Draw A Face In Coloured Pencil

A three colour layered portrait

Posted by Jake Spicer

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This is a neat way to layer up coloured pencils to create stylised skin tones. You'll want to apply it to your own portrait drawing techniques, or try combining it with another face-drawing exercise. This tutorial is taken from my book 'DRAW'.

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You Will Need (2 things)

  • Coloured Pencils
  • Paper

Steps (3 steps, 15 minutes)

  1. 1

    You'll need clear directional lighting for this exercise. Sketch the outlines of the head and features in a pale colour; I have used orange. The light tone makes it easy to correct your drawing without needing to erase.

  2. 2

    Use a darker colour, to define shadow shapes and edges more clearly. Let plenty of the previous layer show through.

  3. 3

    Use a darker, cooler colour to add detail and to darken the stronger shadows. The three colours layered over one another will create new colours as they optically mix.