Colored Pencil Hand Positions

Holding the Colored...

The amount of pressure applied on the paper as well as the strokes you can achieve are all determined by how you hold your pencil. Hand position and the pressure applied changes frequently during the coloring process. For finer details or more control, hold the pencil in the writing position and closer to the point. Moving your fingers further away from the point produces far less pressure which is desirable for even coverage and enables you to cover large areas more ...

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Glue Flat Ended Colored Pencils Together

Gluing Colored...

To get the most use out of your colored pencils, you could when they become too short to fit into the electric sharpener, or you could glue a short flat-ended pencil onto a longer flat-ended pencil to extend it.   The process:   It is possible for the glue to hold so well that you could sharpen all the way to the end of the stub as shown in the photo below. However, you may want to leave the other end of the longer pencil unsharpened if you wish to glue anot...

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Electric and Hand-held Sharpeners

How to Sharpen...

There are a wide variety of suitable sharpeners for use with colored pencils. Whether you choose to use a more conventional hand-held sharpener or electric sharpener, sharpening is an integral part of the colored pencil experience. It is well worth your time to do some research and read reviews for sharpeners by other artists before deciding which one to get. Hand-held Sharpener: A metal hand-held sharpener comes in handy when your pencils can no longer fit into an el...

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Tints, Tones & Shades

Defining Tints,...

Properties of Color:   - Each color has a name = hue   - It is either light or dark = value   - Colors are either warm or cool = temperature   - Either bright or dull = intensity The difference between tint, tone and shade:   - Color plus black added = shade   - Color plus gray added = tone   - Color plus white added = tint     Exercise: Pick a hue and modify it with black, gray and white:   There are more interesting ...

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Making a Value Scale

Achieving Depth or...

Recognizing Values: For a beginner it can be difficult to isolate or distinguish values from each other, some find it difficult to make distinctions between the various middle values and others consistently create works that are either unintentionally high key or low key. It is usually easier to determine distinctions between values with neutrals or an individual color, but it can be much harder when there are a combination of colors. Of course if your intention is to...

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Gather your materials . . . learn the basics . . . practice the techniques . . . let’s color!

Why Choose Colored Pencils?

Discover the reasons why so many artists enjoy this medium. In time, you will be exploring techniques and methods and discover the various capabilities, boundaries and strengths of working with colored pencils.
Learn about the advantages

Getting Started

Pencils, paper, a sharpener and something to lift color will be all you really need to get started. There is an array of other helpful tools and supplies that will make the task easier as well, but, there is no need to have all of these in the beginning, just build your supplies as you build your skills.
Get started now

Color Basics

Colored pencils are obviously all about COLOR, knowing your colors and understanding color theory is important because with every piece you create, you’ll have to make good color choices.
Colors can be blended richly together with many layers.
Get to know your colors

How to Achieve Depth and Dimension

To render dimension and to create interest in your work, you will need to learn to use a range of values. Every pencil color can be lightened or darkened to create a range of values, some colors have more of a range than others and color mixing can be employed to achieve a good range.
Learn to create a range of values

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Feedback

  • I’ve learned so much from you. As a beginner in colored pencils, you have provided a wealth of information to me. Thank you!
    by Shirley

  • This is a very interesting and helpful site. Thank you!
    by Janet

  • Wow, I did not know you could do this with colored pencils!
    by Wendy

  • I love the internet! I’ve added your site to my bookmarks. Thank you!
    by Anne

  • Thank you so much for creating this site. It offers some good pointers.
    by Margaret

  • I am enjoying your color exercises. I love the website and it’s concept. Thanks!
    by Donna