Live Lessons: Peacock with Colored Pencils

In Peacock with Colored Pencils, you’ll immerse yourself in a richly layered, expressive drawing project that guides you through crafting a vibrant peacock image on black drawing paper using colored pencils. This lesson series spans over 11 hours across 11 video lessons, offering a pace and depth that allow you to fully explore technique, color control, and rendering detail.

From the very first lesson, you start with a strong foundation: discussion of necessary materials, and sketching the contour lines of the peacock using graphite. This sets the stage for precision and proportion as you begin transitioning into colored pencil work on the black ground.

Lessons 2 and 3 focus on the head, guiding you step by step as you layer and refine color, build subtle transitions, and capture the delicate structure of the beak, eye, and facial markings.

As you move into Lessons 4 and 5, you continue that meticulous layering down the neck, layering color and value carefully over the dark support.

By Lesson 6, the crown/crest of the peacock is introduced, emphasizing fine detail and contrast against the black paper.

Lessons 7 and 8 shift toward the background and the decorative back feathers, helping you think about how your subject sits in space and how edges, value, and color interact.

In Lessons 9 and 10 you’ll continue applying colored pencil work to the body and middle ground, building texture in the feathers, adjusting color fidelity, and harmonizing transitions.

The final lesson, Lesson 11, completes the drawing—bringing together all the pieces into a finished, cohesive composition.

Materials are well covered, including Strathmore Artagain black drawing paper and Prismacolor Premier colored pencils among other essentials.

The black ground adds a dramatic contrast that makes the colored pencil hues pop, but it also demands thoughtful layering, careful handling, and precision in building light and shadow.

This series is ideal for intermediate to advanced artists who are comfortable with proportion and basic colored pencil techniques—and want to push themselves further into deeper detail, color subtlety, and expressive contrasts. If you’re looking to develop mastery with color on dark ground, to experiment with how hues behave, or to hone your patience and layering judgment, Peacock with Colored Pencils offers a richly rewarding path.

Lesson 1 (1:09:13)

In lesson one, we discuss the materials and sketch the contours of the peacock with a graphite pencil.

Lesson 2 (1:09:38)

In lesson two, we begin colored pencil applications on the head of the peacock.

Lesson 3 (1:10:20)

In lesson three, we complete colored pencil applications to the head of the peacock.

Lesson 4 (1:12:02)

In lesson four, we begin working down the neck of the peacock with colored pencil applications.

Lesson 5 (1:10:43)

In lesson five, we complete colored pencil applications on the neck of the peacock.

Lesson 6 (1:02:14)

In lesson six, we work on the crown of the peacoack.

Lesson 7 (1:09:05)

In lesson seven, we begin work on the background.

Lesson 8 (1:08:35)

In lesson eight, we begin colored pencil applications on the decorative back of the peacock.

Lesson 9 (1:09:20)

In lesson nine, we continue work on the body of the peacock in the middle ground.

Lesson 10 (1:04:32)

In lesson ten, we develop the feathers of the peacock on the lower right portion of the drawing.

Lesson 11 (1:02:40)

In lesson eleven, we complete the drawing.