How to Make Colored Pencil Drawings Look Real TUTORIAL

Creating a lifelike portrait is a challenge no thing the medium. From drawing to painting, techniques vary, but the results tin can be amazing.

One technique is to use colored pencils to create a result that looks equally complex as a painting. In this tutorial I will be showing you my own technique for how to draw a portrait with colored pencils.

Each of us develop our own gear up of techniques made up of bits and pieces that we adopt from tutorials similar this one, books, classes and, most importantly, exercise. This is not necessarily the right style and it'southward non wrong either, it's only the procedure I take found I'm most comfortable with and delivers the results I'yard afterwards. In art at that place'south no right or wrong way of doing things, there are only certain guidelines that help steer usa in the dissimilar directions we'd similar to go and, in turn, help us brand upwardly our own rules as we go along. Have what's most useful for you from this guide and leave out what does not adapt your preferred techniques and methods.

I will be using Faber Castel Polychromos, but please don't feel like you need to go buy these same pencils in order to pigment a portrait. Yep, they are very skillful quality, definitely some of the best effectually, but they are certainly not a prerequisite for creating this effect. Feel free to apply any brand you like or already own. I will be mentioning, throughout this post, the names of some of the Faber Castell colors I'k using and then that yous tin can await them up online and find similar matches in your favorite brands.

Let's get started painting with colored pencils!

First things beginning, nosotros have to draw the basic sketch for our portrait. I cannot stress plenty how of import this step is. This stride will define the whole event of your painting, so you want to have your time and advisedly depict a close resemblance to the face yous are cartoon. This takes some time and plenty of practise, and so don't feel discouraged if you don't recall information technology's correct at first.

Something that can assist you get familiar with the face up you are cartoon is creating some preliminary sketches on a different piece of paper. This volition allow your heed to get into an observational mode and focus its attention on looking at the detail face you are drawing. Getting to know its lines, curves and shadows volition certainly help to reach closer likeness.

Describe the basic lines with a medium flesh-colored pencil. I wouldn't recommend using graphite pencils because the lines will prove through later on when you apply layers of color over information technology. Drawing with a colored pencil will allow you lot to blend the lines into the remainder of the colors.

Paint the optics

Once the basic outline of the confront is fatigued, we tin can start laying down the commencement layers of color. Keep in mind that these layers volition be very faint and we will build upward the colour every bit we go along. Here I am using the colors medium flesh, Van Dyck dark-brown and burnt sienna.

Afterwards that showtime faint layer of colour, nosotros will continue to pile on layers of color to increment the intensity of the colors. Here I keep adding shadows, refining the eyes, calculation depth to their deep blue color and I beginning to paint her cerise eyeshadow.

Paint the peak and bottom lashes with black and brown pencils. Sharpen well your pencils kickoff then that you become thin and tapered lashes.

Paint the peel

Slowly begin to branch out away from the eyes, painting the surface area under the eye and some of the darker shadows effectually the nose. I stick to the colors I used above and start to comprise some red for the cheek and burnt ocher throughout all of the skin to residuum out some of the pink from the medium flesh and cinnamon-colored pencils.

When you have reached this corporeality of definition throughout the whole face, you can bring in some heaven blueish and cream (the yellowish pencil you see in a higher place) colors to accentuate the lighting furnishings. Add cream throughout the lightest areas and blend it in with the light flesh and medium flesh colors. Utilise some of the sky blue in the areas of lite shadow, like under the lower lip and on the right side of the nose of the portrait below.

At this bespeak you take managed to ascertain the main planes and colors of the face and so it'due south pretty much smooth sailing for the rest of the pare. You just demand to keep building upwardly the layers in the darkest areas and finish off by pressing down harder with some of the lighter mankind colors to alloy every layer of colour together.

Paint the eyebrows

Using a lite yellow ocher pencil I drew in some of the eyebrow hairs and, with Van Dyck chocolate-brown, I painted some of the darker hairs and shadows to add depth.

Paint the ears

Here you can see the step-by-step layering process I mentioned above for shading peel. We fist begin past painting the master dark areas of the ear with a dark brownish pencil. As usual, lay downwards this color in soft strokes and don't press downwards with the pencil as well hard. You desire these shadows to remain faint, a mere guide for later.

Next, select your mid-tone — medium mankind in this case. Paint over the areas we have shaded equally well as the lighter areas without applying too much pressure.

Go over it with some emphasis tones like xanthous ocher and orange glaze. Depending on the lighting and skin tone, these could be blues, greens or, like you tin can encounter above, orangish. Then catch your shadow color again and go over the darkest areas a 2nd time to accentuate some of the shadows.

Finally, get over the whole surface area with your lightest color, in this case light mankind, and blend out all the layers by painting in circular motions and pressing downwardly harder than y'all did in the previous layers.

Paint the hair

For the pilus, we will start by cartoon over the flesh-colored outline with a darker color, Van Dyck brown.

Utilize the aforementioned colour for the shadows.

At this signal, I brought into the mix the following colors to paint blonde hair: nougat, head mortuum violet, light xanthous ocher and cream. Here, instead of painting in round motion every bit we did above, you want to pigment with directly and curvy lines following the natural direction of the hair so as to give it some realism.

Keep painting the hair and building up colour through layers. Hither I started using cold grey IV to pigment some of the mid-tones and shadows on the hair but it depends very much on the specific hair you lot are drawing.

I moved on to the lips later. Hither, I used the flesh colors I applied to the pare along with madder and fuchsia to give them a rosy hue.

That's just the tip of the iceberg! Learn more about drawing portraits with colored pencil in Craftsy's's Radiant Portraits in Colored Pencil course.

What would you like create using this technique?

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How to Make Colored Pencil Drawings Look Real TUTORIAL

Posted by: michaellawaseneved.blogspot.com