Coloured Pencil Studies

Inspiration & Exercises

Please find here some inspirations and exercises for the use of coloured pencil and charts to help you doing some work at home.

The best white paper for coloured pencil drawing is Quill, Stonehenge or hotpressed Fabriano paper. The most suitable brand for coloured paper is either Mi Teintes Pastel Paper or Mi Teintes Tex. Overall there is no general quality difference between wax and oil based pencils. If you are not sure what pencils to buy and general information about this medium go to my article about Coloured Pencils or our material list for further guidance.

Happy drawing!

Martina's Coloured Pencil Article
This article covers the history of the humble coloured pencil, the advantages of using this medium and brand comparisons with images as well as popular choices.

The 3 Main Coloured Pencil Techniques

LAYERING
Very Slow
This is the slowest but finest of all methods in coloured pencil.  Its appearance is soft, smooth and matt with a delightful, gentle attitude. The pencil needs to be extremely sharp at all times and the pigment is added with no pressure and many layers.
BURNISHING
Fast / Medium
The burnishing technique is the richest and most vibrant method of all. It appears bold, almost painted with strong colours. This technique is applied with more pressure to the pencil, an almost smudging of colours into each other wherever blended.
COLOURED PAPER
Very Fast
The fastest of all techniques is when drawing on coloured paper, from a mid-toned to dark paper.  Both smooth or textures look fine. Either the layering and burnishing technique can applied on colours paper, yet less layers are required. 

Coloured Pencil Studies on Drawing Paper

Each image is downloadable as an A4 printable file. 

Coloured Pencil Studies Drawing Flowers