Color Pencil Drawings

Color Pencil Drawings N K Srinivasan I started exploring color pencil as a medium just 5 years ago…it has been an interesting and tricky journey. I got a box of 25 pencils of Prismacolor …I tried my hand at portraits of babies and small children and a few landscapes… I also tried painting with color pencils using photographs –a technique suggested by several masters in this medium… I liked and was indeed inspired by the works of the masterartist Ann Kulberg…I liked her books and also books by a couple of other authors…I checked out several books by early pioneers like Bet Borgeson from Sunnyvale Public Library,CA…a well stocked shelf of art books there.…. Soon my interest in color pencil work was worn out..I found the medium tedious, terribly slow and also literally painful--I found my hand, fingers and shoulders aching…may be I overworked or my technique was wrong…I have been ‘painting’ only small ones…never bigger pictures than 9in by 12 in…I decided to stop work with this medium---went back to my favorite media like water-color and acrylic…. During last year I came back to color pencils with a new perspective….Color pencil drawings and sketches could be great and less tedious and painful to produce…I got a few sketching instruction books to spur me on this path. Meanwhile I acquired several high quality brands of color pencils ---Faber-castell Polychromos, Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor, Steadtler and Caran-d’Ache ….I also got watercolor pencils ----Derwent and Lyra-Aquarell…..I was weaning away from Prismacolor ones for several reasons…I found Prisma to be more waxy, thread breaking easily and even the leads not centred properly in some pencils. [About the same time,I was also trying my hand with oil pastels---a

greatly neglected medium…see my article in pdfcoke.com on this.] My trails with water-color pencils were far from satisfactory. I felt the colors on the paper or support were thin---may be alright for some landscape work. Then I started exploring color-pencil medium for drawings and sketches only….I feel that it is in this area that color pencils can make work interesting---less painful or tiring--a powerful medium. You can use color pencils for outlining, accenting and above all –for shading. Hatching and cross –hatching with color pencils can have dramatic effect on any picture..I also combine this with simple graphite pencils , HB and 2B grades. By the way, what is the difference between painting and drawing in the context of color pencil work ?...in simple terms, painting involves short strokes, while in drawing you can make long strokes…In painting ,you will use very light pressure and several layers; in drawing you can apply some pressure ,have strong lines and a few layers[2 or 3 to blend different colors….Another point, painting involves sharp pencil point; in drawings, not necessarily sharp points always. I took out some graphite pencil drawings, erased the shading and added color with color pencils. I also made strong outlines with bright colors…. Well, these are not new techniques----art illustrators, especially those doing children books ,have been doing this for decades……But now you have better color pencils, more range of colors and less waxy medium…..and more techniques from experienced artists…

I pulled out my old boxes of these pencils and tried my hand…it was like meeting old friends after some years. I am not discounting the use of color pencils for paintings— especially portraits…I admire the works of Ann Kullberg and those of Lee Hammond with her use of photographs….But the medium is nevertheless tiring and time-consuming….. I would recommend color pencils for drawing and sketching more often…then the techniques used have to be different… You can use strong pressures, not dozens of layers over one another and also use sides of pencils to shade or blend…. You can blend colors in any drawing…making the lines soft and creating subtle shades/hues not attained easily by color pencils….. Why not try color pencils with children art work…there are many sets of these pencils in scholastic/student grades at fraction of the cost compared to the artist quality materials I mentioned earlier. Coming to ‘subjects’ for such drawings –apart from still life drawings with bowls of fruit or pot and pans…explore drawing birds of different combination of colors and wild animals and ,of course, pet animals……..this can be exciting lesson for any school student….the pleasure you get when you draw your favorite bird of great plumage is immense… Children love doing this for several hours…this ,perhaps , is the domain of color pencils for class use….not just serious portraits. ---------------------xxxxxxxx----------------------------