Creating textures with colored pencils. Gary Greene has always been a favorite with North Light Book readers and crayon artists around the world. Gary, known for his super realistic style, uses colored pencils to paint just about any subject you can imagine: still life, portraits, and flowers. North Light Books now brings you detailed instructions from him with the 15th-anniversary edition of the classic Creating Colored Pencil Textures. After a great instruction on crayon painting materials and techniques, he will follow over 50 step-by-step painting demonstrations to paint natural textures like leaves, wood, water, and people; and artificial textures such as glass, cloth, and shiny metal. He breaks each texture into easy-to-follow pint-sized steps so he can paint his favorite textures! Here he shows you the steps to paint weathered wood with colored pencil.
(Whitewood) STEP 1:
- Use vertical brush strokes to apply a coat of 20% Cool Gray.
- Set the grain pattern.
- Wash with gummy concrete thinner.
(Whitewood) STEP 2: Random layers Cool Gray 70%.
(Whitewood) Step 3: 50% cool gray layer. 20% cold gray relay.
(Redwood) STEP 4: Brownish beige layer. Wash off with water.
(Redwood) STEP 5: Layer light amber, then wash with gummy concrete thinner.
(Redwood) STEP 6: Layer crimson red in a veined pattern. Layers of Crimson Red and Crimson Lake in the concentrated red areas. Rub the red with a gummy cement thinner.
(Redwood) PHASE 1: Crimson red relay.
(Red Wood) STEP 2: Add Brown 90% Warm Gray and Dark Umber accents. Add highlights by scraping with a no. 16 artisan knives.
Creating layers with colored pencil
The basic colored pencil technique involves overlaying colors, one on top of the other, creating hues, values, gradations, and textures that are further controlled using paper surfaces of different teeth or colors. The paper tooth plays an important role in this technique because the paper can be seen through the layers of color. All colors in this demo are Prismacolor, except when they appear as Faber-Castell Polychromos (FCP).
First, apply the darkest shade in the lightest color area. Here the shadow areas are overlaid with cool gray 50%, 30%, 20%, and 10%. The yellow band is the second lighter-colored area. Color tones from darkest to lightest: from goldenrod to golden ocher (FCP) to other. Leaves the wick colorless. The orange band is the third lighter-colored area. Again, layers of shades from darker to lighter, first burnt ocher then terracotta (FCP), leaving the highlight colorless. The red band is the darkest colored area. Layers of Tuscan Red, Dark Red (FCP), and Scarlet Red, as you did in the previous color areas. Gary Greene has been a full-time artist since 1967 and is the author of four books and videos on colored pencil techniques, including No Experience Required: How to draw sad drawings easy with Colored Pencil and Watercolor. This demo is an excerpt from his article.
Color pencil
An Underpainting colored pencil stains the paper without destroying the tooth so that the artist can create textures and other effects. There are two priming methods: one with wax/oil and solvent-based pencils and the other with water-soluble pencils. To create a water-soluble base coat, the colored pencil is layered on the paper’s surface exactly as you would dry pencils, then water is added with a brush. Water-soluble primers produce loose and uneven results, while solvent-based primers produce even color distribution. All colors in this demo are Prismacolor, except when they appear as Faber-Castell Polychromos (FCP).
Pear tone coat with warm gray 30% and 20%. Apply the solvent (Bestine Gum Cement Thinner) to the shaded areas with a round watercolor brush and a cotton swab. Apply the lime peel color to the shadow area of the pear. A layer of pear body colors with gamboge (Prismacolor Lightfast), jasmine, chartreuse yellow, and cream. Apply the solvent on the pear as you did on the shaded areas. The solvent will not affect the underlying colors. Coat of final body colors: ocher yellow, lake scarlet, poppy red, vermilion, burnt ocher (FCP), terracotta (FCP), and mineral orange. Cover the stem with black, dark brown, light amber, and burnt ocher (FCP). A layer of pear tone with 50% and 30% cool gray, ocher yellow, terracotta, and vermilion.
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Polished with colored pencil
Blueing involves layering and blending until no paper teeth appear through the colored pencil layers. To avoid contamination of lighter colors, the artist paints the lighter areas first, using minimal pressure to superimpose lighter colors on darker colors. Once all the colors have been overlaid, the artist mixes, or browns, all but the darkest color in a given color area, using white or any light color, depending on the desired effect. The same sequence of colors is re-layered over the entire color area. This process is repeated until the colored pencil areas cover the underlying paper completely, leaving no teeth showing. All colors in this demo are Prismacolor.
Layer the colored areas in the following order. Starting from the petals, superimpose a layer of cold gray 30%, 20%, and 10%; magenta; red process; Hot pink; pinkish; deco pink and cream. Next, cover the stems with grass green, olive green, apple green, spring green, and cream. Finally, coat the leaf with green grass, olive green, and cool gray 30% and 20%. Burn each colored area with white, avoiding darker tones (shadow). Replace the colors as you did in the first step. Repeat blueing and layering until you can see the paper through the colored pencil. Finish the job by browning each full area of color with a colorless blender pencil.
Polished with colored pencil
Blueing involves layering and blending until no paper teeth appear through the colored pencil layers. To avoid contamination of lighter colors, the artist paints the lighter areas first, using minimal pressure to superimpose lighter colors on darker colors. Once all the colors have been overlaid, the artist mixes, or browns, all but the darkest color in a given color area, using white or any light color, depending on the desired effect. The same sequence of colors is re-layered over the entire color area. This process is repeated until the colored pencil areas cover the underlying paper completely, leaving no teeth showing. All colors in this demo are Prismacolor.
Layer the colored areas in the following order. Starting from the petals, superimpose a layer of cold gray 30%, 20%, and 10%; magenta; red process; Hot pink; pinkish; deco pink and cream. Next, cover the stems with grass green, olive green, apple green, spring green, and cream. Finally, coat the leaf with green grass, olive green, and cool gray 30% and 20%. Burn each colored area with white, avoiding darker tones (shadow). Replace the colors as you did in the first step. Repeat blueing and layering until you can see the paper through the colored pencil. Finish the job by browning each full area of color with a colorless blender pencil.
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