Using Coloured Pencils

Hi there, it's Vicky here with a tutorial on how to get the best effects when colouring stamps with coloured pencils.

I am a professional coloured pencil artist, with over 20 years experience (yikes - showing my age now!!) So when it come to choosing coloured pencils, I've tried them all!!  My pencils of choice are Faber Castell "Polychromos" and Derwent, both the "Artists" and "Studio" range.  These are all oil based and they keep their colour for years, I've even hung portraits in direct sunlight and had very little fading!

The most important thing to remember when using pencils is to KEEP THEM SHARP. 

I have stamped this cute image "Water Lili" on heavyweight cartridge paper, cartridge paper will take up the pencil much easier than smooth card.

I then start with folds in the dress, using Polychromos PURPLE and DARK RED very lightly...

I then lightly went over with ROSE CARMINE again very lightly... 

Sorry a bit of jump now!!  I got so carried away colouring I forgot to take pics :-(  But you can see how I darkened the folds with the DARK RED and PURPLE, building the colour up gradually. The lighter areas are shaded with ROSE CARMINE and finally blended with WHITE.

You can see I have started on the hat, again with the PURPLE and DARK RED.  I have darkened the areas closer to her head, and behind the upturned brim.

This time I remembered to take photos, so you can see how it gradually darkens.  I have gone over the shadowed areas with the ROSE CARMINE and then built up depth with the PURPLE and  DARK RED.

I lightly shaded the rest of the hat with the ROSE CARMINE, leaving small areas white for highlights, these were then blended with WHITE.

I also coloured her lips with ROSE CARMINE.  Now I move onto her hair.  I used BURNT UMBER for the darkest areas, I like to make the area under the hat and the tips of the hair the darkest.

The lighter shade is BROWN OCHRE which is blended with the darker shade.

I continue this for the rest of the hair, leaving white for the highlights.  I used the same colours for the eyes, darker in the corners, and leaving a white highlight.

For the hatband, bow and bottom of the dress I used CHROME GREEN OPAQUE (darker) and EARTH GREEN YELLOWISH.  The skin is VENETIAN RED, CINNAMON and MEDIUM FLESH. All of the colouring is done in exactly the same way, starting with shadow, darker areas and building up the colour gradually.  Her cheeks are shaded with ROSE CARMINE very lightly.

So there she is finished!!  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and it has inspired you to get your coloured pencils out.

Come back here again soon for some more Inky Imspiration!!