From Coloured Pencils to Art Journaling!

Hello Everyone,

Well I did my first pencil coloured drawing in over 20 years this week!!! I decided to use an image I found on Pinterest to draw of some pink hair as I just wanted to work out myself how to build it up. Selecting my own colours following the light and shade areas and then once I had mapped it out I just went with the flow.

What I Learnt

What was interesting was how many times I changed the colours of the pencils I used and the variety of brands I dug up out of my supplies.  All sorts from some really old WHSmith watercolour pencils, karismacolor pencils which were 20 years old and kept snapping every time I sharpened them! To some selections that I had with my Scrawlr box subscriptions.

• It does not really matter what supplies you use really, it’s how you use them and apply them.  Even my old pencils had such great colour payoff still.  
• So just keep layering and layering, that’s how the picture builds. I used to get to a certain point and get a bit discouraged as it seems like it’s not changing then if you keep going all of a sudden it just starts to come together.
• Go gently with the layers, map out the shadows and highlights and start with the shadows first and layer up from there.

Art Journaling

I have also come across art journaling on YouTube which has piqued my interest (as if I don’t have enough!).  It’s something I think I would like to have a go at.  So currently I am in the consuming phase of watching different channels and video’s to see what people do.  What tips and techniques are used.

So I think whilst I am off work at Christmas I will give it a go.  I think it’s the freedom and mixed media that appeal to me.  The lack of rules really as I never really liked rules!!!

Once I get going I will share it with you in case you feel like you would like to have a go.

To see my progress with the pink hair and some other sketches this week see my Instagram account @zoebadgerart.

Happy Sketching

Zoë