What is your favorite tip for using colored pencils?

[Arlene]

My number one tip is to plan your background when you plan your drawing...the background is as important as your main subject.

I use the analogy of how one can be looking at people acting in a play in front of a black curtain...it might be ok, but adds nothing to the feel of the play. Now the same actors dressed in costume and in a set that works with the play adds so much more. It's the same thing.

My second tip would be to work with a light hand. If you think of pencil pressure from 1-5 with one being barely touching the paper, and 5 pressing so hard that the point breaks, then I would suggest for most layers of pencil to use a 2-3 pressure, leaning towards a 2.

[Jazz]

I think the one thing I have learned that I would pass on as a tip, would be to always keep the pencils you are working with for your current piece seperate from the rest.( I started a thread else where showing how I keep my pencils I am using currently)

Also, try to get in the habit of keeping an art journal so you can write down in what order you used certain colours and how many layers of each etc. It is extremely helpful if like me you have memory problems or you can't work every day on the piece.

I have a small hard back book that I use and start a fresh double page for each project I am working on. I believe it was Leanne that first mentioned she did this and so it is thanks to her that I found something I could do to help my memory. Also, if like me you are new to CP's I find it useful to write down new techniques or how I achieved something -you never know it might come in useful for a future artwork ;) .

There is nothing worse if you come back to work on your art and find you can't remember what colour you were using on a particular section or you can't remember what order the colours were layered, it makes a difference -believe me if you layer them in the wrong order :blushing: :) .

GAWWD!! I waffled on again.......sorry! :blushing:


Huge hugs,

ALI

[Lahree]

Ali said what I was thinking. I always keep my pencils separate from the rest when I am working on a new project. I also highly recommend (like Ali said) if you find colors that work together and acheive the look you want, WRITE IT DOWN! Chances are you won't remember the next time you go to re-create it.

My suggestion is to experiment! Use different colors, different papers and different techniques! This is the only way to find out what makes you happy and gets the look/feel of what you want. Use scraps of different papers and see what can be done on different surfaces. Look at other people's work that you admire and write down what in particular you like about it? Is it the color choices? Composition? Subject matter? Line usage? What do you think is the reason you are drawn to it (oh, look, an art pun! :p ). And you can't get better at your art unless you practice, pratice, practice! Learn to ask for comments and critiques and learn from them!

[CindyH]

One thing I have just started...somebody here does it but can't remember who...is to transfer my drawing to Stonehenge with Col-erase pencils. I just so hate seeing graphite underneath the beautiful hues of Prismacolors. Col-erase works wonderfully, blends with the top colors, and is eraseable.

[Denise]

Keep your pencils sharp, sharp , sharp! and use a drafting brush every couple of minutes or so...oh and wipe off the tip of your pencil on a soft cloth when it comes out of the sharpener. All of these will help produce a better piece by first of all, filling the texture of your paper (all those hills and valleys) w/ that needle like tip and second of all the brush and cloth will keep you from getting flakes of the wrong colors mixed together -like black specks in your white......and yes, I'm speaking from experience :D

Denise

[Bill C]

All great tips! Lately I've been trying to "loosen up" a little and have fun, not work so tight and controlled ALL the time. We'll see where it takes me, LOL

[KarenCardinal]

Hmmmm... I guess my only real tip (other than sketches, sketches, sketches... can't have enough sketches) is to keep an emery board (fingernail file) or fine sandpaper with your supplies.

I hate sharpening away all my pencils whenever I just want to keep the tips needle sharp (that's usually on the last couple layers for me). I use a fingernail file or sandpaper to file away just enough to sharpen the pencil. That way I don't feel like half my pencil is laying in the bottom of my sharpener.

Ohhh and Denise is sooooo right... keep a soft cloth to wipe your sharpened pencils on. :D

[sassybird]

I use a light hand adding many layers and burnish with a cotton pad, although I do use the colorless brunishing pencil now and again.

Like Arlene, I plan my background ,and I work the whole piece at one time instead of in sections so that everything comes together in the end without one part seemingly under worked or over worked.

I recently discovered that you can work the pencils with a bit of mineral spirits creating something like a dense wash. I haven't tried that yet, but am giong to experiment with the process.

[ann_aurora]

I always make colour swatches for each piece, on the same paper as the painting. I can spend hours doing these, sometimes, mixing colours, blending them, going back and forth between warm and cool. I start with a long bar, a layer of whatever the base colour is going to be, and then place the next colour on top of that, but a little bit to the right, and then the next colour to the right of that. I make notes on what went where.

I also have a couple of pages in my "good" sketchbook (where I make notes for projects I'm thinking about, and keep lists and samples) that I use for recording favourite colour combinations, especially greys. Sometimes, just looking through these will give me a new idea for something completely different.

[Greg]

The emory board and the soft cloth are both great ideas. I'm wearing my electric sharpener out, and buying pencils too often because of sharpening so often.

[knelson315]

My favorite tip is the tips of my fingers! On soft backgrounds (especially on black paper) if I make a fist and warm my fingers, I can lightly rub them (or just one) across an area to help blend out any stroke marks. I especially use this technique on large background/out of focus areas.

Love the emery board idea, because I really HATE to waste pencils in the sharpener.

[bmac]

I sometimes use a colorless blender marker on top of a color to saturate a color. When a color is going to be very dark in the background. Then more layers on top. I suppose that is the same as using a solvent.
I like the emery board idea to sharpen too. I haven't thought of that. That is much cheaper than those little sandpaper 'thingies'. :)

[one who sees]

ahh so many good hints and tips..dont know if i can add many but..
no one has mentioned the use of a tiny bit of felt...if you are having trouble layering additional layers..just too many down already...a light touch with the bit of felt, gently brushing it over the areas will permit you to add more layers...
if you wish to blend the colors a bit, or lift a bit, using the felt will also help you out..i always keep a tiny piece in my box now..
also i find that pinkie erasers, will erase right back down to the paper on the black paper i have been using...and with no damage and no residue left..also my battery opperated helix will remove on white or colored paper with no problem..
that was recently learned..because i never thought cp could have been erased before trying these two items..

as far as anything else..i do agree, keep the cps you are using separate, from your others..so much easier to keep them at your fingertips..

use a sheet of white paper under your palm..as with graphite you can blur or smudge up your cp work by dragging your hand over it..if there are any lil flecks of wayward color..you will drag over them and create lines of color where you dont wish em.....

and i do keep a small round synthetic paint brush, for a few reasons handy, its not a bristle..but is a bit stiff....
sometimes i want to soften/blend a small area and this does it, or..i want to remove some of the lil color bits cast off, lifting rather than brushing across the paper will help....if your using large sheets constantly picking them up to shake might cause a crease so i try not to do that too many times.. :blushing:

[Nancy]

Along with keeping your pencils sharp is the way you sharpen them. I always had to use those nasty 'ole handheld sharpners and I have wasted more pencils that way!! :mad: They kept getting broken off and pencils got eaten like they were going out of style. I finally got so mad one day I slapped my hands on the table and announced to my husband that I was going to the store and investing in a really good electric sharpner. If I could have saved the money I wasted buying new pencils to replace the eaten ones, I could've already paid for it. So I went out and got one. Now, I am sooooo happy! No more pencils getting eaten, no more color being broken off, wood being torn up, etc. I love it!!! It's well worth the expense!

So, my best piece of advice is to make sure you have a good electric sharpner, and to make sure you run some graphite pencils through it now and then, especially after heavy cp use. :D

[Genine]

Couldn't agree more with some of the others here when they say to write down what works for you as far as colors or techniques & background goes.

At first, this was very hard for me being a newbie and all. I tend to want to rush to the "main event" before I'm ready & it can very much show in the end product!!

Plannin your background and documenting the colors/techniques that get you the look you're trying to achieve will save you from wandering around in the dark next time, even if you've done it wrong previously at least with the documentation you'll know what NOT to do next time around.

It's worth the time it takes to document.

[lene]

Karen - that advice on the sandpaper I must try out :) , I get tired of sharpening constantly. the batteryoperated sharpener I bought is now on my daughters drawingtable, totally un-useful for my cp's, so I sharpen by hand-sharpener :p (cannot get an eletric sharpener in Denmark, believe that :( )

[larsnip]

One tip would be to work with adequate and full spectrum lighting, I work with two lights on, one to the left the other to he right of what I’m drawing so the area I’m working on is never in shadow and a lot of light, 2 60 –100watt bulbs, it will keep you warm during the winter, Nothing like finishing a drawing and moving it to a better lit area a noticing problems you couldn’t see before.
Full spectrum so you can see as close to the real color as you can get, Drawings will look different under different lights, fluorescents, yuck.
Also whenever I work on a light area, I block in the whole area with a layer of the lightest value I will be working with, I’ve been using a lot of cream lately. That way when I start laying down darker values the cp is far more forgiving, corrections are a lot easier to make.

Dave

[Elankat]

My number one tip for working with cps...

When you think you are done and are sick to death of working on the piece, you are only 75% there. ;) :D Layer, layer, layer.

My other tips:

There is no substitute for good quality supplies (pencils, paper, sharpener, etc.). They make the difference between a great piece and a mediocre one.

Learn how complementary colors and value ranges affect everything about the piece.

Glassine or a slip sheet & a drafting brush are your friends.

Stikki Wax is a great tool for lifting color.

Planning is the best way to insure success...composition, background, color choices, values, etc. Spend the time thinking about them before you start.

Leave lots of extra room in the margins to allow for compositional changes, matting, or even notes & color swatches.

[Rollow]

The one tip I would have to offer is to use your value scale. I try and use at least 4 values and sometimes more. It's like Charles Hawthorne said, if the values are right, color does not matter, it will be right.

Ron

[CarrieLLewis]

Elankat mentioned lifting color. Here are some things that have worked for me:

Scotch tape - lightly apply the tape to the area you want to lift, burnish it very lightly with a fingernail or thumbnail, then left it carefully. You won't be able to lift 100% of the color, even with repeated applications of tape, but you will be able to rework the area.

X-Acto Knife or Razor Blade - use these with extreme care because it's very easy to damage (or cut through) the paper. These tools are very good for removing the color in very small areas.

BONUS! - a knife or blade is great for scratching details into finished areas. I have used an X-Acto knife to create highlights in hand-tooled leather with very good results.

If you damage your paper late in the game, don't worry! I had a 'tape accident' with Icelandic Prince when the painting was almost finished and I was sure the painting was ruined. But I smoothed down the small flap of very thin paper (think of your skin being lifted up ... that's how thin it was), lightly burnished it with Verithin pencils, then layered softer pencils over that. The damage wasn't completely repaired, it's still there if you know where to look, but it is very well concealed and, with a coat of retouch varnish, it was all but invisible.

[vltz]

My newest favorite tip is something I'd heard that sounded so weird that I just had to try it--blending with baby wipes!

For those of you who use solvents, I'd say that the wipes probably work in the same manner.

I plan to try turpenoid next since it's a product specifically made for artwork where baby wipes :p aren't....
V

[Genine]

Vltz,

Baby wipes for blending?? Really, never heard that before either. Do you also use the solvent with the wipe or just the wipe by itself? Also, would one use any particular kind of wipe such as the no perfume kind? Sorry, I'm "baby wipe" illiterate :D

Just think of what's in this wipe to be able to dissolve & blend this wax and we use this stuff on baby's bottoms??!! :eek:

I would love to see a pic with this technique or even a wip. Very cool.

[one who sees]

these are all facinating.....
i have another to add that i forgot.......

occassionally depending on the subject...i will take a pencil...and gently cover the surface of the whole cp...it seems to give it an aged look.....
another hint with a pencil..but with a sharpened 4h...
when doing feathers..i will add in the very tiny filaments of the feathers..the fine ~hairs~ that create texture that come front eh main shaft....each tiny one ...its tedious...but what it tends to do is create the tiny texture..making the whole bird look much more realistic....in the very short neck feathers or facial feathers...as with fur..i would follow the lay of the way the feather grows..same with fur..occassionally i dont do this with fur...but i do usually do it with birds..if i am doing it lightly it is not really to add the pencil, but to carve into the many layers of waxy color...creating another texture...looking at the finished work a bit towards the side angle....you can see the lil tiny lines that help create the illusion of feathers...

[vltz]

I used the wipe all by itself, no other solvent. It was non-perfumed for sensitive skin, but when I ran out of those I used antibiotic hand wipes--they both seemed to work the same way. Now I'm interested to see if there's any difference with real solvent (turpenoid).

I've only used the wipes on 2 pieces--I found that the wipes dulled the color after blending but I just added more layers of cp without wipes to finish up.

V


Vltz,

Baby wipes for blending?? Really, never heard that before either. Do you also use the solvent with the wipe or just the wipe by itself? Also, would one use any particular kind of wipe such as the no perfume kind? Sorry, I'm "baby wipe" illiterate :D

Just think of what's in this wipe to be able to dissolve & blend this wax and we use this stuff on baby's bottoms??!! :eek:

I would love to see a pic with this technique or even a wip. Very cool.

[Genine]

Thanks for the links Virginia! Both are fabulous pieces of artwork. Was the wipe technique used on all areas of the portraits or select areas?

I'm workin on a portrait right now where the paper is rather rough so the white of the background keeps showin through. A smooth and even background is want I'm trying for here. In fact, if the backround were to be dulled down a bit it wouldn't hurt it at all. Thought I'd use a solvent on the background originally but I'm a chicken at heart, hear me cluck!! This baby wipe technique may just do the trick for me. How did you apply it? I mean did you use a Q-tip wrapped in the wipe or what?

Thanks much.

[one who sees]

ya beat me to asking it.......thats what i was going to ask as well....just on the bg? or the whole image? :o

[vltz]

I used the wipe directly all over both pieces going in the direction needed (ie down the hair, rounding a cheek, etc)--you could probably use a Q-tip, I just used my finger.

Both pieces were done on the smooth side of Canson Mi Teintes...the wipe blended the color into the white spots, and where it didn't in my work is probably because I was maybe too hesitant not knowing what to expect. I would suppose that you could wipe down, add another layer of cp and then wipe down again.

Hope this helps.
V

QUOTE=Genine]Thanks for the links Virginia! Both are fabulous pieces of artwork. Was the wipe technique used on all areas of the portraits or select areas?

I'm workin on a portrait right now where the paper is rather rough so the white of the background keeps showin through. A smooth and even background is want I'm trying for here. In fact, if the backround were to be dulled down a bit it wouldn't hurt it at all. Thought I'd use a solvent on the background originally but I'm a chicken at heart, hear me cluck!! This baby wipe technique may just do the trick for me. How did you apply it? I mean did you use a Q-tip wrapped in the wipe or what?

Thanks much.[/QUOTE]

[ArtWench]

My number one tip is to plan your background when you plan your drawing...the background is as important as your main subject.


Tip? LOL! I thought that was an unbreakable Law in the Kingdom (Queendom?) of Arlene! I half expected it to be in the Member Agreement! :Angela ducks & runs from the hammer!:

My number one tip would be to keep a CP recipe journal for keeping track of techniques and color mixes. It is invaluable when you want to recreate an effect a couple of years down the road and can't for the life of you remember what you did originally!

After edit... Wouldn't ya know? Someone already beat me to this tip! LOL! Oh well! It bears repeating!

[ArtWench]

oh and wipe off the tip of your pencil on a soft cloth when it comes out of the sharpener.

I use my daughter's old (and much bleached) cloth diapers just for this purpose! They are perfect!

[lene]

Hi

1. tip: for european artists that can't get hold of Stonehenge, try out mountboard. Takes lots of layers and abuse.

2. tip: this is not especially for colorpencils, but just for all planning of art to be done.
I used to make a (long) list, of all the drawings I want to do for different purposes.
But looking at that list and all the text didn't make me more organised and didn't give me the general view I wanted. :(
So on a second paper I made small thumbnails, one for every piece I had in mind to do. Not detailed at all, but this made me have a much better general view.
Perhaps some of you other visual-minded people with 100 ideas and drawings flying around in your heads can benefit from this simple idea :bye1:

[KarenCardinal]

Lene, that's a great tip!
I'm a big proponent of sketches (can't have enough sketches)... although I like to draw freehand anymore so you gotta have lots of sketches. ;)

For me, they are not only a great way to break out of a artistic block (if I can't come up with an idea I just look through my file cabnet that's packed with doodles, thumbnails and sketches) but it's also a very theraputic to feel like I've at least drawn something every day when I don't have the time to work on a "finished" drawing.

... and there have been a lot of times when my sketches were better than the finished work... I think it's because I don't erase or worry about getting everything perfect in a sketch. :D

[Judy Caudill]

These are all such helpful tips--the only one I have is one that I read in the CP books (I cant remember which one, sorry) but it really works. I had problems b/c my sharpener kept getting dull but if you dip a graphite pencil in turpenoid and then sharpen the pencil with it right after it cleans it right up--no more gum...

[Dee]

Ok..here are a couple I don't see listed.

One of them is to use glue to put your pencils stubs and new pencils together. (I understand Karimas don't give you this option) :(

Anyway..I tried the glue but had problems with it sticking and keeping the pencils straight. I understand there is now a gel super glue that works better. I just use Scotch tape and discard a tiny point when it gets to the new pencil.

Another thing, I have a tiny vacuum cleaner that is sold to use to clean keyboards. I use it on my drawings..especially after burnishing. It has a brush on the end so it will not damage your drawing and it's pretty quiet.

Ohh..and for those that have said they makes notes of colors used in a project and then can't find them...I do this on the computer and save it as a txt file...much easier to find. :rolleyes:

[ArtWench]

Another thing, I have a tiny vacuum cleaner that is sold to use to clean keyboards. I use it on my drawings..especially after burnishing. It has a brush on the end so it will not damage your drawing and it's pretty quiet.

What a fabulous idea! Beats the heck out of all the eraser scrumbles that litter the area!