DO'S & DON'TS How To Draw a Face with Coloured Pencils - Realistic Drawing

hello everybody so I'm back with the
never do's and don'ts and this time
we're doing it for colored pencil I'm
gonna be going through the main mistakes
and things to avoid when drawing a face
in colored pencil if you want to do it
realistically if this is a bit too fast
for you then I have got the dew and the
joint version over on my patreon
completely in real-time with voiceover
so you can follow it along with me every
step of the way so I'll leave a link in
the description if you want to check
that out but let's get on first with the
don't drawing I'm gonna go through
things to avoid when drawing a face and
colored pencil like I said colored
pencils are a very tricky medium to work
in and so that's why I felt like I
needed to do a whole different video on
do's and don'ts specifically for colored
pencil because it's a lot different than
using graphite so I'm starting with the
eyes and I'm gonna list a few of the key
mistakes people make when drawing eyes
and firstly we're color pencils it is
using the black a bit too much so using
it for the creases in the eyelid to line
the iris and quite a lot in the skin
tone itself and so you don't need to use
black that much I'm gonna be talking
about some alternatives when I do the do
version so another thing is not using
enough colors with the iris not using
enough different colors to get the
shadows in and to get a realistic look
and also not doing enough of the
realistic pattern and the texture in the
iris also another mistake is not using
correct skin tone colors so not actually
using colors that work well together and
complement each other as you can see
with this don't version there's a lot of
different colors there's pink tones more
orangie tones and green tones and they
just don't gel well together with the
eyebrows a common mistake is not making
them look like they actually fit in with
the skin just drawing to like shapes and
coloring the hole of the eyebrow in and
not really thinking about how it works
with the skin also with the eyelashes
it's important not to just do them
really straight and not use blunt
pencils otherwise the kind of eyelash is
gonna like spiders legs and stuff like
that and finally another key mistake
with the eyes is not doing enough gray
shading on the white of the eyes so
moving on to the nose a few comes they
aren't too many is doing the nostrils to
circular and actually outlining the
sides of the nose and doing too much
heavy outlining and shading generally
for all of the features actually another
mistake is again when it comes to skin
tones not using those colors that gel
together I've used different skin tones
on the nose than I did around the eyes
and so a lot of people when coloring
different features and different areas
you use different skin tones so it
doesn't look like it works together and
transitions nicely between those
different areas moving on to the lips a
common mistake is again outlining a very
harsh line in the center of the actual
lips that center line and also around
the top of the lips and the bottom of
the lips another thing is to like do
your burnishing too early not do enough
layers and really press hard on that
pencil straightaway when it comes to the
creases on the lips you also don't want
to do them in lines that are going
straight down and make them look too
harsh
everything just looks very harsh very
early on now moving on to the skin when
it comes to the skin you don't want to
be doing messy pencil strokes you also
don't want to be doing really heavy kind
of pressing hard on your pencils early
on because it means that you're not
going to get a smooth outcome for your
skin and it's gonna be very hard to
blend out all of those messy pencil
strokes also you don't want to be using
blunt pencils throughout this whole
process you want to keep your pencils as
sharp as possible at all times otherwise
you're not gonna get into the white
crevices of the paper which means that
you're probably gonna get a very grainy
look unless you really press hard
pressing hard on the pencil means that
it's hard to add layers over the top so
at the moment what I'm doing is I'm
pressing really really hard on those
pencils straight away and when it comes
to adding the highlights because I've
added so much color pencil already to
the skin it's hard to get some bright
highlights showing up and so you don't
get much contrast and all of the values
are very similar you can't get those
really bright highlights to contrast
against those darker and mid-tone values
so it kind of just Falls a bit flat
another thing is again not using the
right colors for those shadow tones on
cheeks there were shadows but I've just
done them very messily and it doesn't
work well with the sin tones you can't
really tell what skin tone she's meant
to because I've got so many different
colors going on and if the mistake is
then when you're trying to refine
everything a bit more going out and
actually outlining everything too much
of a harsh outline around the jawline
isn't great and it won't start to make
it look more cartoony if you start to
outline everything and cartoony is a
great style but I'm talking about
realism here and for realism we don't
have outlines around our features moving
on to the hair and there's a few common
different ways that people draw hair
which won't give you the best outlook
one is just going very messy back and
forth trying to draw in every strand of
hair and using the black pencil quite a
lot and so I used the black pencil quite
a lot here and then I went over with a
brown okay and they're not the right
colors adding that tone onto the black
just gives quite a green look and not
the brown like it's a really chocolatey
Brown her hair and it just doesn't work
well I will actually attach a link to
the reference photo in the description
so you can have a look and try this out
if you want yourself another common
mistake is actually using the eraser to
pull up big clumps of highlights and
even though using a razor to pull up
little flyaway hairs is could be a good
thing you don't want to do it so harshly
and like I did where I've tried to erase
so much colored pencil that it actually
makes a little bits of the color pencil
stick to the paper it doesn't give a
really soft look another mistake is
outlining your clumps of hair and again
this is great if you want to go for that
cartoony style but if you're doing
realism you don't want to do harsh
outlines around every clump up an a
different way that you could be making
your hair look and realistic is using
the wrong colors so I used a very orange
e tone when it's more Brown and a very
unnatural looking bright yellow when
even though it's a bit blond it's not
bright luminous yellow for this skin and
on the shoulders and neck I'm just doing
the same sort of mistakes using the
wrong colors being too heavy straight
away using blunt pencil strokes using
britain pencils and all of that sort of
stuff and finally a common mistake with
the hair is doing fly
and little bit ahead on the outside but
making them to sort of hash too thick
and too short because they are way too
short for this hairstyle now quite often
I talk about this crafting knife
technique that I use and a common
mistake I find people make is they find
that they're tearing their paper and so
you don't want to be cutting into the
paper with your crafting knife you're
just using it to scrape away very
lightly the layers of colored pencil
you're not actually trying to put into
the paper so they are a few mistakes and
things to avoid but you'll see probably
better as I do this one what I mean and
the differences in the solutions you can
make so let's start off with the eyes
and I'm sure you can tell straight away
how much kind of slower I'm taking this
how much softer everything is I will be
building this this up in multiple layers
and I'm always keeping my pencils nice
and sharp all of the time I like to
build up the shadows first getting the
structure of each of the different parts
of the eye in the eyebrow as you can see
I've gotten a very light indication of
where the eyebrows are but I've not did
a really heavy sort of shape for them
I'm building up lots of shadows and lots
of colors in the iris I'm going around
and darken it and up the outside of the
iris not with black but with a darker
Brown and with the white of the eye I'm
actually using a lot more greys than I
did before a lot of the time the white
of the eye is very gray so you're going
to need to use different values of gray
within that white of the eye and you'll
notice as you build up more and more
skin tones around the eye it doesn't
actually look that dark when you put
gray in the white of the eye when you do
it this stage you might think all this
looks a bit too dark but when you get
everything else in you realise that it's
the perfect color another thing that I'm
doing is I'm also building up lots of
darker skin tones on the crease but I'm
not using necessarily just black I'm
using Browns as well as to make it look
a lot more natural and another thing
that you'll want to do is pay attention
to some highlights in the eyes and the
shapes of those highlights because that
is what is going to give your eye a
really glassy watery effect like it's
wet
shiny so I've really really spent time
picking what colors I wanted to use for
the skin tone I've got a whole kind of
tutorial series on patreon about how to
pick colors for skin tones but I've
really looked and studied the reference
photo before just going in with lots of
different colors and thoughts about what
colors I need to choose for each area to
make it all work kind of sync with each
other and transition nicely between the
different areas and it is really
important to make sure that you get
those colors accurate at the start so
you need to figure out what your
undertones for your skin is and the
colors and the hues and all of that sort
of stuff so another thing is when it
comes to the actual waterline and
everything like that when you do the
waterline the eye lashes are coming out
from the waterline so you need to have
that bit of skin between your eye and
the eyelashes now I'm moving on to the
eyebrow and you can see that instead of
just doing a shape I'm doing lots of
individual strands for the eyebrows and
that's really important to make it look
like hair growing out the skin it's not
just a uniform two-block shape on top of
the skin they are hairs growing out of
the skin so I'm looking at the direction
of the eyebrow hairs and also how they
kind of clump together where they're
more dense and I'm just building it up
with browns I also use that crafting
knife just to pull up some little
highlighted areas and they are nowhere
near as dramatic and harsh as the other
eyebrows were they're really soft and
they just look and work well with the
skin they aren't in-your-face they're
not really dark and they are a lot more
natural-looking so this portrait took me
nine hours whereas the other one it took
50 minutes so a big thing to making your
drawings better especially with color
pencils is really taking your time and
actually spending the time to build up
the layers of colors because you need to
use a lot of colors for your portraits
otherwise it won't look realistic you'll
be able to tell that it's rushed because
if you have lots of colors then it adds
a lot more depth and realism to your
work so I'm just building up some of the
shadows around the eyes that because
she's got hair covering like over the
top of some of her skin you there are
some shadow
that are cast onto the face so I'm just
looking at their shadows and building up
the appropriate sort of shadow tones and
when I did the eyelashes I curved them I
made sure my pencil was really sharp so
they're nice and thin and not too clumpy
now moving on to the nose when I did the
nostrils you can see I'm not doing lots
of circles and I didn't do them really
dark straightaway I like to build up to
those shadowed areas and I'm just using
some my shadow tones that I've selected
which I also use for the shadow tones
around the eyes just to get in the
general structure of the nose I really
like to build up the colors in layers
working very lightly at the start and
then building up to those darker areas
if I need to I really don't like to go
in really really dark straightaway
because I feel like when you do it this
way you are more in control of it
there's less room for error
because if you burnish straight away
with a really dark pencil then we kind
of pencil is really hard to kind of
reverse that and still manage to get a
smooth tone what I do when I blend is I
lay the initial layers down in a certain
direction so maybe vertically and then
when I go and burnish and blend it out I
actually blend in the opposite direction
to help a kind of blend and soften out
those initial pencil strokes you can get
really really soft blending if you apply
your layers really lightly and don't let
kind do that messy back-and-forth pencil
strokes motion because when you plot
apply a lot of pressure to your pencil
you will get those stubborn pencil
strokes that are burnished into the
paper and are really hard to kind of get
out moving on to the mouth I have done a
darker centerline but as you can see
it's not straight it's going with the
kind of curves and folds of the lips and
I'm building up more and more shadows on
the lips than I did last time
I haven't outlined everywhere it's all
very soft but I am using some shadow
tones to build up the different kind of
forms of the mouth I want it to look
free dimensional and full and so again I
choose ice pick colors that worked well
with the lips I did a lot of research
when I was picking my colors from my
color chart as to what would give a most
natural result I didn't just pick up the
first colors that
scene that were like pink and brown and
also I did some highlights that worked
well with the lips they worked there
wasn't that much texture but when there
was I've made sure that it looks soft I
haven't done lots of really straight
lines for the lips where the cracks are
because her lips will quite smooth there
were some folds in the top lips and as
you can see I've got that texture and
those details in without it looking
really harsh and really rough and
everything looks very soft I also built
up some skin around the mouth and
another thing that you want to try and
do is if your lips look natural if they
haven't got lots of makeup on you want
to make sure that they ease into the
skin around them very softly there isn't
really a harsh line between the lips and
the skin around it so really really try
to actually ease some of those colors
into each other so it looks really nice
and soft there is also quite quite often
there's a shadow underneath the bottom
lip as well so I try to get in that
shadow and if you want to create some
more little textures then again you can
go in with that craft a knife and just
use that to add some extra details there
is also a kind of highlight just above
the top lip on the Cupid's bow and
there's a bit of a highlight surrounding
the top lip and a bit of the bottom lip
as well but don't go too overboard with
that otherwise it will look very sort of
harsh and kind of artificial and now we
are moving on to the skin this is
probably one of my favourite things to
draw is filling the skin because at the
moment it looks very strange and it can
look very sort of rough until you get in
all of that skin and it really comes
together so when you're drawing a lot of
skin it can be tempting to rush through
it and just going very messily but you
really do need to spend the time getting
this smooth because it's really obvious
if you do your skin kind of messy it
kind of really detracts from the whole
portrait so really try and spend the
time focusing on getting these smooth
layers as you can see when I wanted to
get a highlighted area I didn't fully
burnish in that area what I did was I
applied a little bit of the other
colours that I needed there so I laid a
bit of that skin tone in that area but
not as much as the other
shadowed areas so that when I added the
highlighted color there is still a lot
of room and two of the paper for it to
grip onto that highlighted color so you
get a much brighter highlight so I'm
just kind of doing the same thing with
all of this skin on the right side of
her face it was more shadowed so you
kind of need to notice where it's more
shadowed when it's where it's more
highlighted so you can pick the colors
accordingly and decide where it needs to
be more shadowed so the skin on her face
roughly took me about an hour and a half
to do - about an hour and 45 minutes so
just take a while but it's really worth
spending that extra time especially
building up the layers because it is it
does take a lot more time to try and
reverse any mistakes you make then if
you just do it right and slowly at the
start and really take your time with it
if you feel like it takes too long then
color pencil might not be the medium for
you it is a very slow and there's a very
slow medium to work with and you do need
a lot of patience to use colored pencils
whereas if you want to do stuff quickly
there are much better alternatives for
doing portraits realistically but in a
quicker time period so now I'm just
again adding the highlights where I need
to and I can because I haven't fully
burnished in those areas and another
thing is if you have done and blended
out your skin tone but you need to maybe
add say a bit more pink to the cheeks to
add a bit of a glow you can glaze the
colors over the top of this to add those
subtle kind of different color tones and
skin tones but why I recommend is using
the side of your pencil so that you
don't interrupt all of the perfect soft
blending that you've already done so
that it doesn't kind of pull up that
different layers of color that you've
already put down and it keeps everything
still smooth quite often when I'm
layering my first initial layers to
avoid putting a lot of pressure onto the
pencil I will hold the pencil quite far
back and use the side of the pencil to
shade so that I'm not getting random
pencil strokes that are a bit more
stubborn and have a bit more pressure it
helps
keep an even pressure across the whole
of the pencil and prevents you getting
those stubborn pencil strokes so that
you can blend out very smoothly to get a
really polished look because the
forehead didn't have that much shine on
it I didn't need to kind of preserve
many areas for highlight it was okay to
just go over those areas with the buff
titanium all the white that I had and
actually just blend over the top of that
so also all of the materials that I am
using for this are linked in the
description with links to where you can
buy them if you want to try them out and
also keep in mind that this works for
like lots of other color pencils you
don't just have to use the one that I'm
using the ones that I'm using which is
the Karen - luminance you know this
works for any colored pencils it works
better for the softer colored pencils
like prismacolor and Karen - but it will
work for other colored pencils and these
tips and things that I'm telling you
apply to everything with colors so
moving on to the hair and as you can see
very quickly I'm just doing this very
slowly and lightly that's the same kind
of thing that you'll see throughout the
whole of the portrait slow and steady is
the key and building up in light layers
is also so important I'm using brown a
lot rather than the black I will use the
black a little bit for the darker
shadows as you can see now because the
top of the hair was quite dark and so
you can use back if you need to but I
also recommend layering of the colors
over the top of it so that it isn't just
black so that you're adding other values
over the top to make it look a little
bit more natural but what I did was I
looked at the hair in terms of clumps
and forms and I looked at where there
was more shadows and so I layered more
black in those areas and basically what
I'm doing is I'm adding a lot of the
detail with this crafting knife and the
crafting knife can be so useful for
getting these little details but you
have to try and make sure that you're
going gentle on this knife you're not
trying to really scrape or dig into the
paper otherwise you will rip it so make
sure you don't go straight into a
portrait using this tool make sure you
practice a lot with it first rather than
and just
going straight in on your masterpiece
within but it is such a good tool to use
and I've seen a lot of people use it and
get very nice results with it so it's
definitely worth testing out because it
is quite a cheap tool as well and
there's a thing that you want to make
sure you're doing is making the hair
look natural as it comes from the middle
parting so you don't want it to just all
come from the same point you need to
integrate those hairs into the middle
parting so it looks very natural that
the hair is growing out to that area and
also in the dope version the hair looks
very much like a wig there wasn't much
shadow for the hairline or a few little
stray hairs going off into the skin and
so for this one I've made it look a lot
more natural by actually adding some
loose hairs going down into the face and
over the face and adding a lot more
shadow for that hairline and it's those
subtle little details that is gonna make
it look a lot more realistic so I'm
going to repeat the same process for the
bottom of the hair but the bottom of the
hair was a lot lighter it was a bit
blonder at the top of the hair it was
darker and then as we got towards the
bottom it became lighter and lighter so
what I did was I used mostly the brown
for the darker shadows rather than the
black because again the hair was lighter
at the bottom but then I used other
colors like the raw numbers which made a
really great shadow tone for this brown
hair and also the brown ochres and the
brown okay
temp scent and a bit of the burnt okay
but it doesn't matter what colors you're
using you need to just use your color
chart to pick those colors the key thing
is to build it up slowly and look at the
hair in terms of clumps and as you can
see from layering and layering the more
you layer the smoother it gets and then
again I just went and I made those
clumps not look so uniformed by using
the knife to pull up all of those Flyway
hairs make some hairs that go over and
expand across those different clumps of
hairs and so it is important to add
those little details like the Flyway
hairs to break up those clumps but it's
also important not to try and draw in
every single strand of hair so now when
I'm adding the Flyway hairs around the
outside I'll use an eraser to actually
lighten quite a lot of them up and
and make sure that they're really subtle
but overall here was the final date
version is very messy also one thing I
forgot to mention is don't use your hand
to actually rub away the color pencil
otherwise you can get those little bits
sticking to it and this is the D version
I really hope you enjoyed that let me
know what you thought of it and what you
learnt so like I said as well as this
tutorial I have got loads of other
tutorials on my patreon whether that's a
graphite color pencil whether that's
portraits like this realistically and
features or whether that's actually
animals using markers solvent color
pencil graphite make sure you check that
out there is a little link at the end
here and in the description before need
to my channel make sure you hit that
subscribe button and I'll see you in the
next video bye everybody