You’ve got your pencils poised above your support of choice and you’re ready to start. But before you do, there are a few other things you should know, things that can make your job (of creating the best art possible) a little easier.
APPLYING COLOUR
Coloured pencil can be laid down effectively in a multitude of ways. The most common include hatching, crosshatching, stippling, layering and burnishing. The first 4 of these techniques can be done as lightly or heavily as you please, though a good rule of thumb is to work lightly, at least at the beginning. Seamless blending requires gentleness and patience; and as the pencils are somewhat translucent, each layer will affect the next. Burnishing, on the other hand, is always done heavily, in order to obliterate the support’s texture and meld colours together. The effect is extremely rich and painterly but for obvious reasons it is much more practical on a smooth surface.
Some pencil brands offer a “colourless blender” which may be used to burnish or to smooth ragged areas. The advantage is that it will smooth and blend without adding any other colour to your mix.
Sanford Prismacolor offers a line of “Art Stix,” which are thick pencils without any wood casing. They are wonderful for covering larger areas of your support quickly. They look like rectangular rods and are not meant to be sharpened, but their corners are sharp, and you can cut or break them for new edges.
SPREADING COLOUR
With the above techniques you will have been able to lay down your colour. But perhaps you aren’t quite satisfied with the result. Or maybe you just want to make it easier. Solvent, such as odorless mineral spirits, is particularly handy if your surface is rough and you want to fill in all those specks, or if you have a large area to cover. Make sure you work in a well-ventilated area and that the support you are working on can take it. Test first: lay a bit of pencil down on a practice sheet, dip your brush in the solvent and spread it on the colour. You’ll be amazed at the result. You can leave it as is, or you can go over with more pencil once it dries.
Using your fingers to move pigment around is not very effective. There are other things you can use, the effectiveness of which will depend on your technique of application: paper towels, rags, or stiff brushes. Each of these will spread the colour differently and you must practice first, to make sure that the support you are working on can take it. Be careful not to smudge colour into areas you want to keep clean. Stumps and tortillons can soften colour in small areas – as can Q-tips, which can be used like brushes to add the faintest, most delicate breaths of colour to unpigmented areas. Erasers, too, can be used very much as brushes when there is enough pigment to push around.
REMOVING COLOUR
You have just made a mistake. What now? The first instinct is to reach for an eraser, but coloured pencils, due to their wax/oil content, erase reluctantly. Erasing, especially in areas of heavy application, will initially create a smear of pigment called a ‘slurry’ that will stain the paper, often permanently. If your goal is clean, careful, light-filled perfection on a pristine surface, you should NOT do this. You should also try to avoid erasing if your support is delicate.
The best way to avoid mistakes is to work slowly and carefully. Small mistakes are more manageable than large ones. Large corrections are always more difficult no matter what your technique, but if your surface is sufficiently tough and your work more painterly or aggressive, you will find that coloured pencil can be surprisingly forgiving.
Erasers
Even though erasing is not always the best solution, it can still save the day, especially if you are working on a support that can stand the abuse. The most common kinds of erasers are: white plastic or vinyl, and putty (or kneadable). Make sure they are clean when you use them, or you will grind unwanted colour into the surface. Putty erasers are soft, malleable, and very gentle on the work surface. They are mostly used to lift colour away, rather than remove it entirely. You can tear off extremely tiny pieces for those minute, hard-to-reach areas. Vinyl erasers are not harsh, but they are much sturdier than putty, and aggressive erasing may alter the texture of your support. Long vinyl “stick erasers” are available in holders and you can use them to erase very small areas much more easily. They can remove more pencil than putty erasers. Battery-powered and electric erasers can remove almost all pencil from the paper, often with very little damage to the surface. They are especially handy for picking out highlights, as they often leave very little staining colour behind. You can both clean them and obtain new crisp edges by running them for a few seconds over sandpaper.
There are also pink erasers, the kind you used in elementary school. Avoid these, as they are usually much too abrasive – they remove pigment all right, but they tend to damage the support and often leave a pinkish stain into the bargain.
Finally, don’t think of erasing as something done solely to remove colour or clean up mistakes. Erasing can create wonderful textural effects. Even harsh erasers can sometimes be used like brushes on heavy layers of pigment. Experiment and see what happens.
Tape
Another tool for both removing colour and creating certain textures is low-tack tape. Lay the tape over the area you want to lighten, press down lightly, and peel off carefully. There must be enough pigment on the paper for the tape to remove, otherwise it may tear the surface. This is also why it is less risky to use low-tack tape; but you can certainly work with Scotch or masking tape if you prefer.
Frisk Film
Frisk film is gentler than tape and you can use it to remove specific shapes and lines.
Razor Blades
Obviously, these are not suitable for every support, but they are wonderfully versatile if you can use them. They must, of course, be handled with care. A sharp blade can pick out highlights as fine as the sparkle on a dewdrop and a single strand of hair; a dull blade can be used to scrape away large areas of pigment, either as a preliminary to further repairs or as a means of achieving certain effects.
OTHER USEFUL TOOLS
Sharpeners
No matter what your technique, you will find that a good sharpener is a must – and several are even better. Most coloured pencil artists prefer to keep their pencils very sharp, as it is usually much easier to achieve even coverage and blending with a sharp point. There are three basic kinds of sharpeners: handheld, battery-powered, and electric. For a handheld sharpener, make sure the pencil fits easily and snugly into the hole, and that the blade is sharp. When it begins to dull, it will sharpen badly and even break the leads, so replace it at once. An advantage of the handheld sharpener is that it is possible to sharpen a very little amount at a time, and to see the result as you go. Although most artists prefer their pencils sharp, some do a great deal of heavy blending and burnishing, and in these cases blunt pencils can be more practical.
Battery-powered and electric sharpeners are a good investment. They save your hands and wrists, and if you sharpen constantly, this is an important consideration. Some have holes to fit several sizes, which is very convenient if you use more than one brand of pencil, as some are bigger than others. Buy the best you can afford. Lesser-quality sharpeners may break the leads, and you will find yourself constantly having to pick out the broken pieces.
Extenders
Sharpening will eventually eat up pencils, and before you know it, they are too short to hold properly. We would waste a ton of money as well as pencil without pencil extenders. When the pencil gets too short, place it in the extender. The extender should hold it firmly so that it does not move or slide up, and should feel as comfortable in your hand as the pencil itself. With a good extender you can use pencils that are less than one inch long.
When the pencils get too small even for the extender, save them and glue two together with crazy glue. Use the glued pencil just as you would an ordinary pencil; when the stub gets too small again, repeat. You can use every last bit of pencil this way.
Eraser Shields
These are pieces of metal or plastic with small shapes cut out: lay the shape you want over the area you want to lighten or remove, run your eraser over it, and voilà!
Drafting Brush
A drafting brush is a must for keeping the surface of your work clean. As you work, the pencils constantly shed tiny chips and shreds of colour. Because these are so small, you may not to notice them until you accidentally grind them into the picture – often into an area you especially wanted to keep clean. Brushing regularly over your surface with a drafting brush (though any soft brush is better than none) gets rid of these specks without ever smudging them into the surface but be careful! If your application is light, even this will blend colours you might not want blended.
Gesso
Gesso comes in jars and is meant to be applied to a support prior to your working on it, as it coats the surface completely and forms a barrier between your work and any acid present in the support. Rigid supports (such as Masonite) are more suitable for this than paper, as the gesso will crack with the paper’s movement when it dries. You can use a brush or roller to apply the gesso, though a roller will usually give you a more even coverage. Generally at least two coats are necessary. You must also sand between coats to smooth them down – unless you like the idea of working on a very rough surface.
