three steps to making really, really pretty coloured pencil drawings... Paintings... Whatever... pictures.

Okay, so to be honest with you, as many years as I been sharing the hot mess of a life that is art with the world, (and I use the word "share" loosely, seeing as I'm basically a vampire), is that coloured penciling is not... exactly something I ever wanted to get into before.
I mean, don't get me wrong, It's not the pencils, it's me... we just grew apart over the years... We just... didn't talk anymore, y'know? 
... 'kay --

What I mean to say, is that for me, for the longest time, and I don't know why, but in my mind I connected using coloured pencils to being an "amateur" and boring, and therefore didn't bother with them. I mean, who wanted to see that? 
(For perspective, this is coming from someone who likes to make collages out of her paintings... yeah, I'm that type of artist.)

Well, one fine day -- namely during the holidays -- my family and I were all together. Amongst them was my brother and his ridiculously large pile of colouring books and coloured pencils. We were all sitting together -- Me, my sister, my brother - in - law, My brother - in - law's parents, My brother, Mom, Pop - Pop, and My nieces -- and Big Brother was sharing with the girls.
Little sis was sitting next to me, rubbing her little, like, pregnant belly, and she's all like, "why don't you draw something?"
I'm like, "with what?" and big bro shows me his colouring collection, talkin' about, "here". 
I figured, okay cool, but I didn't want to colour in a colouring book, I wanted to DRAW draw, so I took the pencils, but I was like, " I don't have any paper." 
My sister points towards the kitchen, she's like, there's some paper in the cupboard in the dinning room." 
I go to the dinning room, get some paper, come back to coffee table, and get to it.
I was like, Why not? t wouldn't hurt, it'll kill time. Mama said dinner's in a half hour....

I was at it for four hours.

I was hooked! 

So since now I am an overnight expert on the subject, (obviously), I feel that it's only fair that I share my expertise! 

No, actually, There were a lot of you guys that were commenting on how I was colouring my drawings on Instagram, and I thought I would touch in on one or two things that even I didn't know on the subject.

So... LET'S DIVE INTO THIS BALL PIT!

NUMBER 1: -- And I know this one is kinda obvious, but -- 
DRAW YOUR PICTURE.

Okay, hear me out! The reason I put this as number and not the next one because there are some options that you can use that someone got me hip to...
I always do things freehand, but you can also trace a picture too. some people'll get, like, this lightbox thing you can trace on top of, or if you're seriously convinced that your drawing hand has an odd combination of stage fright and Parkinsons' you can use a stencil and trace out the shapes... Interesting thought.
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​NUMBER 2: This was one of the things I didn't know -- 
Let's call it UNDERBLOCKING.
This is when you put your shading in first, basically. 
This would be a little easier for people who don't have enough imagination to, like... SEE the direction of the light 'n' junk, is to look at something -- anything -- with, like, a light overtop of it, and see how it's lighter where it's facing the light, and darker where it's, like... not.

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From there, you can use your shades of grey (get your mind outta there) to make it look as, like... three dimensional as possible. And if you're looking at something that's really shiny, and there are white areas where the light is hitting it, draw the outline of that shine, then colour AROUND that spot, know whadda mean?

NUMBER THREE: This is the only part I actually did know -- (#idoart #genius) 
LAYER IT ON!

Now, you do this all on top of all the grey stuff you put down, you can go back to the darker colours and make it darker where it looks almost black or whatever, and on that note, you can even go back to the grey and black colours, just keep layering it until....

Okay, let me explain something...

I wanted to wait until the end of the post to talk about the paper, but I think I'm gonna have to bring this up a little bit.

Some o' y'all already know this; there are different types of paper, and if you notice, it's got little grooves 'n' junk in the fibers 'n' stuff in there. And I know that you know-- because you such smart people -- that the pencil doesn't get into those little grooves right away. 

That's why you have to spend a little more time in those happy little places, there.

Now while you're in those lovely little crannies, there are ways that you can make it really POP in the process, which brings me to --


NUMBER FOUR: A technique I'm still working on -- 
USING COMPLIMENTARY - SLASH -  CONTRASTING COLOURS
This is when.... you know the colour wheel? Whatever colour you're using on that... whatever you're drawing, find that colour on the colour wheel, find it's exact opposite on said colour wheel, and use it to accent it. I life to use it when you have that bit o' coloured light reflecting off of something else onto something else, y'know?
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That was all I could really come up with.

I wish I could've come up with something else, but, honestly, there really isn't anything to it; just hard work and practice! Also, just enjoy it! Take it from someone who did this WAY too much, comparing your self to where you want to be is THE FRICKIN' WORST thing you can do yourself! THERE'S NOW WRONG ANSWER TO ART! Just enjoy doing what you love -- YOUR WAY! Love your art into what you want it to be. Trust me, your soul's gonna wrap itself right around what you want it  to be -- but only if you love it as it is 

Hugs and Kisses! See you Next Wednesday! [AR]

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