6 Ways for How to Blend Colored Pencils – You Can Learn Today!
I’d be lost without my colored pencils. They have been coloring my world since 2001! They are such a wonderfully responsive medium that is relatively easy to learn, is inexpensive, very portable and produces great art!
But did you know how blendable they really are? And how important it is to be able to blend them in your art? This article will uncover 6 ways for how to blend colored pencils so that you may create stunningly beautiful pieces!
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1. Layering for Color Magic
This type of blending is for creating new colors or to enrich, tint, dull or shade another color. In Basic Colored Pencil Techniques, I discussed that colored pencils cannot be mixed in the way we mix paint on a palette. Instead, they are layered in order to mix colors right on the art paper. In this way, layering is in fact blending those colors to create new colors.
2. Chill out on the Pressure
Whenever you wish to have a color fade to form a gradient type of blending or simply have a color end without forming a hard line of demarcation, my motto is, blend it where you end it. To do this, you will want to let up gradually on your pressure to form a seamless transition from one color to another or to simply fade out a color.
3. Erasers – Not Just for Boo-Boos
I really love the White Pearl Eraser by Papermate.. They are 100% free of latex and resist smudging.
4. Rub a Dub Dub
Sometimes, your subject requires a gentle look – similar to a soft focus portrait. One of those subjects are flowers, particularly close-ups of petals. I will often use a cotton q-tip or cotton ball to gently rub the application.
I do this especially on the first layers – this will virtually eliminate the look of the strokes and push the color into the valleys, gently toning the paper with the color.
You can also use facial or bathroom tissue, blending stumps/tortillions, although not my first choice for this purpose as they are really more appropriate to use to blend and soften the look of graphite.
5. Burnish With a Flourish
If you desire to have a painted look to your colored pencil art, you will want to virtually eliminate the “tooth” of the paper. Your art paper should have “tooth” (remember that’s the teeny, tiny hills and valleys in the paper’s surface) in order that you may successfully layer and blend colors.
After many layers, your paper may still be showing a “grainy” look or tiny specs. In this case, you have three choices – you may leave it grainy (some people like to be able to tell it’s colored pencil), burnish the tooth away using heavy pressure or simply use a type of solvent.
Burnishing is using very heavy pressure to completely eliminate the tooth of the paper. That is, colors are blended into the paper mechanically. The process is that the heavy pressure creates friction, thereby creating heat that will slightly soften the wax and pigment. This softened pigment will glide right into the remaining valleys of the paper.
Although burnishing can be done with color or white, I recommend using the
Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencil – Colorless Blender
If you see “crumbs” as you burnish, that is just the extra pigment that sloughs off from the friction from the heavy pressure action of burnishing. This is perfectly normal and won’t effect your drawing. But, you should use a brush (not your hand) to gently sweep the crumbs off your paper.
6. Gentle Solvents – Is There Such a Thing?
Another way to blend colors for a painterly look is to use solvents. The Prismacolor Premier Double-Ended Brush Tip Marker – Colorless Blender
The Marker is a bit “fume-y” but not as bad as a sharpie, in my opinion.
Baby Oil is another gentle solvent (and smells a lot nicer!) that will beautifully blend your application. I will usually apply a tiny amount with a q-tip. It’s easy to overdo, so I recommend practicing on scrap first as to how much to get on the q-tip and how to apply.
Rubbing Alcohol is another solvent that works similarly to the marker. I also use this with a q-tip or tiny piece of cotton. However, just like baby oil, it can be overdone and lift off or dull your color that you worked so hard to get.
Not-So-Gentle Solvents
I did not include this section as a way for how to blend colored pencils because I do not use them. Why? Well, simply put, they’re too toxic for me.
Turpentine speaks for itself. It emits highly toxic vapors and fumes. Odorless mineral spirits – don’t be fooled- you can’t smell them but they nonetheless emits toxic vapors.
What about the safer alternative mineral spirits? Well some may say they are a safe alternative because they are less toxic so it reduces your exposure. Well, they may not be as toxic but still are. Why take that risk when there is really no need to use them?
Honestly, I just don’t think the medium of colored pencils requires the use of harsh chemicals when there are so many other products and techniques to blend them.
Blending Rules!
There’s no getting around it. To create quality colored pencil artwork, learning to blend them is imperative. Blending is really part and parcel in using this medium. Do try some (or all!) of the 6 ways for how to blend colored pencils outlined in this article for very cool effects and a lot of fun. I think you will be amazed!
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.
Thanks for visiting!
Have an artful day!
Elaine
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Comments
I really appreciate your website because I am a Graphic Designer. I love the way you go into detail to explain each color and what it’s used for.
Thanks, Peggy. Glad you liked it.