Coloring with colored pencils

Hey stampers, Anni here! Happy new year!

Recently I've got a lot of questions about coloring with colored pencils. That's why I decided to make a tutorial. It is my first one, so please be kind! And be careful: A LOT of photos ahead!




At first a few words about the stuff I use:
Colored Pencils: For most of the time I use Polychromos from Faber Castell. I have a few colored pencils from Prismacolor, too! I can't say which one I like better I think that is a question of taste! Prismacolors are softer, a little bit like wax crayons. Therefore blending is easier but when you add too much color to the paper you get "crumbs" of color!
Paper: To use the "right" paper when you color with colored pencils is quite important in my opinion.  I layer up a lot of color so I need a paper that can take the color and is smooth enough to get an even result! I use Strathmore 300 Bristol Smooth and like it a lot but again you have to try for yourself what you like!
Blending solution: The most frequent question: What do you use for blending? The answer: NOTHING! No baby oil, no gamsol... It takes some time but I like the effect by blending the colors with themself better! On very, very few occassions I use Zest it!

Step 1:
At first I choose three shades of one color and one really dark one that goes well with this color. For the little monster I chose three shades of turquoise and a very dark blue (it looks like black in the picture but it isn't).

Step 2:
I add the first layer of color with the lightest pencil and with just a little pressure! I don't spend much time and it doesn't have to be perfect at all!

Step 3:
With the darkest shade of turquoise I add the shadows - again with just a little pressure.

Step 4:
Now I take the medium shade and color over the shadows and a little further. I color in circular movement! You can see the colors already start to blend.

Step 5:
To blend it even more I color over it with the lightest shade. I avoid the parts that I want to be the lightest.

Step 6:
If you want to you can stop at this step, the monster is already good looking! I take it one step further: I add dark accents with the dark blue pencil, just a few lines here and there - I hope you can see it in the picture.

Step 7:
Now I repeat step 3 to 5, sometimes two or three times untill I get the result that I want! I add more pressure to get more color down and to blend the colors!

Step 8:
I avoided to color over the lightest areas untill now. For them I take a white pencil and blend these areas. Often I color over the whole area to blend the colors even more! But be careful: You can only do this if you have a lot of color on the paper otherwise you lighten up your mosnter more than you want to!
I colored the rest of the monster, too!

Step 9:
And now to the last step which I think is very important when you color with Polychromos or Prismacolor. Most of the time the lines of the image are not really crisp anymore because you colored over them. I use a fineliner to draw over the lines to make them real black again!

I hope you liked my tutorial! If you have any questions, suggestions, please leave me a comment!

   

Release countdown starts on Monday! There are awesome stamps ahead you don't wanna miss!