Turquoise Stones Tutorial

Learn how to draw beautiful, realistic, 3D turquoise gem stones

Turquoise Stones Tutorial Turquoise Stones Tutorial

Welcome to this turquoise

Step 1.
gemstone tutorial ebook Start by drawing your stone shape and then decide the direction of your light source. You
need to darken all the edges, with more shade opposite the light source. I use dark grey
I have been drawing gemstones for a little over a year and absolutely love them. colour pencil and then add some dark blue (Derwent Coloursoft Indigo or Prussian
Blue). I do not do any blending at this stage.
They complete your pictures, look amazing with your doodle and tangle designs,
and they’re so easy to draw if you follow my steps. My light source is from the top left.

If you like my art, you can find me on

Instagram @WholeHeartedCreations

Facebook @WholeHeartedCreations

Blogspot WholeheartedZen.Blogspot.co.uk

Supplies
I have tried many different pens, pencils and other supplies. Here’s what I use…

• Paper – I like to use paper that has a little texture for

drawing gems. I have found that very smooth paper
won’t take lots of layers of colour and blending. My
Step 2.
Here, I am roughly marking out areas of the different colours I want to use. It’s important to
favourite paper brand is Pink Pig Sketchbooks – they do
use light, medium and dark colours – giving it a more natural look. I also mark in the
loads of different sizes along with several paper colours.
highlight area, where the light bounces off.
• Derwent Coloursoft colour pencils – Cloud Blue,
Baby Blue, Blue, Iced Blue, Electric Blue, Prussian Blue,
Indigo, Sea Green, Mid Grey mid brown pea green and
the Derwent blending pencil

• Blending stump for graphite shadows

• White Gellyroll pen for highlights

• Staedtler Unipin fineliners – 0.05, 0.01, 0.3 and 0.5

I prefer the Derwent brand, but there are many more different makes of coloured pencils,
which include Prismacolour, Faber Castell and Derwent Inktense. Other brands of fineliners
include Sakura Micron, Derwent Graphik and Faber Castell. There are many other white gel
pens including Uniball, but I find the Gellyroll goes on top of the coloured pencil more easily.

2 Wholehearted Creations © 2016 – Melissa Sansom Wholehearted Creations © 2016 – Melissa Sansom 3
Turquoise Stones Tutorial Turquoise Stones Tutorial

Step 3.
The next step is to build up layers of colours. If you look at turquoise
Step 6.
This shows the stone blended, but it still I have added some veins with a very sharp
gems, there are so many variations in colours, from very pale blue to very needs a little work. dark blue pencil (Indigo).
dark turquoise. Lots have other colours showing through like brown and
black. They often have dark veins snaking through too, and even some
sparkles. I would encourage you to have a look at how many different
sorts there are.

Step 4.
Now it’s time to put a layer of turquoise (sea green) over the top of the blue areas. You can
do it over the whole gem (but avoiding the highlight areas). I have also added some brown
colour to show the veins.

Top Tip
blend a
nd colo
Step 7.
Adding white pen as highlights is a little tricky as the gel
the sto
to mak
e it loo
u
ne is ro r in arcs. As
unded
it helps
it…do o k more 3
does not want to cover the waxiness of the pencil. I’ve ne D. Tr
and on colouring in a y
found having a spare bit of paper to hand can help get e wit rcs
and for h backwards
the ink flowing and trying to be as light as possible when wards
adding the highlights. and see lines…
th
differen e
ce.

Step 5.
I use my Derwent blending pencil to smooth
out the colouring. It makes all of the colours
bleed into each other, giving a much more
polished look. Use the blender in a circular motion
to help enhance the roundedness of the gem
stone. It is possible to use a white colour pencil
if you do not have a blender, although this will
obviously have an effect on the finished stone.

4 Wholehearted Creations © 2016 – Melissa Sansom Wholehearted Creations © 2016 – Melissa Sansom 5
Turquoise Stones Tutorial

Step 8.
Finally, it needs a drop shadow (mid grey) and I have used a bit of turquoise directly under
the stone and added a white highlight. This is not strictly accurate, as turquoises are solid
stones through which light cannot pass. It does, however, make the stone really pop and
look more 3d.

And that is it!

Here’s a turquoise on black

paper, which basically
follows the same principles,
remembering to add white
where you want your
highlights to be.

6 Wholehearted Creations © 2016 – Melissa Sansom