Colored Pencil Techniques for Making Realistic Drawings

Did you know that you could produce breathtaking art through colored pencils? Now I know you might be thinking that colored pencils are for amateurs and that professional artists use paints, but that is the wrong perspective. It is hard to believe, but you can create a wonderful drawing that rivals a piece of art made from paints by using colored pencils. You just need to have knowledge about the proper coloring techniques. This is exactly what we will be discussing in this blog. So, let us explore some effective beginner-level coloring techniques that will allow you to produce mind-blowing colored pencil art.

Although these techniques can be applied with any color pencil brand, it is generally recommended that you invest in the right quality of colored pencils from a reliable color pencil manufacturer. We recommend that you choose artistic grade pencils, or if not, choose ones that produce a bold and vivid mark on the paper. Once you have acquired an adequate color pencil set, it is time to unleash your creativity by using the coloring techniques that you will shortly learn in this blog.

Coloring Techniques To Make Awesome Art

If you are a beginner, then learning these techniques is a must, as they are the building blocks for creating any picture or drawing. Once you master these techniques, you can move on to layering to create artistic shading that creates color depth in your pictures.

Stippling

Stippling consists of making tiny dots on the paper. The dots can be closely spaced to create a dense look or placed far apart. Stippling adds a unique texture to your drawing. You can add variation to the texture by increasing or decreasing the distance between the dots. The dot intensity can vary depending on whether the pencil point is sharpened or blunt. This can also create variation and add depth to a colored pencil drawing.

Hatching

Hatching is a useful technique to create another texture style in a colored pencil drawing, which can create a contrast between two surfaces or objects. It involves making a series of parallel lines. The lines all have the same direction. Here also, you can decide between the line spacing to create variety within the same texture. The pencil is lifted after drawing one line, and the lines are completely separate from each other.

Cross-hatching

An interesting way to create a texture is drawing a series of parallel lines like in hatching and then drawing another set of lines on top of the first set of lines but in a reversed direction. This is a vital technique for doing color shading within a drawing. Space the lines close or far apart to create depth in shading.

Back and forth stroke

This is the most well-known of color pencil strokes that is known to laypersons as well. You probably learned this when you were a kid. It involves moving the colored pencil without lifting it backward and forwards. It is used to fill an empty space with a uniform color layer. Shading in this technique is done by varying the pressure on the paper while doing the strokes to make the color light or dark within a space.

Scumbling

Another really common coloring technique known to many people, professionals, as well as kids is scumbling. This involves making circular strokes without lifting on the paper. This is another strategy to fill a large area with a color layer in a drawing. Variation is produced the same way as a back-and-forth stroke through varying pressure applied by hand.

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