The Colored Pencil Course: Creating Texture - Part 1

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Lesson Description

A look at creating the illusion of texture through the use of value and directional lines. Part 1. In this lesson, we continue our colored pencil drawing of a dog, a Golden Retriever.

Lesson Materials

Bristol paper, Prismacolor colored pencils, photo reference, paper clip, tape.

Lesson Resources

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Reference Image

Course Curriculum

Lesson 1: Introduction and Materials (4:12)Lesson 2: Colored Pencil Basics (15:44)Lesson 3: The Magic of Burnishing (19:20)Lesson 4: Value and Underpainting (17:11)Lesson 5: Color Theory (21:53)Lesson 6: Composition and Still Life (23:08)Lesson 7: Reflection and Transparency (15:56)Lesson 8: Transferring Images (9:03)Lesson 9: Creating Texture - Part 1 (17:13)Lesson 10: Creating Texture - Part 2 (15:55)Lesson 11: Landscape Drawing - Part 1 (14:42)Lesson 12: Landscape Drawing - Part 2 (16:05)Lesson 13: Portrait Drawing - Part 1 (15:55)Lesson 14: Portrait Drawing - Part 2 (11:29)Lesson 15: Portrait Drawing - Part 3 (12:13)Lesson 16: Portrait Drawing - Part 4 (13:03)Lesson 17: Portrait Drawing - Part 5 (9:37)Lesson 18: Watercolor and Colored Pencils - Part 1 (15:03)Lesson 19: Watercolor and Colored Pencils - Part 2 (10:48)Lesson 20: Watercolor Pencils - Part 1 (13:07)Lesson 21: Watercolor Pencils - Part 2 (11:07)Lesson 22: Conclusion (4:32)

Lesson Discussion

    • Hi Marilyn. I would start with a quality brand. I suggest using Prismacolor. If the Premier line is too pricey, you can start with the Prismacolor Scholar line.

    • Hi Juliana,

      The watercolor pencils have a different binder than colored pencils and will not behave in the same manner. Watercolor pencils are meant to be activated with water and will not layer and mix like colored pencils. I hope this helps.

  5. matt,
    1.have you heard of “Blind impressing”,do you use it, or teach it? this is lines made by drawing or scribbling on the paper with a point,leaving the
    surface white when shaded over with a colored pencil.

    this is supposibly used to create texture of a wall on the side of old building.

    thanks,raquel

  6. Could you do a live lesson sometimes on drawing a cat or kitten in graphite and/or colored pencil and focus on showing how to add white whiskers?

  7. I am drawing a Golden for a friend who was quite old. Most of her face it completely white. I am using tan Stonehenge paper. Would I do some sort of underpainting before I put in the white hairs? Any suggestions?

    • Hi Pat, It’s hard to say exactly without the reference, but most likely, you won’t need to create an underpainting. An underpainting would help if you have a broad range of values and you want to establish those first. If the face is mostly made up of lighter values, then the underpainting may be irrelevant. You can always darken values even if you have lighter values in place.

  10. Hi, Matt on my drawing the fur isn’t coming out like yours. This is first drawing fur my husband says it look good but don’t thank so. I go too Heavy on the dark colors, if you have any suggestions please know.

  11. I try to avoid any tracing of photos so I did not do the exercise above this one, tracing the photo. I will however try to draw this from scratch and do the exercise. Great series!

  12. I waited too long to listen to the part where you said to be careful so as not to make the layers too dark and butchered your dog’s poor ear. So I started again from scratch out of respect for your dog. Picking up more the second time.

    • Hi Julia, the “M” on the top right hand corner refers to the pressure you put on the pencil. “L” is for light pressure, “M” is for medium pressure and “H” is for hard or heavy pressure (I can’t remember exactly which word Matt uses). It is to give an indication of how much Matt presses down on the pencil. I think he references it at the beginning of the course somewhere if you want to recap.

  14. I used the grid technique to create my pencil drawing. Should I erase the grid lines before I start with the color pencil? Or just put the color pencil over them? I’m wondering if it will create problems in the paper if I try to erase the lines first. Thank you.

      • Thank you Matt! I finished the drawing already but yeah, discovered that I should have erased them more than I did. Lesson learned! it’s not too bad. Just a couple of light areas where they show through.

  15. Matt, I’m looking at my Prismacolor pencils and realizing there are many similar colors you could have chosen – I am wondering what process you (or others) use toward making your color selections? Do you use a software application like Colored Pencil Picker, your own color chart, trial and error on scratch paper, or is it just coming from prior experiences with those specific pencils that led you to choose Goldenrod and Beige? Being new to colored pencils, choosing the colors has been one of my challenges. I am often times not satisfied with the result of my choices.

    • Hi Peter,

      There’s not a lot of science here. I typically try to match colors based on intuition. I may grab several colors and make a few test marks. It’s not as important as you may think to match colors. What matters more is matching values. Knowing color theory is exceptionally important in choosing colors and mixing them.

  16. I thought the course was going to be for absolute beginners. I did okay with the peppers and the apples, but I only have 12 coloured pencils as i wasn’t really sure what to get in the beginning. I also don’t have this picture so can’t really follow it. I would love to be able to draw animals but unfortunately I’ll have to skip this bit until I’m a bit more advanced.
    It would have been nice right at the start to have been told more about the actual supplies needed.

  17. I’m actually auditing this course first! But, I’m learning SOOOO much already. I’ve done some drawing before, but am thrilled to be learning so many new things. I appreciated the earlier comment about color selection as I’ve come up with some less than appealing color combos!

    Great course; I’ll be going through again

  18. Hi! I am using this video as a guide for drawing a different dog, and he is a black and grey and white dog, but you said that black is not a very naturally occurring color, do you have any suggestions on what colors I should use? Greys and brown mixed with blues to make black or something else?

    Thank you for your time!

  19. Your dog has straight hair. What if the dog had curly hair, like a toy poodle. How would you create the illusion of texture for a curly haired dog?

  20. Hi, Hope this is still monitored, looks like nothing has been ansewred for a few years!
    So I am curious how much detail I need to put in my working outline ? Right now I am still using a light board. I hope to quit using it as I draw more animals and get proportions down.
    As far as details with a light board I can go down to the nares on the nose and fur direction, even small groups of furr. Should I just be doing an outline and the placement of the eyes, nose and ears or should I do more minute changes?
    Glad I happend to find this site. I think this lesson is going to be very helpful for me.

    Thanks Ed

    • So sorry all. For some reason I didn’t know the was more information videos that went along with this video set, I found the one with the transferring info.

      Sorry to be a pest
      Ed

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