Colored Pencils and Shading.

Hello!  Sorry this is a little late getting posted:

my internet wasn't working right today.

Today I'm going to talk about colored pencils.

I enjoy using colored pencils to add color to my drawings,

and I hope to help you with a few tips.

I have a Prismacolor pencil set.

I bought these for a college class I took and really like the way they work.

I find the lead doesn't break as easily as cheaper pencils, and the colors are bold

and blend together easily.

When using color, it is common to use a color wheel to help shade.

Generally speaking, using the color opposite on the color wheel to shade

gives a more natural look.

For example, to shade yellow, one would use purple;

red would be shaded with a greenish yellow; etc,...

but sometimes I find that using similar colors in darker shades can give a nice look, too.

Here's an example:

Here we have Mouse in a light pink dress.

To add some realism to her dress, I took some different shades of pink/purple/and even a touch of red...

to make some areas in the "folds" of the material of her dress,

and along the bottom of it look darker,...

 

 and a few strokes of a brighter pink to give some boldness to it.

 When I was done adding colors, I took the original light pink

and colored over all the colors, which helped to blend it in and even it out.

For the daffodils, I did use the complementary color on the color wheel

(the one opposite it)

to shade the flowers.

I colored just a touch at the middle of the flowers

and onto the inside edge of the petals.

 This picture below shows how using the original yellow to blend the purplish/red in makes it look more natural.

 It is great fun and good exercise to mix colors and try different ways of shading.

Shading helps to make your picture look more realistic and makes the images pop off the paper.

 Below is a listing of some of the different colors I used in this picture to shade it.

For practice this week, draw a simple picture or find a fun coloring book,

pull out some colored pencils, and experiment with shading using complimentary colors on the color wheel,

and your own color choices to see what you achieve.

See how fun it is to mix colors and how it makes the picture come to life.

Have a great week, and thanks for stopping by!

This is part of my free art lesson series each week.

To see the full list of art lessons, click <HERE<.

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