Creative Problem Solving: Frost Nip
- Kim Bricker
- Jan 19, 2018
- 3 min read
I absolutely love the look of colored pencil art and it's probably one of my favorite mediums to work in. However, as I'm sure you've discovered, it's an incredibly unforgiving medium!
Today we are going to look at some of the problems I ran into while working on my newest colored pencil piece; Frost Nip. This drawing was completed using:
- Faber Castell Polychromos Colored Pencils
- Touch up Texture (Brush and Pencil)
- Titanium White Powder (Brush and Pencil)
- Paint Thinner (Eco House Citrus Thinner)
- Stonehenge Paper (shade: Natural)
Problem 1) Making Your Line Drawing Too Dark
Usually I make my own transfer paper by scribbling on the back of a blank piece of paper with a soft lead pencil, but this time I was feeling kind of lazy so I picked up some transfer paper. However, because I was used to using the handmade stuff, I used too much pressure and ended up with think black lines all over my fresh piece of Stonehenge paper!
Now, at this moment I probably should have grabbed a new sheet of paper and tried again, but I decided to try and fix it instead with Brush and Pencil Touch Up Texture and Titanium White. This sort of worked... but also created another problem to be creatively solved!
Problem 2) Blending in Colored Pencil Layered Over Titanium White and Touch Up Texture
By using the titanium white mixture I was able to make my line drawing less intense, but it also resulted in differently textured lines for me to work around.
Colored pencil over top of the touch up texture blends in pretty seamlessly... until you go over it with paint thinner. Now using paint thinner to blend is one of my favorite colored pencil techniques but when you use it over the titanium white mixture it rubs away some of the pigment layered on top, creating a halo effect.
However, if you don't add paint thinner then the areas with Touch Up Texture and Titanium White really do blend in quite nicely!
Problem 3) Difficulty Getting Fine Detail on Soft Paper
Stonehenge paper is definitely a soft paper and was excellent for creating a smooth, blurry background. However, when it came to the final layers of my drawing where I wanted to add fine detail, I found I was having a really hard time.
To solve this problem I started by emptying my pencil sharpener to make sure I was getting my pencils as sharp as possible. You can't get lazy when trying to get detail on soft paper! Even if your pencil isn't necessarily dull, keep sharpening it so you're always working with the sharpest point possible.
Also, I recommend not using paint thinner on your last few layers so you don't smudge the crisp details you worked so hard to achieve!
Problem 4) Getting Overwhelmed By Too Much Detail
Oh my gosh, Owls have A LOT of feathers! And, to make things even more difficult, there's not a whole lot of definition between the feathers, making it extremely easy to get lost in a sea of detail (I know I sure did while working on this project)!
My suggestion to you is to start by block in your shadowed areas first. This helps you keep track of where you are and what exactly you're working on.
I also suggest not working on one tiny area until you get all the detail in you possibly can. Get a good amount of information blocked in and then move onto another section for a little while. When you go back to an area after taking a break from it your brain will be able to notice details in the reference photo that it couldn't recognize before because it was so overwhelmed by the detail.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post! I put out a new blog post every Thursday, along with an accompanying YouTube Video!
If you're interested in looking at some of the problem I ran into working on last weeks acrylic painting You can check out my blog post: Creative Problem Solving: Ripple
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