Hi,

this is my first attempt with color pencils. I want to try to help the viewer understand the leaf and the snails. For that I had to add color. However, I'm not satisfied with my attemp to try to give it volume. I prefer the look of the plain one but I understand I need to add some features to help depth perception. Can you help me? Here are my to attemps so far. Remember I cannot erase colored parts so I have to live with the thick right part of the leave.

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Thank you for your insight

Nathalie

PS: here is the original picture

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Hi Nathalie. Your drawing is beautiful. It looks like you just need to keep adding color to get your leaf darker. Maybe add some different colors in. You can lift color if you are careful. You can use Blu tac if you have any and even scotch tape will. Just don't stick it on the edge and pull to the middle or it might peel your paper. I learned that the hard way. I use scotch tape as I don't have Blu tac. I just have to be careful as you can't take off just what you want. Some surrounding area might get lifted too.

As for Blu tac, I understand it will take the color back to the white of the paper. And you can mold it to any shape or size you need for more control.

hi nat, long time no see...it is good to see you again. those are some pretty snails.

Hi Jangra,

Thank you for your time. I'm afraid just getting darker won't do the job since it's volume I'm tryng to achieve. I did try, under the green to add many colors, I have red, brown, yellow, blue, orange but it didn't give me the depth either. They don't show anymore however and maybe I should go back to them but I need to do something more. Thanks for the blu tac and scotch tape info I will keep it for further use.

Hi Kay,

thank you for your warm welcome. I've been following your work from time to time and you have evolved quite a lot! Your work is wonderful. I'm sure you could give me some advice on techniques that you have learned.

thank you nat, it is true, i have grown much here at drawspace. hang tight, jeanette or kim will be by soon with some help for you.those girls rock with the color pencils

Nat --

One thing that took me too long to realize about colored pencils, coming from working with graphite, is that "darker" doesn't mean "denser" anymore. You make darker regions either by using darker pencils of a given hue (i.e., limepeel -> apple green -> forest green) or by using complementary colors (i.e., use an underpainting of red to make a green region darker.) But in any case a given pencil is just so dark, and pressing harder or adding layers will not make it darker. If I were to give you specific advice, I'd grab Tuscan Red and add some light layers to bring the darker areas out.

For what it's worth, your drawing is gorgeous so far!

Hi never used CP but do paint. Depth is achieved by contrast which is the difference between the lightest and darkest areas of your image. To do this you need to know which way the light is shining on your subject. In your reference the light is coming from a single source on the left. In your drawing you have not established this light source. You need to render the Dark areas and the light areas. You don't need detail, you need more background and with the dark values that will help establish where the light is coming from.

I am not sure if it will ever look quite right with the snail in gray scale and the rest of the drawing in color. Maybe you might consider, using a kneaded eraser or blue tack to lighten up the graphite to the point of just reference lines and redoing it in CP? Just a thought .. but I guess it would be better to see how it looks after the light source has been estabilshed

So in a couple of words..
Establish your light source with darker values where they are in the reference photo
Add more of the background in the proper values as close to your reference as you can .
Make sure you preserve any areas that boarder a dark ares so the corresponding light values can be added.


Hope this help a little!

Very true indeed! Thanks for pointing that out. I was kind of getting there but not quite. This info will make my journey more efficient... if I decide to continue with color.

But I still need to understand where and what is needed to get depth, before I can do anything.

Thanks for your comment.

Ok you've given me much to think about. I understand your statement on finding the light and I will try that. I'll try to stick closer to the reference I suppose. I was trying to work on my own. In fact, for the leaf I was working with the negative, but the outcome is not satisfying. I will work more on my darks, but I still am wondering what to do with the "leaf veins".

By the way I made my images bigger cause I found our they were darn small.

Thanks

Something I else I should probably mention that may not be apparent to folks that are used to working in gray scale and just moving to color.. Shadows, what color are they? They are the same color as the surface they fall on only darker. They are never black unless they are shadows on a black surface. Not sure how you make them with CP, paint you can add tiny amounts of black or dark complementary color to your base to darken it.. if it appears the shadow is so dark it look black, purple brown and a touch of back can be used in your base to get that dark as black look. I am no expert and have a hard time using trial and error but I try and stay far away form pure black when it comes to shadows.

Hope this is helpful to you or others reading..

Thank you I had read about that in another forum.

Hi, Nathalie. Great drawing. Amazing details. What i want to say is that for the past month i was engaged in many color pencil drawings with a french site crayons de couleur that you can visit and see the many challenges and topics exclusively on color pencils.

Greetings from the imperial city of Xian, China, home to the famous terracota warriors.

Merci Elena, pour le commentaire et le site.

Dear Nathalie ,

If you want to be a little bit more sure about what range o colours would be the appropriate ones to give you tha right result , just start with lighter colours. Don't coulour all the sketch with them but only the parts that may contain the lighter ones. Then you can add the darker colours step by step and the mixture will give you the depth that you want. The lines that you may draw try to have the objects shape ( perhaps curved lines).

Also it doesn't have to be just green on the leaf. If you add some brown on the edges ( not all around it but on the darker ones ) it would make a little difference so that you can see the depth. For the lighter parts you can add some yellow too.

I would sudjest to start with simple drawings such as just the leaf and in a new drawing the leaf with the snail. I would be much easier to get used to the coloured pencils. I remember myself drawing roses ( that have many petals ) so that I can experiment with the shadows.

So good luck and I really believe that when you make another drawing you would be proud to see how much better you are getting on coloured pencils.

Garyfallia

Hey thanks,

I appreciate your comments they are all very reasonable. I have tried lighter colors. I am now up to the point that anything darker will serve for depth. I like the idea of the brown edges. Those colors, yellow, green, brown and red, are already under the green but I wil try to bring them out again. I will go back to the original picture for the lines. I started color just to save my snails, the drawing was too hard to understand. But I feel drawn to mixing graphite with some color. This first try is not too bad not to try again sometime. However I'm of the lazy type. I practice on finished drawings only, and get whatever I can from it, and then on the the next drawing.

I'm looking forward to working on it again soo, but now it's 23:00 and I'm too tired to get good results.Thank you for the advice, I will think about them

Nathalie

Make sure you upload the progress, I want to see it

Posted this morning! It's a tiny bit better.

Natalie, sometimes if I seem to have mucked up a piece and I find it hard to lay darks down any more, I will burnish with a white pencil and that takes tha colour back and I can reapply more colour that is smoother and and also the new layer seems to have more depth. Just try on some scrap pieces first - and remember it will only take a couple more layers (if that) after burnishing.

Just another idea that can save some areas of a pic. Good luck........they are great looking snails!

Your drawing is awesome. But I do see what you mean. I think you want to try to push your darker tones a little more. That would make the drawing pop. Because as it is you are using a lot of midtones but not a lot of darks. I hope that helps. Regardless, it's a great drawing!