Splitcoast Tutorial: Pencil Monochrome

It's my turn to share a tutorial over on Splitcoast, and I chose a Pencil Monochrome technique - seems like I've been getting a lot of questions about pencils lately, and one intrigued me - "For pencil shading, it's often recommended to have 3 shades of a color: dark, medium, and light. What if you only have a medium shade?"  So today's tutorial shows how to work with minimal colors to achieve a variety of shades. I just used 2 pencils to color each of these 2 cards! By varying pressure, I was able to control the depth of color. 

This adorable bunny set is from The Cat's Pajamas - it's called Joyride.

I mentioned a few specific products in the tutorial, so I'll share those here. 

My favorite sharpener is the Kutsuwa Stad T'Gaal Pencil Sharpener - the dial on the sharpener controls the length of the pencil tip. If the pencils you use tend to break frequently, you'll love the shortest setting (#1)! It's the one I use the most. Love this sharpener.

This is the paper that I recommend for colored pencil - Canson XL Recycled Bristol. This particular pad has a smooth finish on one side of the paper and a "vellum" toothy finish on the other. The toothy side is the one I prefer, but if you're not sure, you've got both options to experiment with.

For burnishing pencils, there are a few options. Prismacolor makes a blender called the Prismacolor Colorless Blender. It's soft and waxy, much like their pencil line - it's the one I used in the video because I had one handy. Lyra also makes a blender called the Lyra Splender Colorless Blender that can be used with wax- or oil-based pencils. I have this one and I really like it - it blends smoothly and feels more dry/firm and less waxy than than Prismacolor blender.   Derwent sells a set called the Derwent Burnisher and Blender Set - those are actually not that different, and also sold separately - they work really well too. You can also use lighter colored pencils to burnish - they will add a little of their own tone to your work, so you might want to test them on another paper first.

If you're looking for more pencil resources, I have several blog posts comparing brands and their properties - you can find them all by clicking HERE. If you'd like to learn more about coloring with pencils (like everything I know!) I'd love to invite you to take one of my online pencil courses!  

Thanks for stopping by today! xoxo