Completely new to colored pencils? Join illustrator Susan Rubin as she helps you navigate the basics from choosing the best beginner-friendly supplies to completing four drawing projects: a pear, leaf, persimmon and tulip. With Susan’s techniques and step-by-step guidance, you’ll soon be creating your own colored pencil drawings with confidence!
Class Sessions
What You Need: Colored Pencils
10:31
Get started with a colored pencil primer as Susan explains the history behind colored pencils as well as the various types available, including which brands and palettes are best suited for beginners.
What You Need: Paper
3:49
Follow along as Susan goes over the different types of paper and their various qualities, including the best ones for colored-pencil beginners.
What You Need: Other Tools
8:38
Review everything else you need to get started from pencil sharpeners and erasers to blending pens, waxed paper and more.
Method: Mark-Making
12:39
Now it's time to put pencil to paper! In this lesson, Susan covers basic mark-making techniques to help you create different visual effects. Learn how to make effective strokes as you practice applying pressure to your marks.
Method: Layering & Edges
12:23
Continue exploring mark-making techniques as you learn to use a limited a palette to mix, layer and create any color! After that, Susan shows you how to create clean edges for clear, convincing shapes.
Method: Reference Tips
10:23
Find out how to edit and adjust your photos so you can get the best reference possible. Plus, learn how to achieve great reference material using your smartphone!
Method: Color Basics
24:34
Ready to dive into color? Explore the basics of color terminology as you learn to create a color wheel.
Method: Next Steps With Color
12:29
Continue your color exploration by learning to adjust value and saturation. Susan shows you how to shift color to light, dark, bright and dull.
Make It: Pear Part One
17:04
Start your first project, a green pear, using just three colors, none of which are green! Susan helps you create a value study (which will act as a roadmap for your finished project), transfer the image, select the palette and put down the initial layers of local color.
Make It: Pear Part Two
20:50
In this lesson, finish up your pear by building colors and depth. Find out how to fix mistakes, shade convincingly and create texture with blending. And, see how to replicate tiny dots and break up large areas of color for a more realistic look.
Make It: Leafy Greens
22:07
Practice mixing rich green hues as you start your second project, a green leaf. Susan guides you through drawing, value study and effective color selection. Then she helps you emboss vein lines on your leaf, layer for blended color, create shaded areas, depict 3-D forms and realistic, shiny texture.
Make It: Persimmon
58:25
Following the same process as above, start your third project, a persimmon. But this time add underpainting. Susan shows you how to cover large areas and create the fruit's unique textures, such as the white bloom.
Make It: Tulip
41:12
Wrap things up with your final and most challenging project, a tulip. Start by underpainting the color, then build layers slowly, creating effective shadows and color harmonies along the way.
Your Instructor
Susan Rubin
Susan Rubin's lifelong passion for drawing led her to study art and art history at Colorado College and the University of Exeter in England. After graduating, Susan became a product, interior and set designer for her own firms as well as the Discovery Channel and HGTV. In 1990, she discovered colored pencil botanical illustration at the Denver Botanic Gardens, where she’s been teaching for more than 15 years. Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibits. Susan is represented by Spark Gallery in Denver.
Bonus Material
Startup Library: Colored Pencil – Resources
Bonus Materials available for download after purchase.
FAQs
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