Colored Pencil Secrets for Success by Ann Kullberg

Author:Ann Kullberg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2011-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

Accurately placed highlights + soft edges. This gives objects form and shape.

No highlights = flat. That nice soft curve of the strap is now completely absent and it looks flat and lifeless.

Fur strokes. Very short fur has invisible strokes. Longer fur follows the various directions and is different lengths.

LEADING PAIR

by Lene Daugaard

11" × 13" (28cm × 33cm)

colored pencil on paper

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Lene did a wonderful job with the highlights and fur in this piece.

HELPING HAND

FUZZY RECEDES

There’s one area where it’s important for the edges to be clean and sharp but they’re soft and fuzzy instead. The harness and neck edges are nice and clean, but the edge of the nose is blurry and soft. Since sharp edges tend to come forward and fuzzy, soft edges recede, I think making this edge soft was a mistake. In the reference photo, this area does have a soft edge, but I’m guessing that’s because the horse moved ever so slightly, making this area slightly out of focus.

MULTIPLE HUES BUILD COLOR

When creating a color like the warm chestnut of these horses, it’s easy to rely entirely on yellowish brown colored pencils such as Goldenrod and Yellow Ochre, orangeish browns such as Burnt Ochre and Sienna Brown and other browns. However, when I look at the reference photo, I see blue, purple, yellow and even hints of pink! I’m not suggesting that Lene should have included all these, but when building a color, use multiple hues to increase the richness of that color. When only browns are used (even when using an array of browns), colors tend to look a bit flat and uninteresting. Use green under blues, or pinks under grays, etc., to really liven up your colors.

VALUE DIFFERENCES CAN BE TOO GREAT

Lene’s been careful to include values from light to midtone to dark. However, one area on the horse’s chest almost looks like a gash, what I call over-seeing. At the least, it looks like a very deep cleft. Lene made value differences in this area too dramatic. If you look at the photo you can see that the value changes there are much more subtle than in the art. These sorts of areas can be tricky, and the best way to avoid this sort of mistake is to vigilantly use a value finder HELPING HAND to help you see the correct value differences.

KEEP COLOR TONES CONSISTENT

Lene’s subtle tones fit perfectly with the story of this piece. There’s just one area, though, where some brighter colors crept in. One part of the harness has much brighter intensity than any other color in the entire piece. If this had been intentional, in order to bring focus to this section, that would be fine.

BACKGROUND AS SETTING

Lene made very positive changes to the background from the reference photo, and I like very much that her light, soft, muted colors in both the sky and grass keep the background in the background. However, I think there are a couple of improvements that could be made.

The small blue area

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