guidance.
I did a little example for you where you can see my steps of filling out an area with color.
https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=288270029495993763
Thank you for watching!
I am not only giving tipps regarding techniques. I also walk you through my artpieces step by step. You will find this content in my other posts in the subscription-only content. Subscribe to find out more about making art with colored pencils, watercolor, digital paintings and more to come.
Graphite #3: The Witcher
