The One Colored Pencil Technique you must master to create Photorealistic Colored Pencil Drawings – Veronica Winters Painting

The One Colored Pencil Technique you must master to create Photorealistic Colored Pencil Drawings – Veronica Winters Painting

The One Colored Pencil Technique you must master to create Photorealistic Colored Pencil Drawings


veronica winters colored pencil

Shading with colored pencils

If your aim is to create photorealistic colored pencil drawings, you need to master the very basic drawing concepts, which includes shading with colored pencils. Whatever subject you draw in colored pencil, it’s important to control your pencil pressure to achieve the results that you want.

For instance, when you press on your pencil very lightly, you won’t be able to achieve rich darks or create enough contrast in colored pencil drawing. At the same time if you’re heavy-handed, your drawing may become too muddy or overworked quickly. So it’s all about finding that perfect balance shading with colored pencils correctly.

colored pencil drawing of Jasmine by veronica winters-pencil pressure- colored pencil techniques
This is my colored pencil drawing done on pastel paper, which has a lot of texture. Paper’s texture is the number one enemy of every colored pencil artist. I had to do lots of paper’s tooth filling, shading with colored pencils. My pencil pressure played a big role in it because I had to increase my pencil pressure a lot shading with a very sharp colored pencil. This was true for both black and white colored pencils. I could of used the solvent to blend everything for a different effect but I left it untouched to keep this sketchy feeling of immediacy although it took me several hours to draw this portrait.

You do need to increase your pencil pressure in colored pencil drawing when:

  • you try to blend some areas with light pencils shading over the dark layers
  • you blend the areas around the highlights
  • you want to build up contrast in progression
  • or when you work on textured paper and have to do lots of filling of a paper’s tooth.
colored pencil drawing of flower of life by veronica winters-pencil pressure- colored pencil techniques
This colored pencil drawing closeup shows several shading colored pencil techniques at once.
#1 I shaded with white colored pencil over the dark area using a unique stroke to create the texture I wanted. While some dark is showing through, I applied the white colored pencil with medium pencil pressure.
#2 I did a lot of shading with colored pencils on the light side of her face using a very heavy pencil pressure to raise the lights as much as possible. White colored pencil sits on top of all other light colors I shaded with there.
#3 I shaded with a light pencil pressure to create that purple circle so that some previous layers still show through it.
#4 I used a very light grey colored pencil to shade over the purple with heavy pencil pressure. It lightened up and blended the area.

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Colored pencil technique: shading with colored pencils using white and off-white colors

When you do shading with colored pencils using a very heavy pencil pressure the area becomes very waxy and so filled with the pigment that you can’t layer more color over it. That’s the desired outcome. However, if you feel like you want to add even more color to that area, spray it lightly with a fixative.

colored pencil drawing of Ice Maiden by veronica winters-pencil pressure- colored pencil techniques
This colored pencil drawing was done on a white matboard with various pencil pressure to blend some areas and to create contrast. In the following closeups you can see 3 blending techniques used.
#1 I used white colored pencil and medium pencil pressure to lighten up the geometric shape. It also blended it.
#2 I used a very soft white colored pencil (Luminance or Prismacolor Premier or Pablo) to shade around the highlight leaving the highlight itself uncolored. If your colored pencil is hard this kind of blending is difficult and incomplete.
#3 I used soft, light grey colored pencil and a very heavy pencil pressure to blend the area shading with colored pencils.

I hope that this article helps you in your creative colored pencil drawing and you also find some new colored pencil drawing ideas. Controlling your pencil pressure shading with colored pencils is a must. So next time you draw, pay attention how you press on your colored pencils and observe what results you’re getting. If you’d like to learn more about colored pencil drawing, check out these art books or watch my free videos on YouTube. You may find your answers there. 🙂

colored pencil manual veronica winters how to color like an artist_coloring book_veronica winters
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Professional Drawing paper for Colored pencil drawings I use the most often…

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Posted in Art blog, Colored pencil techniquesTagged colored pencil, colored pencil demonstration, colored pencil drawing ideas, colored pencil drawings, colored pencil for drawing, colored pencil technique, colored pencil techniques, Photorealistic colored pencil drawing, shading with colored pencils

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