Table Of ContentVeronica Winters
DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Mineola, New York
The following trademarked products are mentioned in this book. References to these trademarks have
not been licensed from or approved by the individual trademark holders.
Adobe® Photoshop®
Arches® Velin BFK Rives® Papers Arches® Watercolour Papers
Canson® Colorline Art Papers Caran d’Ache® Full Blender Pencils Caran d’Ache® Luminance®
Colored Pencils Caran d’Ache® Neocolor II® Water-Soluble Pencils Caran d’Ache® Pablo® Colored
Pencils Clairefontaine® Pastelmat®
Crescent RagMat® Matboard
Derwent Coloursoft Pencils
Faber-Castell® Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Pencils Faber-Castell® Artist Brush Pen Faber-Castell®
Kneaded Eraser Faber-Castell® Polychromos Colored Pencils Finesse™ Blender Pen for Colored
Pencils Gamblin® Gamsol™
General’s® All Art® Pencil Sharpener Grumbacher® Final Fixative
Icarus Drawing Board®
Koh-I-Noor® Black Drawing Pads Koh-I-Noor® Bristol Smooth Paper Pads Koh-I-Noor® Bristol
Vellum Paper Pads Koh-I-Noor® Polycolor Colored Pencils Koh-I-Noor® Woodless Colour Pencils
Legion Somerset® Printmaking Papers Legion Stonehenge® Paper and Drawing Paper Pads Lyra
Rembrandt Splender Blender
Molotow™ Acrylic Pen
Mylar® (Dupont Teijin Films) Film Sheet OttLite® Desk Lamp
PanPastel® Colorless Blender Premier Illustration markers
Prismacolor® Colorless Blender Pencils Prismacolor® Premier® Colored Pencils Prismacolor®
Premier® Markers Prismacolor® Scholar® Pencil Sharpener Prismacolor® Verithin® Colored Pencils
Prismacolor® Watercolor Pencils Sakura® Pen-touch™ Paint Markers Strathmore® Artagain®
Drawing Paper Strathmore® Bristol Vellum Paper Pads Strathmore® Paper and Drawing Paper Pads
Strathmore® Premium Paper
Turpenoid® Natural
Winsor & Newton Pigment Marker™ Pads Zest-it® Solvent (Citrus Free)
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by Veronica Winters
All rights reserved.
Bibliographical Note
The Colored Pencil Manual: Step-by-Step Instructions and Techniques is a new work, first published by
Dover Publications, Inc., in 2018.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Winters, Veronica, author.
Title: The colored pencil manual : step-by-step instructions and techniques / Veronica Winters.
Description: Mineola, New York : Dover Publications, Inc., 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018020456| ISBN 9780486822969 (paperback) | ISBN 0486822966
Subjects: LCSH: Colored pencil drawing—Technique. | BISAC: ART / Techniques Drawing. | ART
Techniques Color. | ART Techniques Pencil Drawing. | ART Techniques General. | ART Subjects &
Themes Portraits. | ART Subjects & Themes Plants & Animals. | ART Color Theory.
Classification: LCC NC892 .W555 2018 | DDC 741.2/4—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018020456
Manufactured in the United States by LSC Communications 82296601 2018
www.doverpublications.com
Contents
Introduction
Materials
Chapter 1: The Importance of Light and a Setup
Chapter 2: Composition and the Focal Point
Chapter 3: How to Turn the Form
Chapter 4: How to Create Volume
Chapter 5: How to Blend Colored Pencils
Chapter 6: Color Theory in Practice
Chapter 7: How to Draw Fabric
Chapter 8: How to Create Symmetrical Shapes
Chapter 9: How to Draw Metal, Reflective Surfaces, and Crystal
Chapter 10: How to Draw Textures
Troubleshooting
Introduction
This book is designed for beginners in colored pencil art but not for an
absolute beginner in drawing. You will need some understanding of
basic concepts and practice with drawing in pencil before switching to
color.
It is important that you have an open mind when reading the material,
and you should take it as a compass rather than a rule. This book
contains many art fundamentals that are applicable to any form of realist
art, whether it’s painting, drawing, acrylic, oil, pencil, or colored pencil.
This is a book that is hands on, in which you’ll see lots of condensed
information so that it is easy to follow. There are step-by-step
instructions demonstrating particular techniques, action steps for you to
apply what you have learned, sidebars, and helpful tips. I’d like to say
that I teach the approach to drawing, not painting by numbers, so you’ll
be learning to make decisions on your own in terms of color, as opposed
to just following the given colors.
This book is intended for those serious at mastering the medium.
Therefore, don’t skip through the beginning chapters, but take the time to
read the entire book first, absorb the information, and then start working
on your projects.
I hope this book serves as an inspirational guide for your creative
endeavors. I offer my sincere gratitude and salute you for accepting this
challenge. Let’s bring your art to the next level!
Artfully,
Veronica
Note: Students can download the outlines for the projects in this book
from:
www.veronicasart.com
Materials
PENCILS
There are numerous varieties of colored pencils available on the market. While
many sell as open stock, most sell in boxes and packages ranging from 24 to 132
colors. There is a very big difference in drawing quality between the generic
brands and artist-quality, professional colored pencils.
Generics are good for child-like sketching and for taking notes, but you won’t be
able to achieve the same beautiful results with them as other artists do working
with the professional brands, assuming all other variables are kept equal. Let’s
look at key features that contribute to the quality of a professional colored
pencil. These qualities are the lead’s durability, lightfastness, softness, and base.
In essence all colored pencils are wax-based, but some brands have a lot more
wax in them and they are categorized as “wax-based,” while the rest have
different percentages of wax in them and are usually referred to as “oil-based.”
While this separation seems confusing, these terms are mainly used to describe
the layering properties of the pencils. Soft, wax-based colored pencils adhere to
the paper’s tooth (the surface feel or texture) more than the “oil-based” colored
pencils, which leads to different blending techniques. Oil-based pencils behave
more like soft pastels, and artists often match the surfaces and tools applicable to
these pencils such as drawing on sanded papers and using the PanPastel
blenders. Besides the percentage of wax present in every pencil, colored pencils
also consist of binders, hardeners, fillers, and colorants, which all contribute to
color intensity.
Wax-based colored pencils with wax-based colorless blender
Brands: Caran d’Ache Luminance, Prismacolor Premier, Koh-I-Noor Woodless
Colour Pencils, Derwent Coloursoft, Prismacolor Colorless Blender, Caran
d’Ache Full Blender
Wax-based colored pencils offer superior coverage and easy application and
blending due to their softness. The disadvantages of such pencils include wax
bloom and a fairly easy breakdown of a pencil; also the core’s softness leads to
faster use of a pencil.
Oil-based colored pencils with oil-based colorless blender
Brands: Faber-Castell Polychromos, Caran d’Ache Pablo, Koh-I-Noor
Polycolor, Prismacolor Verithin, Lyra Splender Blender
