The Art of Coloured Pencils

I recently finished another introductory art course. Its purpose was to teach us, not how to draw per se, but how to apply, layer, shade and blend an image using coloured pencils to achieve a realistic 2D effect. In order to save limited class time, the instructor had us trace (rather than draw) the basic outline of the image on our paper. Then we filled it in using the freehand techniques she taught us.

We completed three pieces, which I'm posting sequentially from first to last so that you can see the progression as we learned the techniques.

"Japanese Lady"

Our first project was done on black paper using only a single white coloured pencil. My rendition is not particularly good -- you can see how tentatively I applied the colour and how crude the shading looks. The best thing about this one is the flowers in her hair, and even that's not saying much, LOL!

"Horses in Harness"

My second effort is much better. It was done on white paper (although it looks greyish in the photo) using two pencil crayons -- a light grey and a darker grey. I was much more confident in applying the colour this time.

My father loved horses, especially heavy horses, and he would have liked this picture very much. I thought of him often while working on this.

One takeaway from this project is that I never want to deal with leather straps, buckles and chains again. [*Insert bondage joke here. See? I know you people.*] 

"Photographer Girl"

Our final piece was done on grey paper (although it looks brownish in the photo) using three pencil crayons -- light umber, dark umber and cream. My philosophy by this point was obviously "go big or go home." I layered that goddamn colour on like nobody's business! Probably too much so, if truth be told. Oh well! Plus I discovered how hellishly hard hands are to do. Clearly, I have a long way to go in that department.

I'm busy right now doing the next level class in coloured pencils, so in time I will post my results from that. We're using multiple pencils now and doing multiple layers. It's a very slow process but also not a terribly messy process, which is a characteristic that I like. What can I say? I'm fastidious.

[Art and photographs © Debra She Who Seeks, November, 2019]