# Need help with my pencils !



## Jadielle (Jul 8, 2013)

Hi everyone 

So I am new to this forum, but I have been drawing for years. I have recently purchased a good set of colored pencils, because I thought coloring was the next step for me. But ... I'm terrible at it !  

I color like a five-year-old. I draw animé and it's very frustrating to ruin otherwise nice projects by coloring them. My main problem is that I can't put down and blend the colors smoothly. Do you know of any good tutorials on how to shade the skin, for instance ? I really need some advice 

Thank you !


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## Jadielle (Jul 8, 2013)

By the way, I'm 26 and I'm French.


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## George924 (Oct 8, 2012)

Hi Jadielle, great to have you here at the artistforum, I have been using color pencil for a very long time now and Prismacolor is my primary brand. Color pencil is a slow process but it is well worth the time to take your time and build the layers to the color and texture you are looking to achieve. I burnish a lot, well a lot would be an understatement...to get a smooth painterly look to a CP piece, burnishing is something you can do with several tools, colorless blender, lighter color pencils and even paintbrushes. To burnish, Istart off in the lighter shades of the undertone of the color and building these colors up while pressing harder and harder with usually white or cream color pencils, this will smooth blend the layers below it. 

The only true way to learn color pencil or any medium for that is just start using them and taking notes or remember what colors to what with other colors...don't worry about messing a a beautifully outlined drawing. you have to really mess up to gain the results you desire. 

The support has a lot to do with how the color lays down as well, I use Stonehenge exclusively these days for my portraits because it gives me a very smooth finish while the canson papers have much more of a tooth to them and will give you quite a big difference in look. 

Here is a fats tutorial I put together you may find helpful for the mean time as I will go look for videos I think are worth the watch.

http://www.artistforum.com/colored-pencil-drawings/my-process-color-pencil-wip-1038/


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## Jadielle (Jul 8, 2013)

*re*

Hello George and thank you for you reply  you have a great shading technique, your drawings look very nice. I will try to follow the instruction you gave, do you sharpen your pencils often while coloring ? I also have Prismacolor Premier pencils by the way, but it's frustration that I feel like I'm not worthy of them ( so far ) !


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## George924 (Oct 8, 2012)

I have three sharpeners near by at all given times and I sharpen constantly...if you have never used Prismacolor before you will come to find that the cores in the pencil have a tendency to break and may put you off of Prismacolor and color pencil all together. CP is well worth the efforts as long as you have the patients and time to invest, it is not a medium that is easy to master, I still find myself learning new techniques even after all of these years.

Many people and artists do not take the color pencil seriously and think the CP is for children...until we show them what we can do with the CP then they start to look at it differently. I am sure you will do fine with the CP if that is where you want to take your artwork.


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## Jadielle (Jul 8, 2013)

It's funny you would say that, because I was actually one of these people, I always thought of colored pencils as crayons for kids you could only get very bad results with. Until I saw some unbelievable CP artwork ! I really want to learn and master it, when paint never attracted me. How do I know it is time to sharpen ? How do I know I have laid down a sufficient amount of pigment when layering ?


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## George924 (Oct 8, 2012)

The answer to them questions are endless...When I am working important areas of a piece such as the eyes, I sharpen every time I take the pencil up off the paper. Sometimes when I am scrubbing color in I sharpen when the core hits the casing.

The amounts of color will come in time when you learn the effect you are looking for...really can't answer that directly...except you'll just have to start painting with them to find your style and method. *(I consider CP paintings even though they are pencils)* 

Post some of your artwork in order to get a better direction of input and advice if you can.


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## Jadielle (Jul 8, 2013)

I don't have any work I could post right now, or rather I do have some, but I soaked them in gamsol so they're not very repesentative of how I use my pencils, I will draw and color something and post it here so you can tell me  I do consider them as paintings too because they look very much the same.


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## Jadielle (Jul 8, 2013)

Hi me again, so I have found a few drawings of mine that I (almost) didn't blend with Gamsol, but I couldn't figure yet how to upload them


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## Jadielle (Jul 8, 2013)

Looks very amateurish compared to yours, hope it's ok lol


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## George924 (Oct 8, 2012)

Hi Jadielle, I seen you also found Wet Canvas...it is a very great forum with a ton of great artists on there as well. 

Here is my very first thoughts of your work...There are no layers that is building up the blending and is more graphic than fine art...but that is to be expected with the style of your work. What I would really like to see in these Anime to stand out from the rest of the same old stuff that has been rendered so many times, is a more life like and true three dimensional piece. Something in the lines of a realistic cartoon or anime.

In order to achieve any smoothness regardless of style...layering is key and the use of many more colors to get to a nice smooth and painted effect


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## Jadielle (Jul 8, 2013)

Hi George  Yes I registered on WetCanvas as well, very excited about discussing with people who like coloring. You are totally right, my coloring is boring and I would love to be able to color realistically, it would be much more interesting. I actually tried to layer LOL but there are only 4 layers in this drawing. I thought the shading of the skin was ruined anyway so I didn't add any layers.


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## Jadielle (Jul 8, 2013)

Thank you for you honesty !


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## George924 (Oct 8, 2012)

While layering one must be slow to go at first to build the undertone of the piece...I never really counted how many layers I use in a piece but I would say it is over a hundred. Be patient with the CP and you will find your style, no two artists are totally alike and if they were it would be kind of boring to look at. When you start finding your way with CP's I know you will do amazing artwork. 

Although I have been on WetCanvas for many years and find it to be very useful and many graet and talented artists, I have found a new home to discuss art here at the ArtistForum. Here at AF I found there is a closer camaraderie of artists and the site does not move at neck break speeds and easier to keep up with, I am able to enjoy the artwork and appreciate the work in a much greater depth. I am sure you will learn a lot into your journey with Color Pencil at WC, there are just simply more contributing artists there. With that said, I know you quest into the CP will be a success. 



> *Thank you for you honesty !*


I have never been one to fluff up ones artwork to just make them feel good about their work...the reason I critique artwork is to get the artist to look and learn about their art, to see something that works and see what does not. I like to see artists become more than great at what they do...in that, they make me better in what I do, I learn from their successes and failures, it opens my eyes to new technique and compositions, design and color schemes. 

So any way, either being here or over at WC I'll be watching for your progress...


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