Basic Colored Pencil Techniques for Beginners: Master Smooth Blending in Realistic Drawings

1. Introduction: In this colored pencil drawing, notice how the colors flow effortlessly from one to the next, creating these incredibly smooth transitions from sunny yellows to fiery oranges, rich reds, and then again back to orange. Hi, I'm Smitha, and in this class, the third in our series exploring basic colored pencil techniques, we are diving into the art of seamless blending. In this class, I will give you a step by step demonstration of this chilly drawing and explain the techniques that will help you achieve flawless blends and bring your colored pencil drawings to life. The first class, we learned layering, blending and burnishing techniques, and created the smooth gradient. In the second class, we learned how to add depth and dimensions to our drawings to make them look three dimensional. While this class builds upon some fundamental concepts from my previous classes, you absolutely don't need to have watched them to follow along and succeed here. We'll cover everything you need to know to achieve such smooth transitions. The best part, you only need a few colored pencils to complete this class project. All right then, sharpen those tips and join me in the short class. 2. Materials, Reference Photo, Color Chart: I have used this Bristol Smooth white surface from Stratmo and the prisma color premier colored pencils throughout this class. You can use any other brand of colored pencils and a paper that is suitable for the same. This is the reference photo, and we'll be drawing this orange red chili on the top right. Let me break down the photo so that it's easy to identify the colors. Please pause the video and observe. I prefer making a quick rough sketch before deciding on the color palette. You can use this chart as a guide and pick similar colors. I have mentioned some colors as optional. I will explain the same in the next lesson. Meanwhile, please download the materials list, reference photo, and color chart from the projects and resources section. Once you are ready, let's get started. 3. Chilli Drawing: Let's start with a simple line drawing. I hope you have the reference photo on your device now. You will need to observe it throughout the drawing process. Try to keep the outline faint to avoid any harsh graphite marks while coloring. Start with the lightest color that is golden yellow. I have used the shade called Sunburst yellow here. You can also use a primary yellow. With a sharp tip, start shading along the shape of the chili with very light pressure. To achieve that, hold the pencil further up like this at an angle. Use circular motion while shading. Cover the entire object, except those areas where you see white highlights. Next, add a layer of light orange on top of yellow, again with light pressure. Now, we have a nice base layer with a light tones. Time to add mid tones and dark tones wherever necessary. Skip a small section at the top and start shading with an orange from here till the end. Please observe this image where I have broken down the reference photo and mentioned the different colours. Add a layer of red, starting from here with light pressure. Towards the tip of the chili, you don't have to add red as it is quite orangish in the reference photo. We need a transition from red to orange here. I have used the shade called poppy red, which is more like an orangish red. So to darken this red, I will use a crimson red at certain areas. You can just use the same red as before and slightly increase the pressure to get a darker tone. That's why I have mentioned this shade as optional in the color chart. Now, we have all the colors in place. Let's repeat the same steps and add a second layer, but this time, slightly increase the pressure. In order to do that, hold the pencil a bit lower than before. Remember to use circular motion and also overlap adjacent colors. I hope you're able to follow along so far. I have kept most of the sections in real time, and only the repetitive ones are slightly sped up. But if you feel stuck somewhere or if you have any questions, please post them in the discussion section of this class, and I will try my best to help you out. And et's move on to the third layer. Use medium pressure now. Pull the pencil closer to the tip to achieve this. Observe the reference photo and start adding details. You need to use your judgment here. If you feel the color transitions look abrupt, then layer two adjacent colors on top of each other until it looks smooth enough. Before moving to the reds below, I decided to add a fourth layer with yellows and oranges and complete this section first. You can increase the pressure to maximum if you feel this would be your last layer. Here, at this fold, we have a dark tone. You can use a red along with an orange to deepen it. If you feel the white of the paper is still visible, you can add another layer if your paper is able to withstand it. I have not done any burnishing here as the colours blended in beautifully on their own, just by layering. I'm using a white pencil to intensify the highlights and to blend in the highlight area into the oranges and reds. We don't want the highlight to look abrupt. If you have accidentally covered the highlight area, you can use a battery operated eraser or a white gelpen to get some highlights. This is optional. I'm just showing you the technique that I use sometimes with a battery operated eraser to lift off some pigment. So this is the white gelpen for the shadow, use a gray pencil. You can darken the shadow a bit with a darker gray where it touches the object that is the chili. If you have just 1 gray pencil with you, then use it again with a heavy pressure to get a darker tone. That's why I have mentioned the darker gray as optional in the colour chart. We are almost done. Let's colour the stock and see how the drawing turns out in the next lesson. 4. Finishing Touches: For the stock, add a base layer with a light green and the details and Daca tones with a dark green. Repeat this for a couple of layers. Just like before, start with light pressure and then slowly increase the pressure as you build up the layers. Optionally, if you want to intensify the dark green, use it along with an indigo blue. This is how the drawing turned out. I'm excited to see your version. Please upload your drawing in the projects and resources section. If you have enjoyed this class, please consider leaving a review. That's all for now. Thank you for your time and see you soon.