Transcripts
1. Introduction: I absolutely love
creating themed drawings. But I don't think
I've ever really done anything specifically for
Valentine's Day before. Let's focus today on making a really fun Valentine's
Day drawing, which, as always, will be
an amazing exercise in building up colored pencils. My name's Jema Chambers, and I've been making online
art tutorials since 2020. I've helped tens of thousands of people improve their art, and today I want to do
something fun and specific. Let's create a
Valentine's drawing. Now, I will talk you through all of the materials
that you'll need, and then we can get started
with creating this piece. I'll show you how
to build up all of the colors and specifically
what I'm seeing. My goal is to break this down
into bite size pieces so it doesn't feel as big and
overwhelming. Let's get started.
2. Class Project - Drawing a Valentines Day Present: Now the class project
for this course is a Valentine's Day
themed present drawing. And I'll be doing this
using colored pencils. Now I will talk
you through all of the materials that you'll
need to create this drawing. But I've also listed
in the class resources all of the specific
colors that I'm using. I've also included
the reference photo that I will be drawing
from and sketch outlines. If you don't want to create your own, you can always use mine. Now, once you've
finished your drawing, please do upload it into
the class projects. I would love to see
what you've done. Let's talk about the
materials that you'll need.
3. Materials You'll Need for Drawing with Coloured Pencils: Now let's go through
the materials you'll need to
create this drawing. And the most obvious
thing you'll need is a set of colored pencils. Now, to draw this, I
am using prisma color. I'm using pencils
from the set of 72. You don't need to use exactly
the same pencils as I am. I do find using a slightly
bigger set easier, though, particularly
with selecting colors. I would recommend using
at least a set of 36. Now, if you're not using the
exact same colors as I am, I have included in the class
resources color swatches so you can find the closest matches to the colors I'm using in your. Next thing that you
will need is paper. But we need a specific
type of paper that we will be able to build up all
of the colored pencils on. So I like to use something
called bristol board, which is a very
smooth, thick paper. You don't want to use something like printer paper
or sketch paper, we won't be able to build up
the same amount of color. You'll also need a
pencil sharpener. It's so important to have a nice and sharp pencil
throughout the drawing. It doesn't need to be a super
fancy pencil sharpener, as I say, as long as you
can get that sharp point. I also find it's very helpful to have something
called color swatches. So this isn't actually
something you can buy. This is something
you'll need to make. What I do is take every color within my set of pencils and go from as light as I
can to as dark as I can for each color
and then label it. This shows me what the pencil actually looks
like on the paper. It's very hard to know
what it's going to look like going just from the lead or the
barrel of the pencil. The final thing you'll need is some way of looking at
the reference photo. We will be drawing
this from a reference. We need to focus on what we
can see within the drawing. Now, I like to use
my iPad for this. I particularly like that I can zoom in to see all
of the details. But you don't need an iPad. You could always print
out the reference photo. So those are the key
materials that you will need. Let's talk about
creating this sketch.
4. Creating the Sketch Outlines: Before I start creating any
drawing with colored pencils, the first thing I need
to do is make a sketch. I want to get all
of the key shapes and proportions mapped in. Now, as I mentioned earlier, if you want to use
my sketch outlines, they are in the class resources. I include a heavy lined sketch outline in
case you want to trace it and also much lighter lines if you want to print it
directly onto your paper. Create my sketches, I like to use something called
the grid method. This is where I
map out a grid on my drawing paper and a grid
on my reference photo, and I just draw what's in
each individual square. This essentially means
I'm drawing a series of shapes rather than
drawing an orange, for example, and stops me from assuming where
lines should go. Once I've mapped everything in, I then erase the lines so
that I'm left with my sketch. Now, in actuality, I would do this so much lighter than
what I've done here. I've had to do it harder so
it shows up on the camera. You want to go through
the grid method in a lot more detail, I have included a link to my beginner class in
the class description. So once we've got
some really nice and light sketch lines
down on the paper, we're nearly at the point we
can start adding some color. But first, let's take a look
at the reference photo.
5. Studying the Reference Photo: Before I start any drawing, I always like to have a really good look at
the reference photo. I want to look at the
main colors and shapes. So let's take a minute
to do that now, and I'll show you what I
mean and what I'm noticing. And first, probably
the most striking part of this present is the bow. Now, the bow is made up of
a lot of different colors. It has a lot of patches of light and some very,
very dark patches. So we've got light
strips all along here. I would say that
these light strips, they are kind of a quite
light pink, really. We've got quite a
lot of mid tones like around the
bottom around here. We've got some much darker areas like these odd lines
running through here. And this is because this
ribbon is so reflective. Now, the ribbon is obviously
extremely textured. It's got all of
these bumps on it. I'm actually not going to draw those bumps for a
couple of reasons, but the most important reason is that I I think it will look a bit odd when you're looking
at the drawing from kind of a normal viewing distance if I try and put all of these in. I also think because
they're in a very sort of perfect layout, they're obviously machine made. I'm not going to be
able to get it to look as perfect as this, and I think it'll end
up looking a little bit odd and maybe rubbish if
I try and draw them in. So we're going to
draw this as smooth, look at the colors that are here and focus on
building up all of the shapes that are within
this very reflective rib. Say, on the ribbon, there's not any particularly
surprising colors that I'm noticing right now
is generally pink, bright red, darker red, and a pretty dark brown that I can see color wise in here. Now, looking at the
rest of the present, this is obviously some
white wrapping paper with hearts and the
word love on it. As usual, when we're
drawing something white, I think it's important
to bear in mind that it's not really white. In actuality, the
wrapping paper here, I would say is a very cool gray. It's kind of got a
bluish tone to it. When we look around the edge, like around here, for example, it's got where the
wrapping paper is bending around the
edge of the present. It's got a slightly darker
edge, a darker gray. So we're going to need
to draw that in as well. In terms of the words that's
on the wrapping paper, although it's printed,
it's not in perfect print. It's kind of a
handwriting style. So that's going to make
this much, much easier. We don't necessarily
need to absolutely perfectly the same because it is meant to look
like handwriting. I think it would be much
harder if this was printed. The same with the hearts, we're going to
need to draw them, building up all of the
shapes that we can see here. But if we get something
a little bit wrong, it's not going to be terrible because it's kind of meant
to look like a scribble. It's meant to look handmade. So those are the
main things that I'm noticing initially.
Let's get drawing.
6. Build up the Base Layers: I want to work through this in exactly the same way
as I usually would. We're going to start
from the lighter areas and generally work
towards the darker areas. So as I mentioned, looking
at the white wrapping paper, which is probably the lightest
part of the whole drawing, the lightest color I can see within this area is actually, I would say, a very
light cool gray. So I'm going to use
the lightest cool gray that I have in my set. This is the 20% cool gray. I'm going to block in this color over the whole of the
wrapping paper section. So working around the bow. I'm not going to worry
about working around all of the different prints and heart shapes on the
wrapping paper. I'm just going to solidly
block in everything. So I want to go over this little corner down
the edge of the bow, and then I can start
blocking in along the top. Now, in terms of how I'm putting down the
pencil, as usual, I want to be doing this
really nice and lightly, trying to get the pencil down as smoothly and
consistently as I can. So first up to stop me from
being able to press too hard, I'm holding the
pencil pretty far. Now, this pencil is very
near to the end of its life. It's a very, very small pencil. So I'm using a pencil
extender here so that I can hold it how it's
comfortable for me. And as I say, that stops me from being able to
press too hard. Now, I'm also working
in circular motions or oval motions rather than just generally scribbling
back and forth. And that, again,
helps put the pencil down in a much more
smooth and consistent. Final thing that
I'm particularly thinking about whilst building up this pencil is
that the pencil is going to go down in a
much smoother and again, more consistent way if I keep
a nice and sharp pencil. So I am frequently
sharpening this. And this is literally all
I'm doing to start with. I'm looking at the very
light sketch lines that I have on the paper, working around the
lines of the bow, making sure that I keep within
the heart shaped box area. And I'm just blocking
in this pencil. It's a very nice
and light color, and I'm obviously putting
it down nice and lightly. So it's a little bit hard to see on camera.
I do think you can see. All I'm doing initially. So I want to in
this first section, map out all of the
key colors and shapes and just get
something down on the paper, something that I can then
start building from. Now, once I've put
down this gray over the whole of the
wrapping paper section, I want to be looking
for the lightest color that I can see within the bow. So the lightest area of the bow is some of these light
patches here, like here. And at the top. I want to look past all of that texture to try and find the
closest match to this very light pinky color. It's kind of an
earthy pink, I guess. So I would say the
closest pink that I have in my set to this pink
is the blush pink. I don't actually think
this is a perfect match. I can't see any color
that is closer, though. So we're just going
for the closest match, and we can always adjust the colors later
on if we need to. Once again, I want to
be putting this color over the whole area. So I want to go over the ribbons around sort of wrapping
around the parcel. And I also want to go
over the bow itself. You can see that
I'm still holding the pencil really
nice and far back. I'm holding it
nowhere near the tip. And I'm still working in those circular motions to again try and get the pencil
down nice and smoothly. I'm using my sketch
lines to see where this color needs to be going to see the edge of the ribbon. Quite quickly, we
get into a situation where we do have something. So you can hopefully
see very, very faintly, we have the outline of a heart box and the
outline of the ribbon. Now, what I want to do
from here is gradually start working from
these lighter colors towards the darker colors. So from here, I'm going
to want to think about the next darkest
color that I can see, and I can use that
color to start mapping in a lot of the shape. Probably the most time
consuming part of this whole drawing is going to be mapping in shapes initially, getting everything
mapped out correctly, and then we're just tweaking the colors and building
them up from there. So I think this first section is probably the most difficult
out of all of it. So looking for the
next darkest color, I would say that
we're looking at probably this kind of
color around here, this kind of color or this. So quite a bright and vibrant, almost slightly orangy
in some areas, red. So I'm going to
use the poppy red. And what I want to
do is put this in any areas where I can
see this kind of orange. Actually, it's not
in too many places on the ribbon on the bow. But I am also going to
use this color to map out all of the shapes on the
wrapping paper because I think it's kind of the
lightest color that I can see within the shapes
on the wrapping paper. I think they probably do need to made a little bit darker, but it'll be a good color
to get this mapped in. So let's look at the bow. And I particularly
want to be filling in all of these brighter, vibrant red along here under here around the end
around here, around here. Actually, I wouldn't
say too many areas where I need to be
building this up. Now, the most important
thing to bear in mind here is that we're still working
really nice and lightly. You'll see I'm still holding
the pencil quite far back. Again, this pencil isn't
as short as the grade, but it's not as long
as I would like. So I've put a pencil
extender on this as well, so I can hold it further back. And I can just start mapping in where those
shapes need to be. Say, the goal at the
end of this chapter is that all of these main
shapes are marked out, and we really have a good idea
of what needs to go where. Now, once again, I've got a
nice and sharp pencil here. The pencils are
able to go down in a much more consistent way
when it is nice and light. And generally speaking,
I'm just going to work my way from the
left to the right. Now, I would say
this is made a lot easier because I've got a
very nice and clear sketch. So I really have a good idea
of what needs to go where. I'm just following a
lot of the shapes of my sketch to map in
these key areas. Said, I think it's important
to bear in mind that it doesn't need to be
absolutely perfect. We don't need to get everything exactly the same as
the reference photo. But I do want to get it as
close as possible where I can. Now, on this ribbon down here, you can see that there's
a bright red line all around this side here, and then it also
goes along here. Let's mark that in,
Let's mark along the edge of this ribbon
in a nice little strip, and then shade in
that central line. And then let's fill in
this patch at the bottom. So you can see we're
literally just marking in patches and shapes. I think sometimes it really does help to look at
drawings like this, particularly where
the bow, for example, is quite complicated and don't look at it like it's a bow. We are literally just going
to draw a series of shapes, look at what we can
see and create that. And that's all I
want to achieve. Now let's work around from the left towards the right and from the top to the bottom, filling in the patterns and shapes that's on
the wrapping paper. Now, I have made this all a
lot easier for me because I have marked it out reasonably
clearly on the sketch. So if you're using my sketch, hopefully this will be
a little bit easier. I'm literally just drawing
these as a series of shapes. So here I'm drawing the
left half of a heart, which you can see but I'm literally looking at
this like it's a shape. So there's a curved
edge all around here, and then there's a
little bit sticking out. There's some square shapes and triangular shapes that
I need to avoid here. And then there's these
strips that I want to avoid these kind of tube shapes that I
want to avoid here. Generally speaking,
find it easiest to map out all of
the outlines first. So I'm going to mark in where I think all of
those lines need to be using either my
sketch outlines or I haven't marked in every
single detail on the sketch. So if I haven't got
a sketch to help me, then I'll just try
and get it as close as I can again to
the reference photo. So you can see I've marked in the triangular shape
and the square shape. And then once I'm
happy, I've got the outline and I've
got those marked in, I can then use, again, little circular motions, which you can see me doing here to just map in that color, get it blocked although I don't expect this
to look perfect, I certainly think it
will make my life a lot easier as we head
towards the other chapters. So once I've done this heart
on the left hand side, I want to do the other half of the heart on the other
side of the ribbon. And again, I'm looking at this like it's a
series of shapes. So again, I've got a nice
curved line around the edge. I've got a kind of quite
long triangular shape here. I've got a line just
inside the outside line. Obviously, there's this
band around the edge, so I want to do the line along
here and then kind of draw the wobbly shape along here and leave a little strip here
and a little triangle here. Once again, you can
see I've mapped in the shape around the edge, and then I can shade
in from there. So as I say, I'm trying my best to make this as
close as possible, but I don't expect
it to be perfect. I also note that I
don't think all of these shapes are necessarily
the exact same color, but I am going to mark them in the same color
with this pencil, and then I can always tweak
the color a little bit later. Let's start from the top, as I said, and
work our way down. So I can start mapping
in the word love here. Now, again, as I
mentioned when we were looking at the reference
photo, thankfully, this is kind of a
handwritten looking text, which means that we don't
need to get it perfect. And again, I have mapped out as well as I can
on my reference photo. Worth noting that
all of these lines aren't consistent width.
It's a little bit wider. Here, for example, a little
bit wider at the bottom, so I can make it a little
bit wider where it needs it. But again, I don't
think I need to make it perfect to this. You also want to draw in
this heart at the top. I'm noticing that it's
like the heart's been drawn several times around
with several different lines. And I'm just going
to try and copy the lines that we've
got around here. I'm noting it's
thicker at the bottom. It's got some pretty thin
lines around the edge. And I can just build these
lines up bit by this is probably the most time consuming part
of the whole drawing. It's certainly the most
time consuming section in this chapter because I am really taking my time to
draw in these shapes. I think it is worth taking the time and accepting
that this part does take a little while to
just try and get this initial template as
accurate as possible. You can see another heart
along the edge around here. Again, it's really just a series of shapes that we can see. So I can draw the outline using
my sketch lines and using what I can
see from the shapes, and then I can shade in. I'm also going to do the
same as I work down. So actually, this heart here is a little bit different
from the other ones. This heart here has all of these pretty perfect
looking circles on the right hand side, and then it's kind
of slap shape. You can see I've drawn
in those circles. I am going to draw the very
rough shape of this plate, but I'm not going to draw all of the little
dots and things. That's something that
I could add in later, but I'm not going to worry
about right at this second. And then let's just keep
working the way down, filling in all of the different shapes that I
can see within the heart. Here, for example, I've
written Love again as closely as I can to what I can see in
the reference photo, and as I say, I can
always tweak it later. I think, actually,
a lot of the lines on the word love need to
be made a bit thicker, but I'm not going to worry about that right at this second. This point, I'd say
that I've got all of the bright red areas mapped in. I've certainly got
a little bit of a clearer picture of
what needs to go we, but I want to keep
working my way towards a slightly
darker color now. We're still working from the lighter colors towards
the darker colors. So actually, there's not
a huge amount of colors, I would say, on this bow. The next darkest
color is probably this pretty dark red or the dark red that you can
see along once again, I want to look at the
colors in my set. Think about which red I think is the closest
match to this. I'm going to use the color
called Crimson Lake. Now, this is a very
dark and rich red, and I'm going to
use this to map in all of the remaining red areas, really, anything that is going
to be this red or darker. And I'm literally going to
work one section at a time, looking at the shapes
within that section. For example, I can
start off by looking at this folded section of
the bow on the left. I generally like to start on the left hand side and move towards the
right hand side. I think it's easiest to work
in a pretty consistent way. So let's have a look at what we can see on this area of the bow. So just looking at
this part here, I want to leave this
area at the top alone because I think that's probably more like
the poppy red. I want to build up a lot of this red in this kind
of triangular section. I also want to build some of the red along here
and coming up here. So we're leaving this
area through here as the underlying pink color that
we added at the beginning. So you can see, once
again, I've mapped in the edge of the shape and
then I can start shading in. I am still pressing
nice and lightly, but you'll notice
that I'm not holding the pencil as far back
as I previously had. I'm not holding it
really close to the tip, but I do want to be quite particular about where
this color goes now. I want to have a
decent amount of control over where
this pencil is going. Going to work my way over the bow from the
left to the right. So let's look at
this next section. So looking at this area here, when you get used to
looking at the shades, I think it gets so much easier. So you can see there's
this very dark line going up the middle here. We've got this dark shape here and there's this very
crisp line along the edge. There's also a dark
shape in here. We want to make
sure we keep these lighter areas around it. This light area has kind of
a border going around it, and there's a darker
triangle up this side. I think it looks a little bit peculiar at this point,
but that's okay. We're literally just trying to map in the shapes of the bow. I don't expect it to be
looking amazing or perfect. So I want to be filling in this area along the
top and down the side. And there's a
slightly darker shape here and it's got a
subtle line along here. I don't need a lot of this
color in this area, though. And then looking at
the center of the bow, we've got a darker strip here, then a lighter strip
we want to avoid, and then a darker strip. I'm literally just working
over looking at these shapes. So again, it's darker
in a patch along here. There's also a
darker patch here. I'm also looking at
this half of the bow, seeing we've got
this light triangle here, it's darker at the end. There's a darker strip
around the triangle, and it's darker around here, along here, all around this
light triangle here as well. Now, some of these shapes are
mapped in from my sketch. Some of them once you can see the general shape of the section of ribbon
you're working on, it's reasonably easy to see where needs shading
and where does. Reasonably quickly,
actually, I am left with something that
does look like a bow. Now, before I move on
to another chapter, I do want to fill
in a few areas. There's some areas
that at the moment, are the very light pink, that blush pink that we
added at the beginning, which I think are
looking too pale. So I'm going to go back to
the poppy red and just fill in any area that isn't that
really bright light color. So all along the strip
of this ribbon here, I can go over with
the poppy red, some of the darker red, as well. And I think that helps to blend the colors together a bit. I've actually realized that
I have completely missed this entire ribbon on
the right hand side. So let's fill that in as well. Again, look at the shapes here. So you'll see there's
a darker strip where there's clearly
a shadow here. There's a lighter patch here, and then it's dark all around So that's where I need to be
filling in this crimson lake. Now, it's worth mentioning
that when building up this crimson lake on
the drawing here, I think it kind of looks
a little bit purple. I actually don't think it looks purple at all in my swatches. I think it's because I'm
pressing so lightly, it's making it have that more
kind of purple look to it. So when we build up
more of this color, I think it will start looking more like a dark red
rather than a purple. At this point, it doesn't so much matter that the
colors look a little bit peculiar because we're going to build so many more colors
over the top of here, the number one goal
at this point, really is getting the
shapes marked in and getting the main lights
and darks mapped out. That's our main goal here. So, let's shade in this area
on the right hand side, as well, filling in
this whole patch. You can see I'm still working
nice and lightly here, working in circular motions. And once I've gone over
this area with the crimson, so just going to go
over this little patch here with the poppy red, and it's just going to slightly blend these colors together, make that light patch a
little bit less bright. So, by the end of
this first chapter, you should have everything
nicely mapped out. And in the next
chapter, we're going to keep working from
those lighter colors towards the darker
colors until we have a really, really
clear template.
7. Build up the Contrast: In this chapter, I
want to keep working from those lighter colors
towards the darker colors. So let's have a look for
the next darkest color. And actually, I'm going
to take a minute to start focusing on the white
wrapping paper again. Now, I'm particularly noticing that it looks too
light at the moment, particularly around the edge. So when you look around the
edge here, for example, you can see that
there's really quite a much deeper shadow around here where the wrapping
paper is kind of curving. You can also see a shadow around here and quite
prominently here. And this little area of white wrapping paper
is really pretty dark. Using the 50% cool gray. This is the kind of medium pool gray to fill in some
of these areas. And I am literally working
one little section at a time. I find that the easiest
way to do this. So you can see me
working around the edge, filling in that shadow that's just underneath the bow here. Still working in the same way as I did in the
previous chapter. I'm still working with
a nice and sharp pencil working in circular motions and pressing really
nice and lightly. I still want to be able to build up more color here if I need to. I'm just going to fill in a
bit more around the edge. I've put a reasonably prominent line right around the edge, and then I just want to be
able to smooth that out. So let's also fill in this patch here that I said is
really very dark. I'm going to work around from the left towards the right
and kind of clockwise. So let's also have a look
at this section here. And again, you can see
it is not hugely dark, but certainly darker
around the edge here. There's actually quite a
thin lighter line here, and then it's darker, again, not really dark, but just a bit darker than the rest
of the wrapping paper. Also see a bit of a
shadow along here, but not as much as
the shadow here. So you can see me going
around the edge here, working with those
circular motions, holding the pencil
nice and far back. I'm drawing a line
around the edge first. I can still see my very
light sketch lines from right at the
very beginning. So I can still work to this. I can also see where I put the lighter cool gray
in the last chapter. I'm just going to build
up some of this color, making sure that I leave an
ever so slight white line you can kind of see
around the top. I'm not worrying about
going over the red pattern. I think it just helps blend
the whole thing together. Let's keep working round. And generally speaking, there is reasonably deep shadows in some areas around under the bow. So you can see quite a
prominent shadow here, but it does fade really nicely into the rest
of the wrapping paper. Again, I feel like it's
quite a bit darker around the edge where the
wrapping paper is curving around the present. You can also see a
faint line along here. And it's again a little
bit darker around here, I would say, not hugely, but just a little bit darker. It's more obvious around here. This shadow is really
actually quite dark. The same around the
bottom around here, I feel like this
is a lot darker, and all under here, this is much darker around the edge of the
present under here. The light is clearly coming
from the top up here, so it makes sense that the
shadows would be around the bottom and generally
around here, for example. So I'm just going to work my way around this last section, work around the edge. You can see I've already
built up some of the shading under
the bow, as well. I feel like it's
helping the box to stand out a little bit
more from the background. So you can see I'm still working in these circular motions. The most important thing is that I want this to
be nice and smooth. For the most part, I would
say I am happy certainly for this chapter with
the general present. Let's just add a tiny
bit of shading around the outside to kind of imitate the side
that this is sat on. But just again, really,
really lightly here. And then I'm going to
start focusing a little bit more for the rest of
this chapter on the bow. We're still going to
be going from the lighter colors towards
the darker colors, but I really want to make
the bow area stand out. That's where generally the darkest
colors that need adding. So, actually, to begin with, going to go back to the dark red that we used in
the last chapter. This is the Crimson Lake. So I already built up some of this pencil in some
of the darker areas, what I want to do is add more. So I feel like the red of the ribbon matches color wise better with the crimson lake than
with the poppy red. There is definitely some
more kind of poppy red, orange red areas, but
for the most part, the bow, I feel is more
of the crimson lake. So I want to build up quite
a lot more of this color and go over some of the poppy red to kind of blend it in
a little bit better. Generally, build up some of the darker mid tones until we can start going in and adding
in the darkest colors. So I'm literally doing the same as I did in
the last chapter, going through this one
section at a time, building up more of this color. Most important things
that I'm doing here is bearing in mind where I
want to blend this color. So at the moment, around some
of these mid tone areas, I feel like they've got
quite abrupt edges. So, for example, this
area I'm shading here, it's got quite an
abrupt edge where it meets the darker patch. I want to add some more of this red very lightly
to blend this into that lighter patch
so that it's a bit of a softer so areas like this, I want to make it look
a little bit darker. I'm not pressing hard
with the pencil. I'm building up the
pencil still lightly more times to build
up that darker color. I don't want to just
press really hard, but around the edge
along here, also, I'm adding some really light
shading to try and start to blend this color into
the surrounding areas. This is literally
what I'm going to do for the whole of the bow. So it is reasonably
time consuming, I would say, because I'm really, really focusing on each section and what I can see
within each section. But it is all made ten
times easier because I've already mapped out so much of this in
the last chapter. So you can see here
I'm going over some of these darker areas. Defining these a
little bit better, building up a little
bit more of the color. It is so, very important, I would say, to have
a sharp pencil. This is going to be ten times
easier with a sharp pencil. When I do fine
with prisma color, I need to sharpen it
reasonably often. Also going to go
over this poppy red that I can see
around the bottom, just to slightly adjust
that color and make it, as I said, more like
that crimson lake color. So you can see how lightly I'm going over it
and just putting the tiniest little bit of this color over the
top of that poppy red, you can still see
that poppy red, but it's not as kind of orange. It's kind of making it a more cohesive color with
the crimson lake. What we want to end up with is a nicely blended bow that
doesn't have any harsh lines between the edges between the different color noticing some of these areas at the top are a little bit darker than what
I've got at the moment, so I want to be building up
some more of that color, going over the area more times. There's obviously
going to be a lot of the darker brown color that I am going to
need to build up. But we'll be doing
that in a second. So let's go over there's
kind of two strips on this central part of the
bow that needs more. But also, I want to go
over this poppy red area and really build up some more
color blend this out, too. Once again, I'm going over the areas that I think
need to be darker, the areas that are the
crimson lake or darker. I'm going over those more
times and building up more of the pencil and then also blending it out with
some of the lighter areas, some of those poppy red areas. And I find this the
easiest way to go about drawing something that is actually quite complicated. We're still just drawing this like it's a series of shapes. We're just trying to
get the lights and the darks and the shapes
in the right place. And then it will
end up looking like a really nice shiny
and reflective bow. So let's do the same to the
bow on right hand side. And in many ways, I think the darker areas are a bit
more prominent along here. It's kind of a
little bit easier, if anything, to mark this in. Once again, I want to be going over all of the poppy red areas, nice and lightly
to blend this out. I'm also going to go around the edges of this
lighter patch here. It's all just looking too harsh, and I want to create a
much smoother look here. Do the same for the
top half of the bow. Really looking at the
shapes along here. And then as I get to
this lighter patch, this just looks so bright in comparison to the
rest of the bow. So let's once again blend out the edges, really
smooth this out. So, as I said, I'm working from the
left towards the right, so let's just build
up a bit more of the color on this
right hand strap here. And then I want to be looking
for the next darkest color. Let's move on to the last part of the bow for adding
in this red for now, build up a bit more of this
red on the right hand side. And then before I move on, I'm just going to add some
of this red into some of the patterns and words
on the wrapping paper. So, for example, on
the heart behind here, you can see here is much darker. It's almost matching this red. Along here, there's
a little crease. Some of these patches
are a bit darker. And actually, the love
here, for example, this is quite dark like
around here, around here. It's just got some
darker patches. It's generally, I think, darker than what I've got
at the moment. Around here, this heart is much, much darker than that
very bright red, and that's generally, again, the case around the edge
and on the word love. This heart here, I would
say, is a lighter, more vibrant red and looks a different color to me than in some of
the lighter areas. Go over a lot of these
words and these symbols. Just building up
with this color. I'm really looking at,
as I mentioned before, some areas of this
word is thicker. Some areas of the
lines are thicker at the bottom of the V. So
with a nice and sharp pencil, I can build up some
extra color there, and it just starts
hopefully being a bit of a closer match
to that wrapping paper. So I'm particularly focusing on the words and on some of
the hearts around the edge. I'm not building up a huge
amount of color on here, but I do want to build up quite a bit more
than what I have. Let's move on now
to a darker color. This is the Dark umber. This is the darkest brown that
I have in my set. We will actually use a
darker color beyond this, but this is really
the darkest color I have, except for black. So the only thing
we're going to do after this will be black. And I'm going to work over the sections in exactly
the same way again, from the left to the right, putting this anywhere that is
this dark brown or darker. You'll see in exactly the
same way as I was before, I'm building up the
pencil nice and lightly. I don't need to be
pressing really hard. I want to build up the
pencil in a really nice, smooth and consistent way. So still working in those circular motions with
this light pressure. I'm just going over this area, this darker triangle over and over again until I feel like
it matches the reference. Want to build up some
more along the top. That is a really dark strip. And then I can start working
my way around looking for any dark details
that need adding. So I'm looking at these
lines along here, and there's a dark
patch coming up here. There's some folds,
you can see here, quite prominent
triangular fold here. There's a dark strip along here and filling in this
line all around here. And adding in these lines
actually reasonably quickly, makes the bow look
so much better, so much more reflective. This is made ten
times easier because so many of these shapes have
already been marked in. They were already
mapped in before, and I just need to
keep building it up. Now, the key here, I
would say is patience. We don't want to get to
the point that we are rushing and end up
pressing harder with the pencil because
it's going to look so much better if we can just keep building this
up nice and lightly. You need to build up a
reasonable amount of this color along the
bow at the bottom. Literally, just focus on
what you can actually see. We've already talked a lot about some of these darker
patches towards the bottom. I can see these
darker patches here, so I should draw them in. And the same as I work from the left to the
right on the bow. There are some very dark strips surrounding this triangle
that I'm working around here. Can start looking at, again, some of the shapes that
I have already mapped in with the Crimson Lake pencil. I just want to build
up more of it. So I'm going through this
reasonably quickly simply because it is so similar to
what we've already done. And then once I'm happy that
I filled in all of those darker patches on the right
hand side of the bow, I can start building
up some of this pencil along the section on the
right hand side here. Now this bow is
looking much better. It's looking much
more realistic. But it does need
one darker color. I want to move on to
the black pencil. Now, when we look at
the reference photo, you'll see there's only
really a few areas that the black needs adding
like this line along here, this line along here, around here a little bit. Some of these darker patches
in here and around here, as well as here
and here and here. Are the darkest areas that I want to build up with the black. Now, I do often think the black can look a little bit harsh. Just it's so much harsher than the dark
Umber, for example. This is why I want to
build up the black. At this point, we'll put a lot more colors over the top of it, and it will just tone
down that harshness. I literally going over the whole thing once again
from the left to the right, filling in the black anywhere where I think it's
not looking dark enough anywhere where
I think we need more. So, for example, under here, I just still nice and lightly, though, want to be
building up the color. And as I say, we will put other colors over the top
of it to just tone it down. We want the darkness
of the black, but I don't want
to have the often, as I say, very harshness of the the end of this second chapter, what we have is a present that has a nice shiny bow on it. Everything does look right, but it's not looking
anywhere near bright enough. The bow isn't looking
like a red bow. It's all looking
pretty washed out. But we can start building up and brightening up the colors
in the next chapter.
8. Brighten up the Bow: This chapter, I only want
to be focusing on the bow, only adding in and really building up the colors
quite a bit more. So in the last chapter,
we built the colors from those lightest colors
towards the darker colors. I built up all the way to the darkest color
which is black. Now I want to work back down
through those same colors, really focusing on
building up the vibrancy. So I'm not going to be
using any new colors here. It's only going to be colors
that I've already used. And it's also going
to be reasonably similar to what
we've done before. So I would say that this
is in this chapter, quite a time consuming process, but in terms of what we're
doing, it's nothing new. So starting off here with
the dark umber pencil, and I'm just going over any area that I think
needs to be darker. So I'm particularly wanting to go over where I put the black. As I mentioned in
the last chapter, if I leave the black as it is, it just looks quite harsh. If I put the brown over
the top of the black, it reduces that
harshness and makes the black area look more
like a very dark brown. In terms of how I'm doing this, the temptation is to start
pressing really hard. I would say I'm not
pressing hard here. I'm using a medium
to light pressure. And you can see that that's
creating a much softer color. It's still nice and dark, but it's not really harsh. So I'm literally
going over all of these same areas
that I did before. See that I'm still working in circular motions to try and
make this nice and smooth. The number one thing I
am bearing in mind about this bow is that it's a very smooth and
silky kind of ribbon. And I want to make
sure that I keep that. I don't want to create a
really scratchy color here. And I'm literally just
looking at those lights and don't worry about
the lack of red. It needs to be much brighter. We need to have much
bolder red areas. For now, I'm just looking at the same areas that I
did in the last chapter, and I'm focusing on
going over anything that I think needs to be darker. As I say, it doesn't
matter if it needs to be pretty dark red, for example, or it needs
to be a very dark brown. I'm building up that area, and in some of the parts that
will need to be a dark red, we'll go over that with
the red in the second. So I can go over this whole area of ribbon here does
need to be pretty dark. Built up a lot of black
here in the last chapter. So I just want to
be going over that. Now, you'll notice that I am going through this
quite quickly. That's because this is so similar to what we
have done before. It is a time consuming process, but it is exactly the
same process as we did in the last chapter when we were building up all
these dark colors before. I just need to do more now. And because a lot of the
shapes have already built up, I've really clearly mapped
in what needs to go where. This is actually much, much easier than it was before. See, I'm just really defining this area down the
bottom of the ribbon, still working in these
circular motions. This is why it's such a
time consuming process. If I were to press harder, it would get done a lot faster. It would look, as I
say, not as good. But you can see I'm just going over all of these areas with circular motions nice
and lightly again and again to build
up the contrast. As usual, I'm working from
the left towards the right. I find it easiest to work in this kind of organized manner. So I'm going over
these very dark strips that surrounding that lighter triangle I mentioned before. I'm also going to go over all of these shadows
towards the center, all of these dark strips. As I say, all of this has
already been mapped out. I'm just following what
I've already done on the reference photo to see
where it needs to be darker. I'm literally comparing
this drawing to that reference photo to see
where I need to build it up. Need to build up a
reasonable amount on this bottom part of the
ribbon around here. So, as I say, I'm not
focusing on building up any color on the rest of
the present at this point. In actuality, I'm sure that
we do need to add some of this darker brown on the word, love, for example, and all of these patterns on
the wrapping paper. But for now, I literally
want to focus on making the bow look a lot more vibrant and then I can add to
the rest of it a bit later. And I'm happy that the
contrast is looking right. I've got all of these
darker areas and some of the midtones looking
much, much better. I'm going to work back
down through a lot of the colors that we
have worked with before. So, let's move on to
the crimson lake. This is that very deep red, and I am going to need to build up this color in a lot of areas. When you look at this dark
triangle here, for example, you can see that although
it has a lot of dark brown, maybe even a little
bit of long here. The main color is a dark red. It's very much a very dark red, nearly reddish brownie black. And that's what I'm
trying to build up here. So I'm going to go over all of these areas again,
but with the red. I want to be keeping all of those dark colors
that I've built up, but adding a red element to it. And you'll see that putting
the red over the top of where the brown has gone
and where the black has gone, it doesn't change
those dark areas. It just makes them more of a red tone on top of
what's already there. You'll see that I'm still
building this up nice and lightly in exactly the same
way as I was a second ago. So it's looking nice and soft. It's not looking really
harsh on the bow here. And again, I want to be going
over the whole drawing, building up the red
anywhere that needs it, which, to be honest,
is on most of the bow. And I just want to
be avoiding putting this red on any of the
really light spots for now. This area down here, for example, this at the
moment is very light. It actually needs to be a bit
darker than what I've got. So I'm going to build
up a really light layer of this red on this area, and it just tones it down, makes it a lot less bright. The same on this area here, there is actually a little bit more shading than what I've got. You'll see that it isn't
as light here as what I've got in both this area and
actually in this area. Can go over any area that is the brown pretty much anywhere
where I put that dark umber, I do want to build
up some of this red. And I even want to build
up some of the red around the edge around the bottom of
this section, for example. So I want to make
this a lot darker. It's looking way too
light at the moment, and I'm just going over these same areas again
and again and again. Now, this is the key to building up a bright color is to just keep adding light layers and eventually we'll be
left with a really nice, smooth and vibrant bow. I want to go over a lot of this ribbon down
the bottom here. As I said, there's so much
dark in this area down here. So we want to build up a much brighter color
over the top of it, and it always amazes
me how much it does change the general shading
on the ribbon here. Adding this bright color over the top of
all of that dark, it really makes
it a vibrant red. And then I can do the same to the ribbon on the
right hand side. So, as I said, I am going
through this quite quickly. In actuality, the
full process of this whole chapter has taken about an hour
and 10 minutes. It is literally a case of gradually building up the
color. I'm not rushing. I'm really taking my time to just build up what
we've got here. Now, there are some areas, as I mentioned
before on the ribbon that are kind of more
of an orange red. Even in those areas, I am building up a little bit of this crimson
lake, not as much. And I will go over that in a second with the poppy
red like we did before, just to brighten it up. Go along this ribbon on
the right hand side, and then I'm generally
happy with that darker red. I want to keep working my
way down through the colors. Now, I'm just going to tweak a few areas before I
move on anywhere where, as a final glance, I think the reference photo isn't looking rich enough
with this kind of red. So some areas I think are a very bright kind of
pink at the moment, and I just need to tone it down. I said, I also want to add
in some of the poppy red, the slightly more orange red. And this is, again, going in exactly the same areas
that I put it in before. So any areas that have this more vibrant, bright orangy red, like along here, round
the bottom brown here, along here, along here, here, all around here. Is probably more of it on the right than
there is the left. But once again, you can see
me building up this color. It's just adjusting
the red that's already here and making it
much, much richer. So I want to be building up some of this color in a lot of the lighter strips along the rib and along here
and along the bottom. I say, it's not in a
huge amount of places. I am starting to
use, I would say, more like a medium pressure, not so much a medium
to light pressure, more like a medium pressure. The more pencil that I
build up on the paper, to a degree, the harder
I find I need to press. I don't need to press
full force by any means, but I do need to press
a little bit harder just to make that
pencil show up. And that's just
because we've built up so much pencil on
the paper already. We just need to
press a bit firmer to make it show up as it should. To build up a
reasonable amount of the pencil on the right
hand side of the ribbon. I do think there's much
more of this kind of orangy red on the
right hand side of the ribbon in
comparison to the left. And then the last
color I'm going to use for now is the pink. This is the color that we used right at the very,
very beginning. When mapping out all of
the lightest colors, I use this quite bright pink. And I want to use this to partly tone down some of
these very light areas. So this patch here
is very vibrant, but also to slightly
smooth out a few areas. So along here, for example, I don't need this to
be particularly dark, but it is looking
very, very grainy. So I am just using again, medium to firm pressure now, I would say, to smooth
out some of these areas. I don't want to
do this too much. I don't want to
over use the pin. If I try and smooth out
some of the brighter areas, it's just going to end
up muting what's there. So I only want to use this on generally the lighter
areas of the bow. So you can see me toning down all of these very bright
areas along here. And in this light patch here, it's just looking so
bright right now. It doesn't really match
the rest of the ribbon. I want to add a
reasonable amount of this color on the top
half of the ribbon. This is the lightest
area of this bow. I haven't got a huge amount
of color here right now. It needs to be, as I say, a much lighter color than what I've really been
using up until now. So you can see I'm in this area pressing
lightly working in circular motions
because I haven't got a huge amount of the
pencil down here. But where I'm
wanting to build up or smooth out some of the
color in other areas, that's where I'm pressing firm. You're ever unsure, I think, it's better to press
lightly than press hard. It's always possible
to add more pencil, but once you've pressed firmly, you've put the pencil
down, that's very much it. So let's smooth out
this patch here, making the edges of the patch blend a bit
better into the red. I'm also going to smooth out some of these
very grainy areas, just the lighter patches on
this ribbon down the bottom. Let's also just smooth out a few areas along here as well. And then the final thing I'm going to do in this chapter is just tweak a few areas once
again with that crimson lake. So just going back
over these areas, where smooth them
out a little bit with that lighter pink? I now think they're looking
a little bit too light, and they've lost all
of their vibrancy. So I'm just going to lightly go over the top with
this crimson lake. Then by the end of this chapter, we have a much nicer,
brighter looking bow. It's certainly looking closer to the reference photo,
and from here, we should just need a
little bit of further brightening up and some
general final tweaks. But that is it for this chapter.
9. Add in the Final Details: This final chapter, I want to brighten everything up and
smooth everything out. So let's start off by focusing on the white wrapping paper. Now, as I mentioned a while ago, the white wrapping paper
has a lot of gray to it. And actually, I
think it needs to be a lot darker than what
I've got at the moment. Right now, we've only used the 50% cool gray and
the 20% cool gray. So let's start here by
using the 70% cool gray. This is the darkest cold
gray that's in my set, and I'm really going
to start defining particularly around the edges
and around the shadows. So you can see that
I've built up a lot of color in that little
triangle section, and now I'm going to
start building up a lot more of a shadow around. When you really
look, you can see how dark some of
these areas are. So this area really
quite dark gray, and around here, this is a really deep shadow that's
kind of curving around here. It gets very dark in the corner, and it's very dark all around. Generally, where the ribbon is leaving a shadow
on the white. So all around around here. It's a lot darker than what
I've got at the moment. So once again, I'm building up this pencil with
really light layers, which is made much easier
with a sharp pencil, and I'm still working
in circular motions. I still want this to be
as smooth as possible. So you can see I've gone over
the shadow around the bow. Now let's build up a bit more of the pencil around the
edge around here. So you're creating a
nice and crisp line and then shading
in a little bit. And it's going to
give the present a much more defined look. I'm going to work my way around the whole of the wrapping paper, really making it a lot
darker, a lot richer. So you can see me going around the edge of the bow again here. Building up a lot more color. It's still very similar to what I did right towards
the very beginning. I'm not expecting to be doing
anything particularly new. What I'm wanting to do is
build up more, more color, more contrast in this chapter, and that's going to
make the drawing look nice and finished. Once again, let's go
around the edge down here. This area down here actually
is really quite dark. It's one of the darkest areas, I would say, on the present. And this is reasonably simple in that I've already built
up a lot of this. I know what needs
to be going where. So let's build up a lot of the pencil around this
area all around here. I've talked about it before. There's a really
quite deep shadow. And then as usual, I'm generally working my way from the
left towards the right. Let's add a little bit of
this color around the top. I don't need as much round here. Generally, the top
of the present is in a lot less shadow
than the bottom. But I do once again
want to create a really nice crisp line around
the edge of the present. And you can see how lightly I'm pressing and how I'm
using these circles. Because this is
quite a dark color, I don't want to go in really
hard with the pencil. That's not what I'm
trying to achieve here. I do want this to
still look like a white present with white
wrapping paper at the end. Then let's also build up the
shadow in this section here. I can go over the wrapping
paper the word love here just to make sure
that I'm making that area a little bit
more shadowed, as well. And then I'm going to go
around the edge down here. And already, I think
that the present looks much more like it's kind of standing
out from the paper. It doesn't blend in as much with the
background, which is good. I want it to look like it is
standing off from the paper. From here, I am generally
happy with the wrapping paper, but I actually think a lot of it still needs to be a
little bit darker. It's actually kind
of surprising how dark white wrapping paper or
white objects need to be. So let's use the 50%
cool gray now to just generally make all of the wrapping paper
a little bit darker. You can see, once again, I'm doing exactly the same as I was at the very beginning. I'm holding the pencil quite far back so that I'm building
up a really light color. I'm using circular motions, and it's a nice
and sharp pencil. You'll see that because
this pencil is quite small, I'm using a pencil
extender so that I'm able to hold
it quite far back. And I'm just working
in circular motions over the whole of the present. Number one thing
I'm doing here is trying to get this
nice and smooth. I do want the wrapping paper
to look as smooth as I can. And you'll see
that although I am building up some
more of this gray, it's not making the
present really dark. That's not the goal here. I just want to make it a little bit darker than it has been. So whilst still looking
at the wrapping paper, let's now focus on all of the words and the pattern
on the wrapping paper. To start with all of these areas are just blocked in with red. I think it was the
poppy red that I used to block in a
lot of these areas. Some of them actually
need to be quite a bit darker than what I
have at the moment. And particularly looking
around the edge here, you can see it gets quite dark. It's much brighter here, but quite dark around the edge. There's a darker heart shape in here because of the shadow
created by the bow. And that is the case actually in a lot of spots on
the wrapping paper. Again, it's darker here than what I have at the
moment in this pattern. And around here. So I'm using the dark umber
pencil to just very lightly go over any area that I
will need to be darker. The areas actually, I would say need to be more
like a dark red, but if I put down this color first and then put red
over the top of it, I think it's going to
create a closer match to the reference photo. So I want to be
putting this anywhere where I think it
needs to be darker. So, for example, on
this little E up here, there is the odd area, not over the whole E, but some areas do look like
they need to be darker. And on some of the darker strips running
through this heart here. But you can see how lightly I'm filling in some of
this dark brown, and I'm really not
using a lot of it. I'm not putting it
in a lot of places. So it's also add some of
the brown on this heart here going over where it's
a little bit more shadow. We'll be going over
this in a second with a brighter, more vibrant red. I'm literally working my
way around one at a time. Any area that needs
to be darker, I can fill up some
more of this color. So on that heart, I don't feel like I needed
a huge amount. But I do think on the word love, there are odd patches which
are quite a bit darker. It's not on the whole
of the word love. I think I talked
about this before. It's mostly on the
bends, I would say, the bends of the letters to
me look a little bit darker, and it's the same on
some areas of the heart. Really want to stress
how little I'm using. I don't want to create
really harsh shadows. I don't need shadows as big as the shadows on the
bow, for example. I just want it to be a little
bit deeper so that when I add the red over the top
and really brighten it up, it has a little bit
more accurate contrast. So let's now go over
all of these patterns, and I'm doing this with the dark red that I
used a lot on the bow. I would say it's a
very similar red. This is that crimson lake. And I am literally
nice and lightly still going over all of these patterns and making
them much more vibrant. Think on a lot of
these patterns before, I used the poppy red, but I actually think this red
is probably a closer match. But you'll see, I'm not
going in full force. I'm just building
up a little bit of the pencil to make
a richer shape. So I don't need to
build up too much on this heart up
the top up here. I particularly need
to build up some of this color in the more shadowed
areas nearer to the bow, but I do think that actually
a lot of this heart, where the light must be
reflecting off of it, it does look a lot lighter than this heart down
here, for example. Working my way around going
over all of the shapes, just nice and lightly
brightening them up. That's literally
all I'm doing here. And as I've said before,
it's all made a lot easier because all of these shapes
have already been mapped out. I do want to be adding in a little bit of extra
detail as I go here. So, for example, this heart has a certain kind of
splashy pattern around it. I'm not going to focus
on trying to make it perfectly the same
as the reference photo. I do want to add a slight
splashy kind of look to it. So I'm just adding
in the odd detail as I work my way around here, but the most important thing I'm trying to do is build up some more of the color so that
it looks more vibrant. You can see just a little bit of detail is making it look
more like a splash, more like it does on
the reference photo. So at this point, I'm much happier with the wrapping paper. I think it's looking much
closer to the reference photo. It's looking more realistic. Particularly now want
to focus on the bow. And I'm looking for the
most obvious thing that is different between the bow
and the reference photo. And right now, I think on
certain areas of the bow, it's probably looking too red. It looks a bit too bright, particularly on this more shadowed area down
the bottom here. These lighter patches, I
really think need toning down. So comparing the drawing to my colors watches and
the reference photo, I think the best color to
add in is another gray. And this is the 70% French gray, so a very dark French can lightly put that over the top
of what I've already got, and you can see how
much it kind of reduces the redness
in the ribbon. It's not taking away all
of the redness altogether. You can still see it does
look like a red ribbon. I just think it looks a
little bit less vibrant. Now, I've used the French gray rather than the cool
gray because I think the cool gray mixed with
red here is going to be Two kind of opposite. It is a very warm
colored ribbon, and I want to tone it
down with a warmer gray. The French gray looks to me like the best match for
toning it down. So I'm going to put
this in any area that I think looks
a bit too vibrant, any area where I want it
to be kind of mid tone, but I don't want it to
be a super bright and vibrant can lightly go over
the edge of the ribbon here. You'll see that I'm still
not pressing hard right now. We will be pressing hard
in a short while where I want to blend all these colors together
and smooth it out. It is looking quite
patchy at the moment. But for now, I'm
still working nice and lightly because I'm
still adjusting the colors. And I'm going to
go over, as I say, any area where I think it
just needs toning down a little problem that I've
got with my set of pencils, this set of prisma color, is that I don't
feel like I've got any kind of dark reddish browns. So I've used the much
brighter crimson lake to fill in a lot
of the mid tones, but I think it's too
bright, as I say. So I just need to mix this color with that
crimson lake to tone it down so that it's closer match to what I
can see on the ribbon. Working my way once again
from the left to the right, really toning down
all of these areas. And I already think it
looks a lot better. I already think it looks like a closer match to
that reference. Now, at this point, let's
think about smoothing everything out and
actually kind of brightening everything
up in a different way. So we toned it down
with the French gray. But now, I think, looking at the drawing in comparison
to the reference photo, we need a more vibrant red. I kind of think the crimson
lake looks like a purply red, and I don't think
it's the right match for a lot of the ribbon. I'm going to use the poppy red to smooth out a
lot of the areas. I'm going to use this to go
over most of the ribbon. Now, at this point, I am using a firm pressure rather
than a light pressure. Because I'm now generally happy with the color
of the ribbon, I want to blend all of
the colors together. I want to try and remove
that kind of dotty patchy. You can see I'm pressing
much, much firmer. I'm holding the pencil closer to the tip to enable
me to press firmer. You don't want to
press to the point that it's breaking the lead, but I do really want to
smooth these colors together. Now, you'll see
that I'm not just going over the whole area. I've avoided that
lighter patch around just above here because I am going to need
to smooth that out, but I don't want to make
it a really bright red. And I think going over a lot of the ribbon with this red is going to make the whole
thing come together. It's going to look a lot
more kind of cohesive. Work my way round,
go over this area. Here again, I'm
going over anything that I don't want
to be really light. So I can use this
pencil to blend together some of the darker
and the midtone colors, but I don't want to use
it over the light colors, or I certainly don't
want to use it on the light colors
pressing firmly. Can work all the way along
to these dark colors on the edge we're going over everything that
we've already done. And you can see applying that firm pressure
that it kind of gets rid of all those
little white spots. It's making the whole thing look much nicer, much smoother. So I'm just going
to add a little bit onto the center of the bow here, just smooth out these
very dark areas. And then on the top, it's
really only this area. I need to add a little bit. And then I can start working on the ribbon on the
right hand side. So once again, applying
firm pressure. I think it looks so
much better when I start mixing and
blending these colors. I want to be doing this with
a reasonably light pencil. So I haven't used a very
dark pencil because I'll end up losing a lot of the
shading that I've built in. I obviously, as I say, also don't want to use
this pencil over any of the areas which will
need to be that light pink. It's important
whilst doing this to still use circular motions. We're just going to end
up with a much smoother, more consistent finish with
those circular motions, and it's easier with a
sharper pencil, still. So I can work my way down
the right hand side, and then already, this bow is
looking much, much better. But I want it to be smoother
than it's looking right now, so I'm still going
to need to build more colors up on top of this. Now, before I move on,
I'm just going to go around the edges of some
of these pink sections, maybe add a little bit
more red to try and smooth the pink areas into
the red a bit better. But I'm pressing much
lighter as I'm doing this. I don't want to be building
up loads of the pencil. Now I'm going to
use that same pink that we used before to again, apply some firmer pressure, particularly around the
edge of the pink sections. So towards the
middle, I'm finding these pink sections
much lighter, but around the
edges or this area, for example, along
the edge here, I can apply a much
firmer pressure to start blending this out. So I'm going all the way around
the edge of this section, really trying to blend it
with the red areas around it, and also build up a
reasonable amount more of this pink just to kind
of tone down the areas. I still think a lot
of the light areas are looking too
light at the moment. Sometimes I think it's a
bit hard to see because the reference photo has all
of those little kind of dots, that texture on here, and we're drawing it
without that texture. It means that I'm finding
I need to go over the area more times to work out
how I want it built up. So I'm going to go all
along here as well, reduce the brightness on
this area and smooth it out and go over some
of the areas along here that are looking
a little bit patchy. At this area here, I'm noticing that there
is a lighter kind of strip at the top, and then it's a little bit
darker around the bottom. So you'll see I've built
up a lot more pink around the bottom half of the triangle and then
less towards the top. And then we're just going to
keep working my way around. Now, I will add some of the pink into the ribbon along here, but really focusing mostly on either at the bottom
or the right hand side. I don't want to add
a huge amount of it towards the left because
I think it's too light. Let's use the white
pencil to just smooth out any of
those lightest areas. There's not a huge amount of areas that I need
to use this white, but just with a firm pressure, it kind of stops that graininess
on those lightest areas. Let's go all along here, smoothing this out with
that firm pressure. And I think this is
looking much better. So now I've blended
out a lot of the areas with these lighter colors with the poppy red, the
pink, and the white. I think some of the
darker areas have kind of to a certain degree,
lost their contrast. Going to go back over
these darkest areas with the dark umber to just
increase the contrast here. So going over just under
the bow along here, you can see how much
darker that looks, even though we've got so much of this pencil built up in
these areas already. Going back over these
areas with this color, kind of on the top, it just looks much darker
and much richer. So I want to be going
over any area that's particularly dark
that's generally where I put the black pencil, but I don't want to be using
the black pencil again at this point because I think it's going to be too
much and too harsh. Again, I'm working from
the left towards the right to just try and work as kind
of methodically as I can. Now, I'm so nearly
at the end now. I just want to do
a few last tweaks. So just tidying up some of
the edges of the ribbon. Going over, I can
see quite a lot of white dots along the edge here. So I'm just again, switching
back to that poppy red and using a firm pressure
to smooth this area out. Just going all the
way along here. And anywhere else
where I think it will benefit from a little
extra smoothing. So, along the center, along here, there's quite a lot of white dots at the moment, and around the edge but it is really just these last few
tweaks to smooth out any of those final paper dots that are looking a bit
too kind of obvious. I think it probably looks more obvious on camera than it does in real
life, to be honest. I don't think the
white spots show up to the same degree in real life. But once I've gone
through and fixed these last few
spots, that is it.
10. 10 Summary: Alright, and that is
the end of this class. I hope you've enjoyed it, and you've created a really nice and fun Valentine's Day drawing. So the key, as with all
colored pencil drawings, is to gradually
build up the pencil, starting with the lighter colors working towards
the darker colors, mapping in all of
these key shapes. And then you can
start to brighten everything up and really
refine those colors. Now, don't forget to add your drawing to the class projects. I would love to see
what you've done. Happy drawing, guys, and I'll
see you in the next course.
Gemma Chambers, Pencil Artist
