Today, I want to share four general colored pencil tips resulting from reader questions. Topics include tips for drawing water, drawing fur, drawing on colored paper, and a question about color theory.
Four General Colored Pencil Tips
1. What Tips Do You Suggest for Drawing Water?
The best tip I can give for drawing water is to view it like an abstract. Look at the colors, edges, and shapes in the reference, then draw them as best you can.
Water is highly reflective; it picks up colors from the surroundings. So the colors you use to draw water depend entirely on the setting. Draw water in a marina using the colors of boats, bouys, sails, and docks. Draw water in a wooded setting with the colors of trees, rocks, grass, and sky.
There are also sharp edges between colors and values. The sharper the edges, the wetter the water will look.
Finally, observe the shapes that appear in the water. They may not make any sense while you’re drawing them, but if you draw them true to the reference, they will make sense when viewed all together.
Don’t be discouraged if drawing water doesn’t work out the first time. Water is one of the most difficult things to draw accurately. It takes a lot of practice and skill, but you can do it.
Read Tips for Drawing Reflections on Water for more information.
2. What Tips Do You Suggest for Drawing Fur?
With hair and most textures like it (grass, for example), stroke in the direction of hair growth and match your strokes to the type of hair. Short, straight strokes for short, straight hair. Long strokes for long hair.
Don’t worry about drawing every hair, but concentrate on drawing the hair masses that occur naturally.
Mix colors to create color. If you’re drawing black, don’t use just a black pencil. When I draw a black horse, I use everything thing from dark green and dark blue to light violets and other colors.
The same rule of thumb applies to any color of hair. It’s always best to use at least three colors: one light value, one dark value, and one value in between.
Read Tips for Drawing Hair in Colored Pencil for more suggestions and examples.
3. What Tips Do You Suggest for Drawing on Toned Paper?
The color of the paper directly affects the way colors appear. A color that looks bright on white paper, will look duller on dark paper.
The darker the paper, the darker colors appear. Some of the darker colors will disappear altogether. Dark browns, dark blues, and dark greens will barely make a mark on dark paper.
If you use a medium value paper, you can draw highlights as well as shadows, and that can be a great time saver.
Colored paper sets the mood for the drawing. Yellow paper gives a drawing a bright, sunny feel, and gray paper creates a more subdued mood.
Do a few studies on the color of paper you want to try before starting a piece you hope to finish. Experiment with various color combinations. See what works and what doesn’t work.
Read Colored Drawing Papers for additional tips and suggestions for making the best use of colored paper.
4. How Does Color Theory Affect My Drawing?
Color theory affects every drawing just like gravity affects all of life. You don’t have to understand it in order for it to work. It just works.
But understanding how color theory works at even the most basic level helps you make better decisions about the colors you choose.
For example, complementary colors create “zing.” Cool colors generally recede into the distance, while warm colors generally move forward.
Adding accents in a warm color emphasizes an object that’s drawn in a setting filled with cool colors and vice versa.
I devoted one month to a discussion of color theory with articles that included the basics of color theory, how color theory affects art (including examples,) and a color theory drawing exercise.
I also recommend a two-part podcast series on color theory for colored pencil by Sharpened Artist. Both episodes are excellent for a brief description of color theory and why it’s important to the artist, no matter the medium.
Listen to Color Theory Part 1, and Listen to Color Theory Part 2.
