I don't care what anyone says, color is king. It makes
everything better--more appealing and lively. Oftentimes in an artist's drawing
practice, a sense of color takes a backseat to the black, white, and gray of
charcoal or graphite. But that doesn't necessarily have to be the way it is.
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Distortion(s) by Janie Gildow,
colored pencil and acrylic, 11 x 10.
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Colored pencil art is on the rise. Many artists want the
lushness of color and the precision of a drawing implement, and the ability to
mix the two with their painting practices as well. Using colored pencils is a
way to have all of this. In our new free eBook,
Colored Pencil Techniques from Artist Daily: Create Faster, Richer
Effects in Your Colored Pencil Drawings, artist Janie Gildow gives a
colored pencil tutorial based on her own artistic practices that shows just how
adaptable colored pencils can be.
Gildow typically starts with a colored pencil drawing
layered over watercolor washes. This allows the artist to have the all-over
color effects she wants without the time investment that going over every inch
of one's paper requires. She'll sometimes do the same thing with a ground layer
of pastel. Gildow has also explored working on black surfaces with wax-based
pencils to achieve an intense sense of color, which is ideal for when she wants
to draw reflective surfaces like droplets of water or refracted light on
crystal.
In Colored Pencil
Techniques from Artist Daily: Create Faster, Richer Effects in Your Colored
Pencil Drawings you will also find Gildow's "color predictor"--a color wheel
she created to help students produce tints, tones, shades, and color complements.
This helps save a lot of time when trying to figure out what happens when you combine colors in specific ways.
All in all, if you are looking to explore color and drawing
with a forgiving, adaptable, and portable medium, colored pencil art might be
what you are searching for. And Colored
Pencil Techniques from Artist Daily: Create Faster, Richer Effects in Your
Colored Pencil Drawings allows you to see what colored pencil art is
capable of, so you can discover if it is right for you. Download your copy now!
