12 GENIUS DRAWING HACKS FOR COLORED PENCILS Video Lecture - Complete Drawing

so for this video I thought it'd be
really fun to go through some drawing
hacks with you guys and this one we're
gonna be going through colored pencil
drawing hacks we're gonna be going
through twelve
all of these hacks will help you get
even better results with your color
pencil drawings so let's get straight
into it with the first hack if you're
getting fed up with your color pencil
drones always looking really grainy the
colors not being vibrant enough and
seeing too much of the paper texture
show through then there's a really quick
and easy way that you can solve all
three of those problems and that is by
using a solvent and applying it with a
brush I typically like to use my filbert
brushes of different sizes for this and
my zested pencil blend but you can use
any solvent that you want gamsol paint
thinner anything like that works really
well and as you can see when you apply
it with a brush it just fuses all of
those colors together it gives a really
smooth look gets rid of all of the
graininess of that color pencil and it
really just smooths everything out and
makes the colors so much more vibrant I
love using this technique for loads of
my drawings particularly animal ones
because you can layer really well with
this technique and as you can see it
just gives it a really painterly look
and then you can go over the top with
more details now sometimes you may want
to use black but you might not have an
actual black pencil or you might want a
black that looks a bit more natural and
so you can go and make your own black
just by using a dark blue and a dark
brown and just layering those two colors
together as you can see I'm layering
dark blue first I'm using two
prismacolor pencils for this the indigo
blue and the dark brown and I just used
lots and lots of layers of the blue and
then the brown and then just keep
swapping and then I will go in with my
solvent and actually blend all of that
out and you can see that it starts to
become a really nice rich black tone now
let's move on to the third tank and this
hand is going to involve using tape and
I use scotch magic tape and the first
thing that I really like to use the tape
for is it's good at lifting off color
pencil which means that if you make any
mistakes and you want to lift up that
color pencil but you don't want to
damage the paper then you can go in with
your scotch magic tape and I like this
tape because it doesn't damage the paper
and as you can see with more
or you use the tape the more colored
pencil it lifts off the paper so what it
means is it's not as harsh as erasers
are on the paper which is great and it
just means that you can lift off that
colored pencil if you make a mistake and
then go in with more colored pencil and
fix it another thing that the tape is
really good for is adding little details
and textures so I've just added a patch
of colored pencil and I've laid a bit of
tape over the top and I've just got rid
of most of the tackiness by going over
with that tape on the back of my hand
and now I'm using a ballpoint pen just
to draw in a little pattern and it means
that it's indenting the actual paper I
just removed the tape and as you can see
when I go over the top with another
layer of color pencil the color pencil
doesn't go into where I created that
pattern now the next hack is really
useful for those of you that find that
you're constantly sharpening your color
pencils and you feel like they go blunt
really really easily so this is a really
easy tip that is gonna massively
prolong the sharpness of your pencil so
what I do is I rotate my pencil as I'm
shading every couple of seconds I rotate
the pencil and what this means is that
you're working on the pencil at an even
rate I'm also holding it on the side as
well not straight down vertically
otherwise you will blunt it a lot
quicker and just changing these couple
things holding it more sideways and
rotating the pencil as you can see
really really keeps that pencil a lot
sharper for longer now I'm sure we've
all accumulated a little collection of
tiny cute little pencils that are just
impossible to hold and you're not really
sure what to do with them but you don't
want to throw them away either it can be
really hard to control the pencil when
it's so small so what I really recommend
getting is a couple of pencil extenders
and these are really cheap I'll leave a
link in the description where you can
pick them up and as you can see you just
put the little pencil into that and now
you've got an extended amount of room to
hold the pencil and use it like normal
but some of my pencils don't really fit
into my pencil extender so what I do to
get around that if you feel like some of
your pencils just don't fit is I just
put a bit of tape at the end and it
makes it a lot more sturdy
quite often if you do a lot of heavy
shading or burnishing you can often get
a lot of these little bits a color
pencil all over your work and what you
really don't want to do is smudge that
by wiping them away as you can see it
makes your hands really dirty instead
what I like to use is a big fluffy brush
and you can use whatever brush you want
and just use this instead to wipe away
all of those little bits it's a lot
easier it creates a lot less mess on
your hands and it prevents smudging one
thing that can be really annoying is
when you notice that your pencil sketch
is showing through your color pencil
work so this happens if your sketch is
too dark you can see that when I'm
adding the color pencil over the top it
makes the pencil the graphite pencil
look even darker than it did when I've
just put it down somehow the colored
pencil seems to make it look even darker
but what I recommend is do your
sketching like normal as you can see I'm
not sketching super light but what I do
is I go in with a kneaded eraser and you
need to do this with a kneaded eraser
because I needed a razor lifts off the
graphite really evenly it doesn't
completely get rid of it which is
important because you still need to be
able to lightly see your sketch
underneath but it removes the top layer
of excess graphite so it doesn't show
through color pencil can be a really
slow medium to work in but sometimes you
might not have 50 hours available to
spend on a drawing you might want to do
a portrait but you just don't have time
to do it in color pencil well if you
still want to use curved pencil I
recommend is trying some toned paper
because why this is amazing is that
you've already got the mid-tone value
there so you just have to worry about
adding shadows and your highlights
whereas when you're using white paper
you have to build up all the mid-tone
values all of the shadows as well the
only things that you can use the white
paper for is the highlights which
there's very few of whereas when you use
the tone paper you've got the mid-tone
value or you can choose any color that
will suit what you need and this will
make it a lot faster sometimes you might
feel that no matter how hard you try and
shade really evenly you still get those
darker pencil strokes showing through
and it just doesn't look even well this
can be because of the way you are
holding your pencil instead of holding
it right at the front and
vertically try holding your pencil a bit
further back and shading on the side of
the pencil as you can see this makes it
a lot easier to get a area really smooth
because of the fats that you're not
applying as much pressure it's more of a
constant pressure and it just means that
you're gonna get much smoother shading
you might be drawing an animal piece and
want to preserve the whiskers and it can
be very time consuming manually trying
to draw around each of them what would
make it a lot easier is if you invest in
an exacto knife and use this to actually
etch in those whiskers or white hairs
before you go in with your colored
pencils this means that when you go over
the top with your colored pencils the
pencil can't get into the areas where
you've indented which means that they
are preserved and stay really white and
it just makes it so much easier also you
can do this by using a bit of tape I've
removed most of the stickiness and going
over the top with a ballpoint pen to
pretty much do the same thing to indent
it into the paper but with the ballpoint
pen you can actually see what you're
doing and what marks you're making so
that could be easier for you and also
easier if you don't want to use a knife
trying to fill in all of the white grain
of the paper can be really
time-consuming with colored pencils and
can drive you mad if you don't like
burnishing and applying a lot of
pressure to the pencil and so apart from
solvents a great way that you can fill
in the white of the paper is actually
using a different medium as well as your
colored pencils so you could use markers
which is great apply a base layer of
marker and then add the code pencils on
top you could use watercolor for your
base layer and do the pretty much the
same thing a base layer of watercolor
and then add your color pencil on top
add the shadows and the highlights or
you could even use pastels so smudge out
that as a base layer and then go over
the top with colored pencils as well and
use your initial layers like a mid-tone
value and then go in with the colored
pencils to establish the shadows and the
highlights and this can make it faster
and give you more vibrant results and
you don't have to worry about the white
grain and my last hack is all about
making lots of colors you might not be
able to afford the full set of color
pencils and you might only have a small
amount but that doesn't mean that you
can't get even more color
then for example the six colors that I'm
displaying here so if you have a small
amount of pencils create a color chart
start by mixing them two at a time and
then even mix three colors at a time and
you can make hundreds of different
colors just by mixing the different
colors together so those of you that
love your own realistically with color
pencils and want to focus on drawing
portraits then I have got a whole course
where you can learn all of my techniques
for creating photorealistic portraits in
color pencils so you can see how I pick
colors for my drawings how I draw facial
features how I draw hair how I draw skin
and lots more so I'll leave a link to
that in the description you can check
that out watch the course trailer and if
you want to get the course then you can
use the code SAVE 15 to get 15% off at
checkout anyway that's it for this video
but I do have tons more ideas for more
drawing hacks for colored pencils so if
you did enjoy this video then comment
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but that is it from me and I'll see you
guys in the next one bye guys