C is for Color Pencil

It would be easy to spend the entire month writing posts on the letter C. C is for challenge, color, composition, creativity, crayons, children, cut paper, and more – all of which are relevant to my work. However, I am currently taking a class in Color Pencil so that is the winning topic for today’s post.

Though I’ve always had color pencil as part of my repertoire of favorite tools – I also have mixed feelings about working with them. They are slow, tedious and detail oriented (on the down side) but they are also user friendly, can result in incredible depth of color, and for the traveling part of my year, convenient, light weight and easy to carry. Also, the class was a gift.

And of course, as with every good class, it’s a chance to learn new things and revisit old ideas. So, I find myself thinking about color theory and how different mediums require different ways of using color. Since I’ve been mostly painting this year, I’m used to mixing colors on the palette or canvas, creating glazes and using a limited number of colors. Returning to the pencil world means using dozens of color choices and working in layers to create depth and shading.

Today’s image is a sketch of Chinese Lanterns that grow abundantly in my garden. It is a great subject to practice using pencils, and to prepare my thoughts for another small painting. This is done with Prismacolor pencils (my favorites) on heavy textured paper. The paper choice is a mistake because it lets in too much white from the paper. Live and learn.