Hi guys welcome back to my channel, today
I am going to show you five different blending
techniques for colored pencils that you can
use for drawing different objects.
You can blend colored pencils in so many different
ways but I am going to show you the most used
techniques by me.
You can try them all and chose what works
best for you.
I usually combine different techniques for
a single drawing according to the nature of
objects that I am drawing.
So without further due let’s get started.
I use Strathmore Bristol 300 series vellum
paper for this demonstration.
I have printed 5 boxes and 5 butterflies to
this paper.
I will show you the technique in detail on
the boxes above and I will use the same technique
to draw the butterflies below.
I am going to use the same set of colors to
get an idea of what’s the actual difference
between these techniques.
All the colors are listed below.
The first method I am going to discuss is
layering.
This technique is the most difficult, most
time consuming but gives you the best result.
This technique is perfect for the areas that
need a flawless gradation of colors without
any hard edges.
So I use this technique for drawing skin.
I never use any other techniques to draw skin
because I want that smooth seamless blending
for the skin.
For this technique I use very light pressure
and several thin layers to gradually build
the color up.
I am going to draw in this box using three
different colors.
A dark color a medium color and a light color.
For this technique you have to go from lightest
color to the darkest color.
As you can see I put several thin layers of
the lightest color first.
You can increase the pressure slightly in
some areas where you want a thick laydown.
But never use a heavy pressure at any stage,
just a small increase in pressure is enough.
Here I have concentrated the color more on
the upper part because this color is going
to be the main color of that area.
Now I am using the next darker color with
several thin layers.
I am varying the pressure so as to get a gradation
of color.
Make it lighter towards the lightest color.
But never completely cover the lightest color
you already put down.
And you can see that I am correcting some
imperfections in between by using thin layers.
After adding sufficient layers with the second
color, I am moving on to the darkest color.
Just like I did before, I am starting from
the bottom towards the top.
Along with that I am varying the pressure
to get a thinner layer towards the top.
So that finishes the basic layering.
At this stage you can still see the white
of the paper showing through.
You should do layering up to this stage for
doing all other techniques except the second
technique I am going to discuss next.
So the difference between the other techniques
and this layering is that you should layer
again and again until the white of the paper
disappears.
This gives you the smoothest result but that’s
why it’s also the most time consuming.
So you have to repeat this layering process
back and forth until the paper is not showing
through.
Now that you have seen the process in real
time I will speed up the remaining process
and you can see the butterfly I did with the
exact same technique.
Like I said before layering is suitable for
skin or whatever object that needs perfect
seamless blending
Now coming to the 2nd method, I call this
burnishing because you have to apply the pencils
heavily from the very beginning so that the
paper is not showing through at any stage.
This has some advantages over previous layering
techniques.
This looks much more vibrant and has a better
contrast than layering techniques.
But there are several drawbacks as well.
The end results are not as smooth as the layering
technique, and you should have a collection
of wide variety of colors to start with.
And you cannot blend colors of different color
group with ease.
But in layering method you can use different
color groups and get a smooth gradation of
colors because of intermixing of colors.
So in this method, you have to heavily apply
the colors where they are most predominant.
Here I am only using 3 colors but if you are
going to draw an area with a wide color range
you have to use a lot more colors to match
the corresponding area.
After you apply the colors, you will have
a sharp edge between the adjacent colors.
So next thing you have to do is blend those
two adjacent colors till that sharp edge becomes
smooth.
For that you can use both the colors back
and forth and blend the colors on the paper
itself.
This technique can be easily done if you are
using a wax based pencil like Prismacolor
or Derwent coloursoft.
Whereas the layering technique is more suitable
for oil based pencils like faber castell polychromos.
This technique is much less time consuming
than the previous technique.
I took around 25 minutes to do the square
and the 1st butterfly but I finished this
box and butterfly within 15 minutes.
This technique is suitable for areas with
solid color or shiny objects like colorful
plastic and shiny fruits.
I don’t usually use this technique for my
drawings.
But I usually start with layering and finish
it with burnishing on drawing fruits and shiny
objects.
The next technique I am going to discuss is
Blending with blender pencil.
Like I said before you have to draw a color
gradation with the same technique I showed
you in the layering method before applying
the blender pencil.
The only difference is that you don’t waste
time by layering over and over until the paper
become saturated.
You just have to put down a basic color gradation
with sufficient layers.
Then all you have to do is to apply the blender
pencil heavily.
This flattens the tooth of the paper and the
color spreads evenly across the paper surface.
So this saves a lot of time by not having
to repeat the layering process again and again.
But this technique also has some drawbacks.
Blender pencils desaturate the darker colors
by dragging the strong pigments across the
paper.
So this gives a low contrast result.
And blender pencils tend to lower the vibrancy
of some colors by taking away the pigment.
So this makes blender pencils a useful tool
for blending light skin tones, where we don’t
want strong hues.
But I always prefer layering method for drawing
skin tones.
So that makes a blender pencil nearly useless
for me.
But I still use them for making colors a bit
lighter.
All I have to is to apply a thin layer of
the color and apply the blender pencil over
it.
This way I can make a slightly lighter color
if I want to.
And you should remember that before using
blender pencils you must put down a basic
color gradation.
Many beginners makes the mistake of not applying
the pencils properly before applying colorless
blender.
You cannot make a seamless color gradation
with the blender pencils alone.
So if you are starting with a blotchy layering
of colors, then the end result is also going
to be blotchy no matter how much you use the
blender pencils.
Now coming to the technique no.
4.
Blending using a solvent.
You can use solvents like an odorless mineral
spirit or turpentines.
They readily dissolves the pencils and covers
the paper easily.
And they dry fast without leaving any residues.
But I am using baby oil for this demonstration
because I have a bit more control with baby
oil.
Baby oil is also a mineral oil and dries fast
without leaving any residues but they don’t
dissolve color as fast as the other solvents
do.
You can try them all and decide what works
best for you.
And always make sure to use them in very small
quantities.
You don’t want your brush dripping with
the solvent.
I usually dip a flat synthetic brush in the
solvent and wipe of the excess with a paper
towel before applying.
So just like the previous technique you must
start with a reasonably good gradation of
colors.
It should not be very thin either.
You can drag the brush perpendicular to the
color gradation otherwise you may spread the
strong colors to the lighter side.
You can get a vibrant result instantly by
using solvent.
It’s very evident when blending colors like
reds and purples.
It instantly gives a rich color by dissolving
the pigment.
And you can layer pencils easily on top of
that and use the solvent again.
This way you can make very vibrant results.
In this demo I am only using a single layer
so this is not going to be very vibrant.
The drawback is that it doesn’t give you
a very smooth result.
But you can overcome this by layering again
and again up to a certain level.
This technique is suitable for the areas where
you need strong colors but don’t need a
perfect color gradation.
So this is my go to technique for drawing
birds, garments and initial layers on animals
before adding fur.
But since this method may oversaturate the
colors and don’t give a perfect color gradation
I never use this technique for drawing skin.
The final technique I am going to discuss
is the good old method of burnishing with
a white pencil.
For this method also, you need a basic color
gradation to start with.
Then you can use the white pencil to spread
the color evenly until the paper is not showing
thru.
Almost all pencil set come with a white pencil
so this method don’t need any extra tools
to start with.
This technique works better with wax based
pencils than oil based pencils.
And cheaper student grade pencils usually
don’t give a good result.
In this method you only have to apply the
white pencil heavily after drawing a basic
gradation of colors.
This gives you the least vibrant result of
all.
So if you want to make colors a bit less vibrant
and whitish, you can use this method.
You can also use other light colors similarly
but you will add that particular hue to final
drawing.
I used this technique only when I was a beginner.
But I sometimes use this technique to get
softer colors like in a flower petal.
You can also watch me doing this burnishing
in my lavender rose drawing tutorial here.
So that’s all for today.
Thank you so much for watching and don’t
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