6

Common
Colored Pencil
Mistakes
AND HOW YOU CAN AVOID THEM!

C A R R I E L . L E W I S
W W W . C A R R I E - L E W I S . C O M
Colored pencil mistakes.

If you've been drawing for any length of time, you've made them.

We've all done it. Made some mistake with a drawing that frustrates us at best and can
necessitate starting over at worst. Don't tell me I'm the only one who's ever done that!

Artists like learning new ways of doing things. We want to be more creative and more
productive. We want to learn how to do things in the best possible way. And we usually
want to learn as fast as possible, leaving out all the miscues, wrong turns, and mess-ups.

Most of the time, though, the best way to learn how to do something right is by doing it
wrong. I'm not sure why that is beyond the thought that doing something wrong is often
so disappointing - maybe even disgusting - that we don't want to do it again.

So we remember those disappointing and disgusting errors.

Whatever the reason, I've been disappointed and disgusted a lot in the twenty years since
I started colored pencils. A lot of things to remember NOT to do!

With the hope of helping you avoid some of my mistakes, I want to share six things I've
learned how to do right after first doing them wrong!

Since it doesn't do a lot of good to tell you my mistakes without offering solutions, I'll also
give you a tip or two to overcome each mistake.

Just in case you find yourself doing the same things.

Carrie
Six Common Colored Pencil Mistakes

Mistake #1: Stopping Too Soon

The first mistake I made was thinking
a drawing was finished before it was
actually finished. This is probably the
number one mistake colored pencil
newbies make and it's a big one.

There are probably a lot of reasons

for this almost universal problem. For
me, it was because I came from an oil
painting background and I knew about
how many layers of paint it usually
took to finish an oil painting.

So I did about the same amount of

work on colored pencil pieces. They
never looked quite right, but I couldn't
figure out why for quite some time.

I also didn't know that much about

colored pencils when I started using
them. There was no YouTube. There
were no tutorials. There wasn't even much of an internet back in those days, so it was all
trial and error. Lots of it.

This is one of my first finished horse portraits. It doesn't look too bad, but when I look at
it now, it's easy to see that another hour or two, and a few more layers of work would
have improved it greatly.
How to Avoid Stopping Too Soon
The best way to stop making this mistake is to get past the idea that a drawing is finished
when you have color everywhere. Even when you have a reasonable amount of detail
everywhere, don't automatically assume the drawing is finished.

Colored pencils are a naturally slow medium. It takes a lot of layering to get the same look
with them that you might be able to get with oils, acrylics or watercolors. Lots of work
with a little bitty pencil.

So here's one way to get from the "I think it's done" to the "Now it's finished" stage.

Color over all of the drawing

When you think a drawing is finished, set it aside for a while. When you look at it again,
give it an honest evaluation. Is there anything you can do to make it better? Do that thing.

Look for the next thing to improve. Do that. Continue until you cannot honestly see
anything to improve upon. Continue that process until the drawing is as good as you can
possibly make it.

I've found that it usually takes a couple of evaluations to find all the areas that need
improvement, AND that I have the skill to improve upon.

But the extra time almost always results in a better drawing, and always eliminates the
problem of stopping too soon.

Color over all of the drawing and finished

Mistake #2: Destroying Highlights
I was an oil painter for nearly twenty years before I started with colored pencils. I was
accustomed to being able to add opaque highlights over everything else because oil paints
are well suited to that process.

Colored pencils, on the other hand, are not.

I started with Prismacolor pencils because that's what was available when I first started
using colored pencils. I didn’'t shop online (it wasn't widely available way back then) and I
had no idea there were other brands of colored pencils.

Or that Prismacolor pencils were wax-based or that there were oil-based pencils.

I used what I had, and what I had wouldn't allow me to add highlights over everything else.
Usually because there was already too much pigment and wax on the paper, but also
because all colored pencils are more or less translucent. Lighter colors simply disappear
when applied over dark colors.

So I was forever creating colored pencil artwork with few or no bright highlights.

And I hated them!

How to Avoid Destroying Highlights
The only way I found to avoid destroying highlights was to outline them before I began
shading. It was much easier to work around highlights if I knew in advance where they
were. It's still all-too-easy to layer color over the highlights, but it happens much less
frequently than it used to.

I've also started outlining shadows, and I begin this outlining with the line drawing. The
heaviest lines are the outside edges. I use a medium weight dotted line to define the
strongest shadows and a light, dotted or broken line to outline highlights. Those lines are
all transferred when the drawing is transferred, so I have a clear map for developing
highlights and shadows.
I've also learned how to lift color after it's on the paper. For highlights with extremely
soft edges, I now glaze color lightly over the highlight, then lift color from the brightest
areas with an eraser, mounting putty, or tape.

It's also possible to burnish a lighter color over a darker color to create a subtle highlight.
This is easier on some papers than on others, but can be effective when you don't need a
really bright highlight.
Mistake #3: Not Getting Dark Enough
This is another one of those problems
that seems widespread among new
artists, and even some of us who have
been using colored pencils for a while.
We just don't want to draw those
really dark values.

Even when that's the right thing to do.

I'm not sure why that is, beyond the

fact that it's so doggone difficult to
fix mistakes with colored pencils.
Especially in the later stages. I don't
know about you, but I have an innate
horror of totally messing up a drawing.
The closer to completion, the greater
the horror.

So gritting my teeth and darkening values as necessary can still be a huge problem! It
seems so easy to settle for not-quite-so-dark dark values, and that's the mistake!

This is a nice drawing. I still like it after all the years since I drew it. But the darkest values
aren't quite dark enough, so even though it looks well-modeled and rendered, it still looks
the slightest bit flat.
How to Get Dark Values Dark Enough
The best thing I can suggest for this is to photograph or scan your drawing and tinker
with the values in a photo editor. Increase the contrast so the darks get darker and the
lights get lighter. You probably won't have to do very much of that before you see the
value of those values.

You don't need to make huge adjustments with the photo editor. Just a little change is
quite likely to show you the advantage of darkening the dark values. I increased the
contrast on this drawing just a little bit, but it makes a big difference.

The light values are washed out in the photo editor, but they won't be washed out in your
drawing.

However, if you take your courage in hand and darken the dark values, the light values will
appear brighter and your drawing will begin to come to life!
Mistake #4: Getting Too Dark Too Soon
I like my colored pencil drawings to look
like my oil paintings. It is possible, but it
takes a light hand and lots of layers.

When I was first getting started with

colored pencils, I didn't know that, and
I often put too many dark values on the
paper too early in the drawing process.

And often over the highlights (see

Mistake #1).

This horse portrait is one of a set of

three that I drew based on photographs
taken at a Morgan Horse show. The
other two went to new homes quickly
when I took them to the next Morgan
Horse show. I still have this one.

The reason (I think) is that it's so dark overall that there isn't much life in it. I didn't put
enough reflected lights into the shadows, and the highlights in the rest of the horse are
too dark, too. The brightest spot is the bright highlight on the red nose band. Nice
highlight, but the wrong center of interest.
How to Avoid Getting Too Dark Too Soon
Use light pressure and light colors at the beginning of the drawing.

Glaze colors carefully and work slowly to avoid getting too dark too quickly.

The illustration below shows the drawing at an early stage (left) and finished. Even with
darker colors, this technique helps you keep from going too dark to quickly.

Also use harder, dryer pencils like Prismacolor Verithin pencils for work in the first stages.
They go onto the paper more lightly and are easier to erase if necessary.

They also contain less wax, so you can add a lot of layers without filling in the paper
tooth. Because they contain less wax, softer pencils can be applied over them with ease.

If you have a naturally heavy hand, practice drawing with lighter pressure. It will seem
difficult and possibly counterproductive at first, but learning to draw with a lighter touch
will help you keep from getting too dark too soon.

And I can guarantee that!

Mistake #5: Giving Up on Drawings Because They're Ugly
Now I'm going to start meddling.

One of the biggest problems I have with every colored pencil project is the Ugly Phase. It
doesn't matter how excited I am to begin a project or how well it turns out, it goes
through at least one Ugly Phase. Guaranteed.

It's difficult to show you a drawing in the Ugly Phase, because it probably wouldn't look
ugly to you. But you know what I'm talking about. Right?

The Ugly Phase is when nothing you do turns out the way you want or expect it to.

The drawing looks like a failure headed for the trash.

You just want to forget all about it and start something new.

Sound familiar? I had times like this with oil paintings, too, so it's not just a colored pencil
problem. And as a point of fact, the Ugly Phase itself isn't the problem. The real problem
is letting the Ugly Phase get to us to the point that we give up on the drawing.
How to Avoid Giving Up on a Drawing at the Ugly Phase
The most important thing I've learned about colored pencil drawing (and most artwork) is
that every piece goes through an awkward or Ugly Phase. At some point, a drawing starts
to look hopeless.

But I've also learned that a drawing can go from looking hopeless to looking finished
almost from one stroke of the pencil to the next. I can't explain it but I know it happens.

The best thing you can do is accept the fact that you will hit an Ugly Phase and determine
ahead of time to work through it. But that doesn't always work, does it? So here are a
few things I do to defeat the Ugly Phase.

Tip 1: Set the drawing aside for a while. Maybe over night, maybe for the weekend.
Chances are that when you go back to it, the Ugly Phase will have disappeared. And if it
hasn't, at least it won't look so bad.

Tip 2: Cover all of the drawing except the area you're working on. Focus on that part,
then cover it and move to the next area.

Tip 3: Maybe the real problem is

that you're stressed or tired.
Take a break! It doesn't matter
what you do, a ten-minute break
cures a lot of ugliness!

Tip 4: If the problem is with a

specific part of the drawing, work
on another part of the drawing.
It's quite possible that doing
something - even just a very small
part of the drawing - well will cure the ugliness you see in other parts of the drawing.
Mistake #6: Giving Up on Drawings Because They're Taking Too Long
Colored pencil art takes time to do. It takes a lot of time to do it justice, especially if
you're a detail-oriented artist or you enjoy doing large pieces.

I used to do larger pieces than I do now. The largest was 24 x 30 inches. The average was
11 x 14. It took a long time to finish those pieces, and I started a lot of them over or
abandoned them altogether for one reason or another.

Quite often, I just got tired of them. New drawings started to look real attractive and a lot
more exciting simply because I was so tired of working on whatever I was working on.

It's oh-so-easy to give up on a large or time-consuming drawing when you get tired of it.
How to Avoid Giving Up on a Drawing that's Taking Too Long
If you tend to work all over a drawing at the same time, cover everything except one
element of the drawing. Cut an opening in a clean sheet of paper, lay that paper over the
drawing so just a part of it shows. Work on that element to near completion, then move to
another element.

You might also try working section by section. Divide the drawing into sections by the
square inch (or square foot or whatever size works best.) Finish or nearly finish that
section, then move to the next. Keep the edges between the sections soft so you can
blend them together. When the drawing is nearly finished all over, work on the entire
piece again to do whatever fine-tuning is necessary to finish the drawing.

Another method that works well for me is to have more than one piece in progress at the
same time. If I get tired of one, I move to the other. You can alternate by the day or by
the week, or simply move to the second drawing whenever you get tired of the first one.

Or you could do what I do now most of the time and work small. Drawings that are 9 x 12
or smaller take a lot
less time to complete
than large drawings,
and you can still get
a decent amount of
detail at that size.

You can also try

working with plain
backgrounds. Let
the paper color be
the background as
shown here.
Don't Let My Mistakes Become Your Mistakes
These challenges are not, by any means, the extent of my mistakes! I also confess that I
still struggle with all of these challenges once in a while and with a couple of them
routinely.

I hope that by shedding a little light into the dark recesses of my art experience, I've
helped you see that it's normal to experience things like this.

I also hope you've discovered that these problems are not insurmountable by sharing
solutions as well as problems.
About Carrie
Carrie L. Lewis has been painting and drawing since she was
old enough to hold a crayon. In the late 1990s, Carrie began
doing more colored pencil work, which is now her primary
medium. Her focus has shifted from portrait work to teaching
through her blog. She currently offers tutorial downloads,
online courses, and coaching.

She is also the publisher of CP Magic, a monthly magazine for

colored pencil artists.

Her favorite subjects to draw are landscapes, horses and

other animals, most notably the cats that she and her husband, Neal, have rescued over
the years..

Connect with Carrie

Teaching Website & Blog
Art & Portrait Website
Send Carrie an Email