Working on Larry’s bottom lip: These three pictures show how I add the patches of color for his skin and lip. Then I blend them together (“burnish”) with a specific top color to smooth them out.
1
In a previous post, while working on Cheri’s face, I described how I start with cream pencil for the highlights on the skin. In this pic you can see how I’ve put in the highlights of Larry’s bottom lip and part of his chin. Then added patches of the colors that adjoin those…
2
Now I’ve added the patches of color for his lip, going up to the darker bits where the lip folds inward toward the teeth. But neither the skin nor lip looks as smooth as I want it.
3
Using Prismacolor “Flesh” (the color in the swatch at lower right) I rub the colors together. Those who have worked with Prismacolor pencils (a wax based pencil) know how when you build up a certain thickness of color layers, you can “smear” the colors together a bit, with a top color. Wax-based pencils are not chalky like pastel where you can smear it a lot just by rubbing with your finger. Prismacolors don’t really smear like that. But to a certain extent, when the wax (with color pigment in it) has been built up to a certain thickness, you can use another color to rub the colors together just enough that it smooths them out.
For the entire 40+ years of my career, I’ve found that this “Flesh” Prismacolor pencil is the perfect color to blend the patches of other colors together for (Caucasian) human skin. On Larry’s lip I used a slightly pinker pencil to blend the pinks, mauves, and reddish-brown patches into a smooth lip.
Prismacolor “Flesh” was discontinued years ago, and I am down to my last 2-inch stub of it. Oh no! Oh no! OH NO! 😮 If anybody has this color to sell, I would love to get my hands on it!
“Cheri and Larry” double portrait, in progress.
🎨 Prismacolor pencil on "Felt Grey" Canson Mi-Teintes paper.
20 x 24 inches.
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