Colored Pencil Techniques for Beginners

Colored pencils are the most forgiving tool in the coloring box. They go where you point them, they work on most papers, and a light first layer can still be changed later. The difference between a flat, scribbly page and one that glows is not a fancy set. It is a handful of techniques you can practice on any free page in an evening.

Start with pressure

Pressure is your volume knob. The Wisconsin 4-H Drawing and Painting guide (opens in a new tab) puts it simply for pencil work: only a slight amount of pressure is needed for thin lines, and heavier pressure gives broad, dark lines. The same idea holds for colored pencil. Light pressure gives a pale, see-through layer with paper peeking through. Heavy pressure gives a strong, solid color.

Try this warm-up on scrap paper:

1. Draw a row of five small boxes.
2. Fill the first box with the lightest touch you can manage, barely resting the pencil on the paper.
3. Press a little harder for each box, until the fifth is as dark as that pencil will go.

Keep that strip next to you while you color. Most of the time you will work in boxes one to three, and save the heavy end for the final layer.

A few habits help:

• Hold the pencil farther back for light layers. It naturally lightens your touch.
• Keep a sharp point for small spaces and edges, and a slightly rounded point for broad areas.
• Turn the page, not your wrist, so you can always stroke in a comfortable direction.

Layer instead of pressing hard

Beginners often press hard on the first pass to get bright color. The trouble is that a heavy first layer can fill the paper's texture, leaving little room for more color on top. Instead, build color in thin coats.

In a demonstration for The Artist's Magazine, colored pencil artist Gary Greene layers each color area in a planned order (opens in a new tab) and repeats the process until the pencil covers the paper. You can use the same approach on a coloring page:

1. Lay down a light coat of your base color over the whole shape.
2. Add a second coat, slightly firmer, where you want more color.
3. Add a darker or neighboring color on top in the shadow areas.
4. Repeat until the shape looks rich and even.

Layering also lets you mix colors right on the page. Light yellow under light blue gives you a green you mixed yourself, and a touch of red over brown warms it up. Test mixes on a scrap first so you can see the result before it goes on the picture.

Work from light to dark

It is easy to darken a color and very hard to lighten one, so it pays to start light. The Greene demonstration explains that the lighter areas are colored first so the darker pigments don't contaminate the light tones.

This is really about value. The Andy Warhol Museum's color terminology handout (opens in a new tab) defines value as the lightness and darkness of a color. Before you begin, decide where the lightest and darkest parts of the shape will be, then:

• Color the light areas first.
• Add middle values next.
• Finish with the darkest values in small, deliberate touches.

Blend two colors smoothly

To move from one color to another without a hard line:

1. Color the first color from one side, easing off the pressure as you approach the middle.
2. Color the second color from the other side, also easing off as you reach the middle.
3. Go back and forth across the overlap with light strokes of both colors until there is no visible edge.
4. If the join still looks rough, go over the whole blend with a light color or a white pencil to soften it.

Small, overlapping circles or short back-and-forth strokes give the smoothest blends. Long, fast strokes tend to show.

Burnish for a polished finish

Burnishing is the final, heavy-pressure stage. The Greene demonstration describes it as layering and blending until no paper tooth, the slight texture of the paper, shows through the colored pencil layers. He finishes by going over each color area with a colorless blender pencil.

To try it:

• Build up several layers first. Burnishing works on top of color, not instead of it.
• Go over the area with firm pressure using a colorless blender, a white pencil or the lightest color in the area.
• Work in small circles until the surface looks smooth and slightly shiny.

Save burnishing for last. Once the paper texture is filled, it is hard to add more layers, so make sure you are happy with the colors first.

Shade in a consistent direction

Before you shade, choose where the light is coming from, say the top left corner. Shadows then fall on the opposite side of each shape, and you can keep that choice consistent across the whole page.

The direction of your strokes matters too:

• On flat shapes, keep strokes going one way within an area so the texture looks even.
• On round shapes, like petals, fruit or an animal's body, curve your strokes along the shape.
• For texture, use short, parallel lines (hatching), or cross a second set of lines over the first for a darker shadow.

Plan your highlights

Highlights make a picture look shiny or rounded, and the brightest one is the white paper itself. A glossary from the Brooklyn Museum (opens in a new tab), written about watercolor but useful for any medium, describes three ways to make highlights: reserving areas of white paper so color never covers them, adding white or light-colored pigment on top, or removing color to recover the white of the paper.

On a coloring page that means:

• Reserve: decide where the shine goes before you start, and color around it with a light touch.
• Add: use a white or very pale pencil to soften and lift an area that has gone a little dark.
• Remove: dab gently with a kneaded or soft eraser to lift some color from a light layer.

Reserving works best, because it is much easier to keep a highlight than to bring one back.

Keep practicing

Techniques stick when you use them often. Pick one skill per page, such as smooth blends on one picture and planned highlights on the next, rather than trying everything at once. When you are ready to choose colors with more confidence, read Color Theory for Coloring Pages. For intricate designs, How to Tackle Detailed Adult Coloring Pages has more strategies.

Try it

Pick a page with big, simple shapes for your first practice, then move on to more detailed art.

• Flowers are perfect for blending and highlights. Start with the flower coloring pages.
• Try layering greens and shading petals on the botanical art from A Garden in Bloom.
• Practice shading direction on feathers with the bird coloring pages.
• Ready for more detail? Try the animals from Nature's Therapy.