Colored pencils are great used dark or light. In this tutorial we will concentrate on laying down light layers of colored pencils for a soft look.
(click to enlarge photos)
In the above example you can see the different effects you can achieve with light layers of colored pencils. The pink petal was made just one layer, and the two flanking it were achieved with two layers of color (I’ve shown you the colors used with the little “leaves” atop each petal). The petal on the far right has three layers of color.
In order for the layering to be effective, you will need to lay down your color with a light hand. (The little “hairs” on top of each leaf are the same colors, but applied heavily.)
For the base of the above flower I added a layer of light gray Copic marker. Here are the colors close up:
These are really INTERESTING oranges, greens and browns, with all the colors in there, right? (It’s similar to the effect some yarn has; it might look green from a distance, but when you get closer you can see there are bits of yellow and red strands mixed in.)
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Colored pencils are also nice as a layering tool because they are “textural.” It’s difficult to lay down a perfectly smooth layer of colored pencils. Because you can often see the pencil strokes, and the areas where you need to overlap a bit, it has a completely different look than watercolors or markers.
They also are great for adding feathery “hair” to your flowers:
Watercolors, markers, and colored pencils can be layered on top of each other in any order. Here I decided to add some blue watercolor:
Finally, you can add even more textured marks with markers. Here I used a pink permanent marker:
You can see that by adding just one layer of color the piece changes completely. Fun!
Shading
Once I’ve gotten the colors how I like them, I often add shading with a 2B pencil.
There are two things I think about when shading imaginary flowers (or creatures, or anything really). First, I imagine a light source, such as a sun, shining down on the object. So in my example below, I have decided that the light source is in the upper right hand corner. So everything “close” to the light will be brighter and everything far away from the light will be shaded.
The second thing I think about is the areas where things are overlapping or joined. So, for example, I’ve added shading on the top of the feathery hair/underneath the base, to the areas where the petals are joined with other elements, between the petals themselves, etc.
Note: This flower is definitely not realistically shaded, and looks “off.” But I kind of like it for that very “off-ness” — a good thing when it comes to imaginary flowers, I think! (It is a bit other-worldly, as if the normal rules don’t apply.)
Have fun!