Advanced Art Techniques: Coloured Pencils

Of course you can pick up any coloured pencil and make a work of art from it, but there are some things to consider if you want to take it to the next level. Here's how:

Cropped Image of Dionysus, Greek God of Wine

My name is Jessica DeMers, and I'm an American artist currently based in sunny Malta. I was an art teacher for a couple of years, and I am now working in an art shop part-time while focusing on my own practice. I've been using coloured pencil among many other materials in my studio for the better part of about 20 years.

Some Quick Guidelines on Coloured Pencils

As this is an advanced guide on coloured pencils, I'll be brief with the basics here. When choosing a coloured pencil to work with, it's important to note the lightfastness rating, especially if you plan to sell the work. There's two main scales that measure lightfastness, and that's the blue wool scale and the American Standard Test Measure (ASTM). The blue wool scale operates from numbers 1-8 (1 is crap, and 8 is great). The ASTM uses a Roman Numeral system and goes from I to VI (I is great and IV is crap). Annoying that they are opposite, I know. Coloured pencils are made of a varying combination of wax, oil, pigment, additives and binders which give them their unique brand-to-brand qualities. The beauty of the coloured pencil is that it can work on a majority of paper, and I also love the look of it on wood. You can use it on canvas, depending on the look you're going for, but I'd recommend a gessoed panel, or a smooth grain canvas if you want to used mixed media. Right, let's dive in.

#1: Fat Over Lean?

#2: Slow Build

#3: Burnish

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Heading #1: Fat Over Lean?

If you have any experience with oil painting, you'll be familiar with the 'fat over lean' rule. But did you know that it can also be applied to the humble coloured pencil?

This means that if you have a collection of coloured pencils from other brands, you'll notice that some are softer while others are harder. The hard ones are 'lean' and should be used first to establish a base of colour with little pressure applied. The creamier, or softer pencils are the 'fat' that should be used in the final layers and a bit more pressure can be applied to fill in the pores of the paper.

Heading #2: Slow Build

This being said, if you have one type of coloured pencil, you can definitely work this way too. However, you must keep in mind the amount of pressure you apply in each layer. Of course starting with light pressure in the beginning, and slowly applying more pressure towards the last layers.

If you are premature in adding to much pressure in the beginning, or you use a harder pencil on a softer one, an icky pilling of colour can happen and clump up the pigments on the surface of the paper. Also, you won't be able to blend colour on the top of a section where too much pressure was applied already.

Be sure to start in soft circular motions in the beginning layers, blending the colours until you can see the pores of the paper are starting to fill. When there is an even build-up of colour then you know it's time to use the creamier pencil to finish the job, and/or time to apply more pressure.

Heading #3: Burnish

It’s time for you seal the deal.

burnish . /ˈbəːnɪʃ/ verb . polish (something, especially metal) by rubbing.

We use this term for coloured pencil to basically indicate when we want to seal in all the colour we put down by applying a lot of pressure for a final blend, usually with a burnishing pencil which consists mostly of just wax, and no pigment. You can also use another coloured pencil for this, but I'd be careful, as this of course will alter the colour depending on which pencil colour is used. This step is not necessary though. It's only used to make the colours look more saturated in a final blend and fill in the final pores of the paper, so it's your choice as the artist.

Let me know if you have any advanced coloured pencil tips and tricks to share. Don’t be shy. And if you'd like to sign up to my newsletter for more exclusive studio content, CLICK HERE. Happy Drawing!

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