10 Tips for using Coloured Pencils!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Today I'll be talking about things you can do to improve your coloured pencil work and make the process easier!
Whilst I share my advice and experiences, I'll be completing a portrait of a tiger in coloured pencil on pastelmat paper.
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Materials:
-Pastelmat (Colour: Sienna)
-Prismacolor Col-Erase pencils
-Derwent Drawing pencils (my review video: • Derwent Drawing Pencil... )
-Polychromos coloured pencil
-Caran d'Ache Pablos coloured pencils
-Derwent Artists Black & White pencils (my review: • Derwent Artists Black ... )
-Brush & Pencil Titanium White and Touch-Up Texture
-Zest-it Pencil Blend
*Derwent Superpoint Mini Crank sharpener: amzn.to/2IeO0Fx
*KUM Automatic longpoint handheld sharpener: amzn.to/2utygw9
(*By using the Amazon links above, I earn a small percentage commission- at no extra cost to you!*)
** Note: By clicking on the Amazon affiliate links or purchasing through the link given, I earn a little bit of money from your purchase at no extra expense to you! **
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Reference: pixabay.com/en...
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Wow, you are so talented Claudia, I'm impressed by how patient you are. Your tiger looks like he's having a rest in the hot sun and that paper colour helps I think. I've never drawn on coloured paper before but I am seriously thinking about it!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you think I'm patient- I think I'm pretty impatient for a CP artist. When I hear that people spend 20... 30+ hours on something... the idea horrifies me :P Obviously it pays off for them though.
Yeah I agree! I think the strong lighting and shadows along with the warm paper colour really does give a sense of heat to the piece. Honestly the choice of paper colour was a stab in the dark, but the experiment worked out well I think. :) I definitely recommend at least trying toned paper. There are pros and cons to it but I find it a lot of fun.
Yes, it certainly makes you think a bit more using toned paper. Is it quite smooth? I love tactile paper but I haven't come across any yet. Usually go cheap lol.
It depends entirely on the brand of toned paper. There is relatively little choice though with toned paper (compared to white paper). A lot of brands aren't lightfast, or don't hold up well to wet media, too heavily textured (suits pastel work rather than finely detailed CP work) or are very expensive.
I use pastelmat (which I believe is lightfast) and it is a textured surface- like sanded paper but not as coarse. Pastelmat's surface is a fine coating of cellulose fibres which create a grippy quality that really pulls pigments onto the paper. Pastelmat is available in 14 colours. The drawback is that it's quite an expensive paper.
There's also Strathmore Mixed Media toned paper, available in grey or tan. This has a very smooth "vellum finish" surface. There are lighter weight (and cheaper) Strathmore toned papers available but I haven't tried those... have a feeling they wouldn't stand up too well to wet media or lots of solvents. I prefer working on a thicker and more rigid surface in general.
Pastel papers also are often toned. I like the Canson Mi Teintes pastel paper- the front has a honeycomb like structure which I'm not a fan of, but the back is relatively smooth. It comes in a large array of colours, but they aren't particularly lightfast and this paper doesn't hold up too well to wet media. Fabriano Tiziano Pastello is similar to Canson Mi Teintes but I believe there's a more limited colour selection although they claim to be lightfast.
And there are a lot of sanded paper that is toned- but as mentioned earlier, they are often quite coarse. Sanded papers are also generally quite expensive.
I used to not sharpen my pencils as often like you, but it makes a huge difference! Great video :D
It certainly does! :D Thank you so much
Ahh this is so gorgeous :D Great tips too, I especially love the last one! Seeing more artists talking about health makes me smile :)
Thank you so much, Sam! Glad you like the video. The amount of times I've had wrist/elbow sprain and headaches from bad posture, desk height and lighting... I've lost count :P I hope my message helps prevent somebody else from experiencing art pains!
Yes, I am very interested in learning more techniques. I'm in awe of the way you have developed this pieces. No wonder your work is stunning. I need to understand more about the blending mediums and the brush you use. I also have no idea what a Zest-it pencil blend is. Thank you, Claudia. This was very interesting.
Thanks for watching and commenting, Judith! I'm glad you like my work.
I plan on making another video in the near future about different products designed for blending pencils- I made one last year that gives a foundation at least: th-cam.com/video/Tf9jqcQaLgk/w-d-xo.html
Zest-it pencil blend is a liquid solvent used to dissolve the coloured pencil pigment that's been applied to the paper. I used to use Odourless Mineral Spirits (OMS, seems to be interchangeable with paint thinners), but the smell was unpleasant and gave me headaches (not so "odourless" after all). I find that the Zest-It works better than the OMS I used before- it seems to dry a little quicker and is less greasy/oily feeling.
The brush that I use to apply the Zest-It is a cheap synthetic filbert brush. The angle and softness of the bristles makes pushing pigment around fairly easy.
I explain some of these blending techniques in my Red Panda livestreams- particularly in the first one I think. :)
It's my favorite medium for fine art, org because of portability. Just show enjo it!
Excellent video! Really learned a lot. Thank you so much. Love ALL your videos.
Thank you so much Kimbearly! :D I'm so pleased you like what I do!
I love how you do beautiful and amazing work! You are an amazing pencils artist! Love your work! Thanks for the tips🙏🏼🥰❤🤗
Fantastic work again, looks great, excellent tutorial
Thank you so much Michael! :D
Can you do a video on you using watercolors as a base for colored pencils?
I can certainly add it to the list! I have a video planned for the future about using the Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils along with Pitt Artist pens and the Polychromos which will be similar, but I'll no doubt investigate watercolours as a base layer again. Some of my earliest videos were mixed media (watercolour or inktense base and CP details). :)
I really enjoy watching all of your videos and am grateful for all the hints and tips that you have given. I feel that with help like yours, I have progressed so much and just want to say a big thank you!
I'm so pleased you're finding my videos helpful! Thank you for watching and commenting :D
Lots of good advice, thank you
Awesome vid love it!
Thank you :D
I ACTUALLY WATCHED THE SAME DAY FOR ONCE!
Such a lovely tiger, great work! Good tips too! :3
Thanks Para :D
Very beautiful, thank you. Blessings
Thank you for so much useful information!
I'm glad you found it helpful :D Thanks for watching and commenting
Very important 10 Tips.
I have personally experienced most of these mistakes, so the pieces of advice are precious and a time-consuming.
Unfortunately, we have no Zest here or even touch-up texture. I am intending to travel to Ireland and England soon, so if I was successful in my trial, I am definitely going to purchase materials that are not found here.
The tiger is so lovely. Five hours and a half is a long time. You surely have the patience to execute such things. I suppose that patience plays a great role. Most failed art pieces come from the fact that the artist is less patient or stopped continuing his/her piece.
This reminds me of 2 important tips that I suffer from them:
11- Don't call your work "Done" too Fast. Sometimes we like a painting after stage 1 is done. We fear that if we continued, we might spoil what we had accomplished. In fact, aiming realism might include some ugly stages. So, we need to be brave enough to go through all the process to attain the best result.
12- Don't over-do your painting. It might sometimes help to know when to Stop, as well. The stopping time is related directly to the needed result set ahead. Some techniques and mediums call for quick strokes. Others might need a detailed approach. This tip might be helpful for mediums like Watercolor or for abstract and impressionistic paintings. I believe Coloured Pencil drawings aim for realism more than other mediums so this tip would not suit it.
Thank you for always illuminating some of the darkness that we face.
Your tips are great- they definitely apply to drawing and painting as a whole rather than being specific to coloured pencil though! I agree that it's easy to play it safe and not push for excellency if we've already achieved greatness. It's also easy to overwork if you haven't got a good plan in place before starting!
I'm not exactly sure where you live, but Jackson's ships worldwide as far as I understand- so if you can't get Zest-It and the Brush & Pencil products elsewhere you can try ordering with Jackson's. There are other solvents you can use instead of Zest-It which are much easier to find- paint thinners (Odourless Mineral Spirits) work essentially the same- I used OMS for a long time before buying Zest-It. I prefer Zest-It because it has a nicer smell (OMS gives me headaches) and has a slightly different consistency.
Thank you for the priceless tips.
I live in Beirut- Lebanon - Middle East.
The Zest-it is obtainable from various art supply shops in the UK and Jacksons in London do a mail order service too.
Yeah, Zest-It is relatively easy to find online- it's the Brush and Pencil products that are more difficult. Jackson's are an international retailer of the B&P products and have worldwide shipping. The issue is that the fixatives and touch-up texture must be delivered by road parcel/courier as they are too flammable to go by plane. I've had to contact Jackson's to organise this, because their website wouldn't display any road parcel options for me- despite knowing other people living in Norway and neighbouring countries who had no issues with delivery. If in doubt, contact their customer service.
Gorgeous and so realistic! I am aiming for this, but still having a ways to go! Your work is BEAUTIFUL!
Thank you very much! Keep up the good work- progress is a natural consequence of being passion and practice :)
This turned out so amazing!
Thank you very much! :)
Enjoyed your tips. Your tiger is beautiful!!
Thank you, Pam!
Please do a video on the bases that you use with colored pencils. Thanks
I can do, although currently I only frequently use coloured pencils as a base with coloured pencils. So it will be a while before I can do process/tutorial videos using mixed media as I would want to make sure I can accomplish a good result and give a grounded explanation to my techniques.
The topic I suggested in the video was the extra materials that I use along side CP- not sure if that's what you meant to suggest? :)
Yes would much app tools used in addition to pencils. Also, do you use pan pastels for base colors?
Thank you for this video. It was very informative and I loved watching you build the color! Have you done a video on the process of drawing on pastelmat? I’ve never used it but I e ordered some and have no real idea how to use it. I’ve previously only used hot press watercolor paper. Thanks for any pointers on how to draw on pastelmat.
Thank you for watching and commenting!
I have an informative video about Pastelmat which you may find useful: th-cam.com/video/xxXkzrdBbT0/w-d-xo.html
I also have a playlist with many videos showing my process on pastelmat (including different mediums): th-cam.com/play/PLj5nL5XzgAZnsXSo501BqU0xA97NrAo5R.html
I recommend that you click on my channel name, and then click the "Videos" tab- there you can have a clear overview of all my videos, and there's also a search bar (click the magnifying glass icon) which you can use to narrow your search.
Wow splendide 💞💞💞
Love this! You are so talented. I would love to start using colour pencils but I’m nervous about it. I have no idea where to start to be honest! Do you have or could you do a real time tutorial that I could follow along with?
Hi! The only way I can show real-time footage currently (for the level of detail I draw at in this video, for example) is through live streams. I've already uploaded a few which you can watch the replay of. Doing this as livestreams spares me extra hours of work reviewing footage and narration as I can narrate as I work- and interact with the people watching. :)
Eventually I'd like to do some shorter real-time projects for Patreons when I get my Patreon up and running, but I'm not sure how frequently they'd be owing to the amount of extra work they'd require.
Awesome..
Lovely Tiger!
Thank you :)
Amazing!💓🌞
When you use mineral spirits to blend, how long before you can start adding further layers of pencil, as presumably it must be totally dry before that can be done. Great videos. Very informative and detailed. Thank you.
You don't need to wait until it's dry, in fact one of the techniques I like to use is to apply pencils over the top of still-wet layers. I believe I describe this in my "how to draw long fur" video ( th-cam.com/video/m0-M2W8_h-Y/w-d-xo.html ). This results in a thicker deposit of colour on the paper which can be very readily blended out into the slightly damp layers beneath.
Water does soften up the fibres of paper, making the paper more prone to damage (pilling, as well as warping/buckling etc). But I've never experienced that with solvents.
As for how long solvents take to blend- that really depends on how much you use, what paper you're using and how warm the air is.
Hope that helps! :)
Thank you, for another great video :)
Thanks for watching and commenting! Glad you liked it :)
Wow this looks wonderful! I love tigers and seing you drawing one so good is really pleasent to the eye :) Also great tips!
Oh my now I´m a bit nervous because I will have a similiar video like this up soon :D
Mine is a bit more about what I wished I knew when I started coloring pencils.
Don't worry about having similar topics to me or other TH-camrs- my video topic certainly isn't original but my experiences and point of view are unique to me, and yours are unique to you! Thanks for watching and commenting :)
Aww you´re so kind! Thank you for the encouraging words.
My concern was more because you explain so well and really use colored pencils amazing!
You´re welcome :) the video was very good so I just had to leave a commend :)
Awww you're so sweet
Just saying the truth~
Hehe thank you! That means a lot to me. Now I feel a bit better about the video and I also can learn a bit with each new video.
You are right. Everyone has a different level and other ways to explain and each viewer also likes it differently.
Very cool video. I usually go with a 2b pencil when outlining. I use a light hand but some papers show the line witch kills me.
Thank you very much for watching and commnting! Since using erasable coloured pencil there's just been no going back for me. I struggled a lot with graphite sketches- it can be so difficult to lift all the graphite before putting down coloured pencil and I would always end up muddying my colours.
Your a really good artist. Colored pencils are harder for me to use than graphite. I have trouble sometimes with muddying up the colors myself. I go in with a needed eraser and do a really good job of taking out the graphite enough that you can see it but not enough to muddy up the colors. I hate when I go to do a outline and you can see a line from the pencil. That's why I always go with a light touch and around a 2b.
I don't want you to think I was critiquing you. I use what work's for me in outlining with a graphite pencil. You might be using a different brand than me witch could give you a different result. Your a awesome artist Claudia. I really like your video's. After reading what I posted I was like maybe she might be thinking I was saying she was doing something wrong.
DarkReaver27 No no! I didn't get that impression at all :D We all have our own preferences and different ways of working, and it only makes sense to hand out advice based on our own experiences and opinion. No doubt that graphite pencil erases better, but I find that with erasable coloured pencil, the necessity of erasing is removed as the coloured sketch blends into the colouring.
nice!
Thanks :) Hope you enjoy the whole video!
Amazing 😉
Thanks! :)
I love ur videos!do you plan to make videos again?
I would love to! Don't know when yet, though :)
Am I to understand that you can mix wax and oil pencils on the same project, and blend them with mineral spirits ?
Absolutely! All coloured pencils are a blend of both waxes or oils; manufacturers define whether they label their pencils as "wax based" or "oil based" depending on the proportions of wax vs oil (which usually, also happens to be proprietary information).
I've come to realise that the descriptor "wax based" or "oil based" isn't necessarily a good predictor of a pencil's properties e.g. in terms of hardness/softness, pigmentation or opacity/translucency.
Perhaps the only noticeable difference is that "wax based" pencils have a tendency to stick more to a surface than "oil based" (which is probably why Brush & Pencil's powder blender is better when used with "oil based" pencils).
So in short- yes, feel free to mix oil and wax based coloured pencils! Ultimately there isn't much difference between the groupings :)
Love
Thanks 😊
I have just got back into colour pencils. This week as well starting to use odourless mineral spirit. My main medium is pastel and ink intense pencils as well as needle felting animals. My Instagram is moonspiritartbycindyhill
Are you using solvent or water? I notice you use a paint brush?
Good question! 7:50 I mention I use solvents- also make sure to check out my video description for a list of my materials :)
Awesome 👏✨✨ l sub👍
YumenoArtTV Thanks! :D
“Pain and illness caused by your creativity” 😂
It may sound trivial, but it is seriously important.
I know of people who've developed carpal tunnel syndrome and have needed surgery to fix it. All from drawing too much, not enough breaks and working in a way that puts excessive strain on their wrists. Back/neck pain, headaches and tennis elbow are also pretty common.
Art isn't a high-energy activity, but bad habits can have painful effects!
Somebody once told me, "You only have one body, use it wisely!"
Claudia Sketches thanks for the tips! The strain we put ourselves through as artists!!!
no offense but most of these "tips" are general and applicable to any media; not many speak to pencil techniques. That said, nice tiger!