#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils Watercolor Pencils/Dippy Method/Color Swatches

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils Homework for Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills Kourse over at SketchbookSkool.com. More playing: Faber-Castell Aquarelle watercolor pencils on Canson XL Bristol Smooth 100 lbs paper in a spiral journal. Color swatches and a test doodle.

Never painted with watercolor pencils this way before. So fun! The colors really pop. Just dip the pencil tip in the water and paint/draw. Must try some more sketches.

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils On the road...with a handful of colored pencils

#SBSColoredPencils  #PlaysWithPencils  Sketchbook Skool homework for the kourse Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills. At the 4H Fair, Brooklyn Ct Fairgrounds. Not easy to hold a sketchbook while standing next to other people, have a selection of colored pencils in one hand and try to sketch animals that insist on being moving targets with the other. 

Let's face it, Roz Stendahl I am not. Lessons learned for next time: bring a spiral sketchbook that will fold over for easier handling and more support; choose one subject and draw that animal over and over in several positions and with different expressions until I become more comfortable with its form; try finding a comfortable place to sit or bring a chair/stool. And a drink. And maybe snacks.

That green blob is a girl in a 4H shirt waiting to show off her calf. This was all sketched from observation in real time, not posed, and shared on-line. Stuck in limbo between Nature Journaling and Urban Sketching?

Some of my Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils. The journal is the one shown below:

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils Koh-I-Noor Woodless Colored Pencils: Color Swatches

  

#SBSColoredPencils  #PlaysWithPencils You know the old saying "I'm not an artist, I'm an art supply collector," well, taking a kourse with Sketchbook Skool will inspire you to get out those supplies and actually use them! I completely forgot I had these woodless Koh-I-Noor colored pencils and I had no idea that they were oil-based until I dragged them out to learn and play.

Because they are oil-based, I tried some Turpenoid on them for a blender. I used a Q-tip instead of a brush and I made a bit of a mess. Not at all deterred, I then just blended two colors together by layering one over the other. These pencils do play together quite nicely. 

I love the richness of these jewel-like colors and will have to play with them some more. Just in case you are wondering what this is, she's a "mer-chicken" or a "chicken-o-the-sea".

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils Photo-realism with Prismacolor Verithins and Koojse

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils

Sketchbook Skool's Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills Kourse. Playing with colored pencils to create photo-realism sketches with fakulty member Koojse.

Using Prismacolor Verithins in a Canson XL Bristol Smooth 100 lbs paper spiral journal. Verithins have a hard, thin core making them excellent for a detailed drawing. 

To create an illusion of form, I make the pencil marks follow the shape of the object. I use less pressure in areas for the highlights and add darker hues in areas for shadows.

Verithin swatches on Canson Bristol.

I must have bought all of the Verithins in blister packs because I couldn't find any tins or packaging in the closet. Currently, I keep them in a Global Arts leather pencil case. This case is designed to hold 120 thin pencils. There are two sections (the second section is not shown in the picture). Each section opens and closes independently with a zipper. The pencil holder straps are elastic. 

#SBSColoredPencils Another Method for Using Inktense Pencils on Bristol Paper

Inspired by Danny Gregory, to dip the Derwent Inktense pencil tips into water and then to draw with them. I wanted to show how colorful these pencils can be but couldn't use a lot of water to activate the inky goodness because this is Bristol paper in a Canson XL sprial journal.

My first try was small and tentative, not knowing how the pencils or the paper would react.

I liked the effect of both lines (mark making) and a more painterly look that was achieved by just dipping the tip of the pencil into water as opposed to having to use a paint brush with water after the drawing was complete. 

The fun was in the feeling of both drawing and painting at the same time. A bit less water meant a line. A bit more water created an inky wash. Hard to predict the right amount of water, but control was not a goal. While getting bold I found that an occasion blotting with a paper towel to pick up "puddles" worked wonders. The flowers were inspired by the Connecticut roadside wildflowers in July.

#PlaysWithPencils

Colored pencil play inspired by Sketchbook Skool's new Kourse Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills.

#SBSColoredPencils Derwent Set of 12 Coloursoft Colored Pencils

This pear was colored using a "hatching" technique with Derwent Coloursoft colored pencils in a Crescent Rendr journal. A colorless blender pencil was used to "finish" the piece.

The color selection with this set of Coloursoft pencils.

Colored pencil play inspired by Sketchbook Skool's new Kourse Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills.

#SBSColoredPencils KOH-I-NOOR Tri-Tone Colored Pencils

KOH-I-NOOR Tri-Tone colored pencils in a Crescent Rendr journal. 

Each pencil is a blend of three shades and draws with a multi-colored line. 

This is my "sketchy scribble" colored pencil technique. Love to do a fast sketch this way.

I layered several different pencils to try to get some volume on the tree trunk.

Colored pencil play inspired by Sketchbook Skool's new Kourse Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills.

#SBSColoredPencils Colored Pencils vs Markers in a Crescent Rendr Journal

Top flower was colored with Prismacolor Premier pencils and the lower flower with Spectrum Noir markers in a Crescent Rendr journal.

There are some darker darks on the marker flower, but that may be due to my color choices. The colors in this flower were burnished with a light color pencil and blended with a colorless blender.

Colored pencil play inspired by Sketchbook Skool's new Kourse Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills.

#SBSColored Pencils Secret Ancient Codex Inspiration Part 2

Two more in a series of flowers inspired by a secret 15th Century Italian Codex which may be a medieval pharmacopoeia hand-written in an unknown language.

Prismacolor Premier colored pencils in a Crescent Rendr journal. Colors where burnished using the lighter colored pencil in each color family and then blended with an alcohol colorless marker.

I outlined each color section with a black Micron pen. Because of the heavy build up of pigment, the pen tended to clog up. I scribbled on a blank piece of paper to "clean" the pen point. 

Colored pencil play inspired by Sketchbook Skool's new Kourse Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills.

#SBSColoredPencils Secret Ancient Codex Inspiration

First in a series of flowers inspired by a secret 15th Century Italian Codex which may be a medieval pharmacopoeia hand-written in an unknown language.

Playing with Prismacolor Premier Colored pencils in a Crescent Rendr journal. This journal is made especially for markers. I wanted to use an alcohol blender marker with the colored pencils so I choose this sketchbook. On these pages, though, there is only one swatch on which I used the blender.

I did not use the blender on this flower.

Colored pencil play inspired by Sketchbook Skool's new Kourse Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills.

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils A Picture Story: The Pequot (Art Process)

Inspired to color this folk tale-like picture after spending the day at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum. This is definitely not an exact copy of a piece of art at the museum, but there was a piece with figures (many more than in my small sketch) in a canoe that I was mesmerized with.

Inspired to get out bunches of colored pencils by the new Sketchbook Skool Kourse Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills.

I really don't need inspiration to get out the Derwent Inktense Pencils because I love using them but I never thought to use them on Bristol Paper so that inspiration came from the Kourse. Here is the swatch test.

The spiral journal is a Canson XL Bristol Smooth with 100 lbs paper. This first picture was disappointing because I normally love to add lots of juicy washes with the Inktense pencils to get vivid colors. 

The Bristol paper would not let me do that without buckling and pilling. I added some extra color with a few Prismacolor Premier pencils to satisfy my color crave. The figures have a black outline made with a Pentel Brush pen. This pen is great and will write over waxy pencil marks and most anything else. The dark outlines were inspired by several pieces of art in the museum. 

Studio Supervisor gives final approval.

The Pequot: A Picture Story (Video)

#SBSColoredPencils Blue Woodland Bunny

Having fun with colors in Sketchbook Skool's Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills kourse.

These pages were done with Prismacolor Premier colored pencils in a Crescent Rendr journal. This journal has smooth paper made especially for alcohol markers.

I used an alcohol "blender" marker to smooth the colored pencil transitions.

Sketchbook Skool's Colored Pencils: Sharpen your Skills Kourse.