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Getting to know your COLORED pencils

Unlike mixing paints that fully combine together, colored pencil layers and mixes of color remain separate and visually mix together. Colors can be blended richly together with many layers. One of the unique qualities of this medium is that you are often times able to still see the various colors separately when you look close enough.

Colored pencils are obiviously all about COLOR, knowing your colors and understanding color theory is important because with every piece you create, you'll have to make good color choices. Creating a color wheel is a very useful exercise because you will be able to learn the relationships between the various hues. This is a circle of primary, secondary and tertiary colors, 12 hues. In theory, all other colors which do not appear on this wheel can be created when these 12 colors are mixed with their complements or when used with either white, black or gray pencils, these possibilities will be covered in future exercises.

             

Make a color wheel:

• On good quality white paper, use any artist grade pencils, use your brightest and most intense colors, those that most accurately match the color names - I've used Prismacolors
• Start with yellow, it is the lightest in value, at the top or 12 o'clock position, see below for the list of other colors and lay them out equally in 12 sections in a circle
• Keep a note book handy for making notes
• Once you are done, you could put this up on your studio wall or in a portfolio folder for future reference
• You can research in books or online to find out more about the history behind the color wheel/color spectrum

The pencil colors:

Canary Yellow (PC916), Hue: Yellow, a primary color, no red and no blue present.

Chartreuse (PC989), Hue: Yellow-green, a tertiary color, contains some yellow and some green.

True Green (PC910), Hue: Green, a secondary color, made up of the primary colors yellow and blue.

Aquamarine (PC905), Hue: Blue-green, a tertiary color, contains some blue and some green.

True Blue (PC903), Hue: Blue, a primary color, no green and no red present.


Violet Blue (PC933), Hue: Blue-violet, a tertiary color, contains some blue and violet.

Violet (PC932), Hue: Violet, a secondary color, made up of the primary colors blue and red.

Mulberry (PC995), Hue: Red-violet, a tertiary color, contains some red and violet.

Magenta (PC930), Hue: Red, a primary color, no blue and no green present.


Poppy Red (PC922), Hue: Red-orange, a tertiary color, contains some red and orange.

Orange (PC918), Hue: Orange, a secondary color, made up of the primary colors red and yellow.

Spanish Orange (PC1003), Hue: Yellow-orange, a tertiary color, contains some yellow and orange.

Primary colors:

These are yellow, blue and red. They can not be made up with a combination of any other color, so they are unmixed and pure. When these primaries are mixed together in varying combinations and layers or amounts, in theory, all other colors can be made.

The pencils I used for yellow and blue were obvious choices, but I had to try a few 'reds' before settling on Magenta. When mixing other 'reds' like Crimson Red (PC924) or Scarlet Lake (PC923) I noticed that the mixes were somewhat dull, this was especially obvious when mixing blue and red to make violet, the mix was slightly grayed and dull compared with the mix of True Blue with Magenta. Perhaps then, it could be that Crimson Red and Scarlet Lake have another primary color added to them? Possibly yellow. A pencil like Crimson Lake (PC925) seems to have some blue in it. Mixing all three primaries will produce grayed colors. So, using Magenta instead produced more pure colors.

The same then was true for the Canary Yellow and True Blue, they mixed perfectly well to make the other secondary and tertiary hues. So, for the following exercise, if any of your primary colors lean towards another primary, your color mixes could be dulled or have a lower intensity.

Secondary and tertiary colors:

Each secondary color is a mix or combination of equal amounts of the primaries on both sides of it on the color wheel. A tertiary color is made up with combinations of a secondary with a primary. To make sure your secondary and tertiary colors are clean and not muddy, you would have to make sure your primary colors are pure.

Mix the primary colors:

• On good quality white paper, use any artist grade pencils, use the three primary colors yellow, blue and red
• With a graphite pencil, draw a series half inch squares evenly spaced 3 per row and 9 rows in all


• Row 1: color the first square with red, make the red bright and intense, color the second square brightly with yellow, now in the third square - fill with an even layer of yellow, don't push too hard, then over the top add an even layer of red, this will produce a beautiful orange, you can keep layering each color alternatively in equal amounts till your orange is rich and intense




• 2: color the first square with orange, the second with red, now for the third square - don't push too hard, make orange with even layers of yellow and red pencils, then over the top add more red to make red-orange




• 3: color the first square yellow, the second orange and the third with a couple of even layers of yellow then a light even wash of red to make yellow-orange




• 4: color the first square yellow, the second blue, and the third - fill the square with an even layer of yellow, don't push too hard, then over the top add an even layer of blue, this will produce a beautiful green. You can keep layering each color alternatively in equal amounts till your green is rich and intense




• 5: color the first square with blue, the second with green, now for the third square - don't push too hard, make green with even layers of yellow and blue pencils, then over the top add more blue to make blue-green




• 6: color the first square green, the second yellow and the third with a couple of even layers of yellow then a light even wash of blue to make yellow-green




• 7: color the first square blue, the second red, and the third - fill the square with an even layer of blue, don't push too hard, then over the top add an even layer of red, this will produce a beautiful violet. You can keep layering each color alternatively in equal amounts till your violet is rich and intense




• 8: color the first square with violet, the second with blue, now for the third square - don't push too hard, make violet with even layers of blue and red pencils, then over the top add more blue to make blue-violet




• 9: color the first square red, the second violet and the third with a couple of even layers of red then a light even wash of blue to make red-violet




• Now compare the mixes you made with the hues on your color wheel, it is fun to see how well they match and to notice how blending colors with layers makes them much livelier.

coloredpencilpoints.com by Liesl Huddleston, 2007