Colour with confidence
Part 2 How to draw wood textures using a variety of coloured-pencil techniques, with Veronica Winters
Learning objectives
Practise rubbing, indenting and lifting out
Choose appropriate techniques for your subject
How to use directional strokes to create the effect of texture
Sometimes you want to go beyond regular shading to create unique textures in your coloured-pencil drawings. Four techniques to consider are rubbing, paper indenting, lifting out and the application of varied directional strokes, which are all shown in the following demonstration. Before you begin working in earnest, think about which techniques would work best in your drawing, based on your reference picture.
Rubbing
This technique works best on larger areas. You can place textured objects underneath the drawing paper and shade over them with medium pencil pressure. This technique works well on thin paper.
Indenting
Paper indenting is good for working on smaller details. This is a great technique to make white whiskers and thin leaf veins, and to make other super fine lines where leaving a thin line would not be possible otherwise. Plan to indent your paper before you begin shading the area.
Place a piece of tracing paper over the drawing paper and make indentations over it with a ballpoint pen. The heavier the pressure, the deeper the marks will indent into your paper. It might not work on very thick paper. In this drawing of the wood (above left) you can see long, irregular, horizontal lines I made using a ballpoint pen and tracing paper. I applied them in the beginning of the drawing process so when I began shading, those tiny white lines began appearing in the image. The darker
In this image you can see how the paper’s texture affects the drawing. While it can be frustrating to draw on textured paper in coloured pencil, sometimes it works because you can incorporate the paper’s texture into the overall design of your drawing. This drawing was completed on toned pastel paper that had lots of texture. I left a lot unblended, which added to the character of the wood.
I shaded, the more prominent they became. As this drawing is made on white paper, the highlights are paper indentations without the use of white coloured pencil.
In the following demonstration we’ll use varied strokes to describe texture as you vary the thickness, length and pencil pressure of a stroke to create texture.
You can also plan to use paper indenting for the highlights (the lightest lights).
Before you begin
While I used Strathmore 184lb tan mixedmedia paper, vellum surface for this demo, try working on a different toned paper with a different colour and thickness.
What I like about this specific drawing paper is that the pages are thick and smooth, but this drawing would look great on a toned paper that’s either blue, grey or even fuchsia, because you want to learn to pick toned papers that are the opposite to the general colour scheme of your drawing. The coloured pencils I use on this tan paper don’t pop as much as they would working on cool, toned drawing paper.
On transferring your image, Sarah transfer paper offers a variety of colours.
You may use a window light to transfer your sketch onto the drawing paper for the coloured pencil drawing but if you plan to work on toned or coloured paper, which is usually very thick and the window light doesn’t pass through it well enough, you have to use light transfer paper to transfer the outlines. There is also an option of using a light box to transfer the outlines onto toned paper.
The transfer paper is made in rolls and sheets. Consider the size of your drawing projects when you buy the paper. Now let’s begin the demonstration!
Step 1 Image transfer
Transfer the outlines using yellow transfer paper or use a graphite pencil with light pencil pressure to sketch out the outline. Erase unnecessary lines with a kneaded eraser. I used Prismacolor black with the lightest pencil pressure to map out the drawing and Prismacolor white to mark the strongest lights.
Step 2 Place lights and shadows
1 In this step I worked on the correct placement of major shadows using just two colours: black and white. I used a very sharp point of the coloured pencil to define the edges of the lock.
2 When you shade the darkest areas, pay attention to pencil direction. Use soft, circular strokes to shade the lock and longer, uneven strokes to define the pattern of the wood. A very sharp but soft black pencil, like Prismacolor or Polychromos, works well for this technique.
Step 3 The lock
1 I introduced colour to the lock slowly by shading almost the entire object with Faber-Castell Polychromos ultramarine. White highlights stayed white, but I overlapped the blue over black to make soft transitions. Strokes should be minimal, which is why I used circular motions to complete the task.
2 This is a good place to use paper indenting to make the highlights, but this is optional. If you continue shading over those paper indentations, they’ll show up as fine lines that you could fill in later with white pencil.
Step 4 Define the texture of the wood
I went back to the wood and defined the texture of it, still working in just two colours: Prismacolor Premier black and white. The idea was to layer all the colours over it that would blend the original drawing so this texture, which consists of varied strokes, must be very crisp.
Step 5 Filling in the light to mid-tones The lock
To draw black metal realistically, you need to observe the colours you see in the black. I saw a play between cool blue-black and warm brown-black in the middle tones. This determined my colour choices. I used Faber-Castell Polychromos ultramarine to define the bluish areas in black metal. Now we can work on the warm passages in black metal using brown coloured pencils that could vary. It just depends how much pencil pressure you use to shade with. In this drawing I layered Prismacolor Premier dark brown and Faber-Castell Polychromos burnt ochre for the most part. I shaded with Prismacolor Premier 50% cool grey around the highlights on the lock, which blended the edges well. I kept re-establishing the sharpness of the edges in black to add definition.
The wood
1 I used a mix of the following colours to shade over the texture, previously done in black pencil: Prismacolor Premier dark brown, Faber-Castell Polychromos orange glaze, FaberCastell Polychromos burnt ochre, Faber-Castell Polychromos terracotta and Caran d’Ache Pablo lemon yellow. I used these colour combinations to shade in broad strokes that covered the entire drawing so no space remained uncoloured.
2 Each part of the wood has slightly different texture, tone and colour. If the area was light, I used lemon yellow to shade over it. If the area was a mid-tone and leaned toward red, I shaded with a mix of burnt ochre and orange glaze.
There are numerous colour combinations you can have using similar colours in the family of browns, for example Polychromos Pompeian red and orange glaze give a warm red hue.
3 The more pencil pressure you use, the more it will blend and intensify. My goal was to blend the lock as much as I could, but leave the wood with some texture.
Step 6 More layering and creating texture
I added Prismacolor dark brown in the wood over the black lines I established before. This unified and deepened the colour. Each part of the wood had a different design and colour. I worked on one section at a time, shading with a mix of Polychromos orange glaze, burnt ochre, terracotta, Pompeian red, burnt umber, sanguine. I added Caran d’Ache Pablo lemon yellow to lighten the wood.
To make the highlights on the wood I used Craft Smart oil-based paint pen in white, as I wanted to try something different from paper indenting. White coloured pencil was too thick and pale to place the tiny highlights I saw in the wood. I don’t think it worked as well as I hoped it would, because the colour of the pen was stark white and didn’t have the warmth needed for this work. I would therefore suggest you try paper indenting using a ballpoint pen and tracing paper before you begin shading. This would create very fine highlights that you could fill in with a sharp point of white or off-white coloured pencil if you draw on tan paper, or leave the indentations uncoloured if you draw on white paper.
Before you finish, step back from your picture and check it for contrast, sharpness of details and softness of shadows.
Fix the drawing with a final fixative for dry media. Spray it outdoors. I recommend Grumbacher matte spray for dry media.
The finished drawing Antique Lock, coloured pencil on tan paper, 12x9in. (30.5x23cm)