Colored pencils are one of the most versatile and flexible mediums. From painterly renderings to soft pastel like drawings it covers a wide range of effects. This post provides five tips on keeping your colored pencil artwork harmonized, neat, and tidy.
Tip 1. Keep your pencils sharp!
This is really important as very dull pencils do not lay down color evenly. In order to keep a smooth laydown of color, keep your pencils sharpened.
Tip 2. Use a tissue or dry paintbrush to keep pencil residue off your coloring.
I like to use a large dry paintbrush. Using a dry paintbrush helps to keep from experiencing smudges caused by my hand brushing the crumbs off.
Tip 3. Lay out your colors in a blended rainbow.
In other words, put your orange colors next to your yellow colors, and your red next to your orange, and your purple-reds next to your reds, and so on. This helps to see what colors support each other and can transition into each other.
Tip 4. Separate your bright colors, soft colors and in-between colors.
If you’re in doubt as to which colors are brighter, and which are softer. Use a piece of scrap paper and color a row of little circles using one color per circle. This should help in deciding which colors are brighter and which are softer.
Tip 5. Use the six step system when choosing your colors.
To see this system described in detail, click here.
