Supplies and Materials

Organizing

Glossary

Basics

Color Studies

Value Studies

E-mail

About

Future Topics

Drawing and Planning

It may help to see the process of learning what makes great artwork as learning to play a musical instrument. First you must learn to read the music, then learn how the instrument works, learn how to use it and combine all these together. You can't create a beautifully designed colored pencil masterpiece unless you understand what makes a work of art "work" or what makes it sing! Of course everyone has to start somewhere and the more you practice and do, the better you will become.

You can start out with simple techniques, however, it is often typical for a new colored pencil artist to want to jump right in and create a large drawing right away, forgetting to first carefully plan everything from the basic forms to the composition, value structure, background and colors. Once you understand how important this stage is, it becomes an exciting part of the process. Soon you will be day-dreaming about what you want to draw and plan for your next piece while you are still in the process of coloring your current piece.

• Learn how to draw: You can learn if you do not yet know how to draw, anyone can. After all, this is the structure that will hold your entire piece together, if your drawing is off then everything else will be off as well. There are many helpful books to learn how to see as an artist and draw. One of the best is, "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards. Either that or, the workbook, "New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook: Guided Practice in the Five Basic Skills of Drawing" by Betty Edwards.


• Study your subject: No matter what your subject is, be it an animal or a collection of still life objects, learn about what you are drawing. Study the make-up of the subject, it's structure, characteristics and so on. Sometimes you will have to change the composition of a piece or add a piece of an animal for example, if you know their form or structure, growth patterns of the fur and characteristics, you'll easily be able to add to or adjust your drawing. Besides all that, it makes it far more interesting to work with something you understand.


• Design and plan your piece: Learn the rules of composing a piece. There are many books on composition to help you understand. Many will argue that the composition is the backbone and it can make or break the piece. Don't forget to also follow your intuition, be creative and make something your own, make it different and unique.


• Plan your colors and values: Do value studies and color swatches before you begin a piece. For a beginner this is very important because it can be one of the most difficult things to achieve in colored pencil if you are not familiar with how far you can push the medium.


• Make a line drawing: On separate paper or in a sketch book, make your full size drawing, either detailed or just the line drawing, you could map out where your highlights or shadows will be, this will be especially helpful to preserve your white areas. Do this on separate paper so that you will not be erasing or inadvertently impressing lines on your actual final paper. Once you are happy with your drawing, you can use a light-box or tracing paper to transfer your drawing.

Now you can prepare your work area, gather all your necessary tools together, set aside some time and enjoy coloring!


          Next page         |Site Map

coloredpencilpoints.com by Liesl Huddleston, 2007