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Glossary, relating to colored pencil

This section will be a work in progress for quite some time, the aim is to cover some terms as they are frequently used on this site.

Archival:
Papers and support that are archival are of high quality and will last over time. They are acid-free and should not fade.

Artist Grade Colored Pencils:
These pencils are the best quality with rich and strong pigments, as opposed to school grade pencils which are much weaker and do not have the same depth, mixing and layering properties as artist grade pencils.

Burnish | Burnishing:
Using heavy pressure to blend the pigment and flatten and fill the tooth of the paper. When a lot of pigment is on your paper and the burnishing technique is applied, the paper will often times produce a slick and shiney surface.  Usually a lighter color or a colorless blender, like the Prismacolor Colorless Blender or the Lyra Splender Blender is used for this process. This technique is usually used as a final step in layering. Not all papers are suited for this technique.

Colorless Blender:
The colorless blender pencils have no pigment, Prismacolor's Colorless Blender is wax based and Lyra's Splender Blender is designed to be used with oil based pencils, though they work equally well with wax based pencils. These pencils are used to blend colored pencil colors together as well as to burnish. Prismacolor also has a Clear Blender marker that blends colored pencil layers together.

Drafting Brush:
A brush used for clearing colored pencil dust off your page, preventing dust and debris from being smudged or ground into the paper.

Intensity:
How bright or dull a color is, a bright and vivid color is of high intensity and a dull or weaker, less bright color is of low intensity.

Key (High Key & Low Key):
High key refers to colors or neutrals that are light to medium in value, low key refers to colors or neutrals that are medium to dark in value, these keys aid in suggesting mood in your work.

Hue:
The name of a color. This does not refer to whether the color is dark or light, pale or intense. Black, grays and whites are neutrals not hues/colors.

Layering:
Similar to watercolors, with colored pencils you are able to lay down color in layers because these layers will be semi-transparent (or if you will, semi-opaque). To make many layers of color, you would usually use a very sharp pencil depending on the texture you're trying to achieve, lightly adding layers on top of each other to build up color. For multiple layers, usually a lighter touch is needed until the correct values are achieved.

Opaque:
Not transparent. Opaque pigment will cover the surface, you can not see through to the colors underneath or through to the surface.

Open Stock:
Items available individually rather than in sets or packages.

Value:
The lightness or darkness of a color. You can achieve a range in value when you use your a pencil with a light touch - all the way to full pressure. Different pencil colors have different value ranges, some are able to achieve more of a range in value than others.

Wash:
Usually referred to covering any area with a light layer of color. Mostly referred to covering a large area. The term is sort of adopted from the watercolor medium.

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coloredpencilpoints.com by Liesl Huddleston, 2007 - 2009