Lots of colored pencil artists believe it’s necessary to build up lots of layers with light pressure to achieve a solid color. I don’t often work that way. I choose the pencil color I want to end up with (if there is a color which is exactly that) and then apply it with heavy pressure.
I’m working on this Doberman’s black coat. If you look at the “interior” of the area I’m filling in on the dog’s body, and look around the edges of that area, you can see the actual pencil colors I’m using. If you can zoom in enough to see pencil strokes, you can see that I am not building up layers. I am using the specific shade of grey, or blue-grey, or black, that I need. I do blend two or three layers when I’m transitioning from one color to the next, for example for the highlight on the bulge of a muscle where it curves into the shadow of the muscle. (That’s what gives the forms a 3-dimensional look.) And in places where the green paper is not covered solidly enough, I use a top color to “burnish” (blend) the colors I’ve put down into a solid mass of pigment to completely fill the tooth of the paper.
In this artwork, I want the colors on the dog’s black coat to completely cover the green paper color. I don’t want any green showing through. In other cases I may want the paper color to show through, so I don’t apply the pencil pigment as heavily because I’m deliberately using the green of the paper as part of the color. For example, If there was a section of this dog’s coat that was greenish-grey, I’d apply grey pencil lightly there and let the green show through.
🎨 Prismacolor pencil on Canson Mi-Teintes paper, 17 x 20 inches
Portrait of “Zelda”
BISS TT GCHS CH Lookout Tawee v. Radiant CGC, WAC, Top Twenty contender 2018.
Commissioned by Susan Ramos as a gift to Zelda’s owner Diane Tennison.
Comments