Article: Sketching with Coloured Pencils

The July edition of "From My Perspective" (FMP) has an article by me on "Sketching with Coloured Pencils".

The article explains how sketching generally and sketching with coloured pencils in particular helps you to:

• Expand your portfolio of subject matter
• Get a true record of the colours and tones you see
• Develop your freehand drawing and observational skills
• Learn how to draw more quickly
• Learn how to draw outside – and in public!
• Learn how to choose what to sketch

In effect, it condenses a lot of what I've already written in a lot of different places both in this blog and referenced by this blog.

Here's an extract from a work which has already featured on this blog

This sketch (across a double page spread of my sketchbook) is of the view from Domme, a hilltop town on the River Dordogne in France. I sketched while I had lunch at a restaurant overlooking this scene. My sketch describes what I had to eat along the bottom! My aim was to record the colours for future use as a reference for a painting and to get samples of colour completed rather than a complete picture.

This is the work completed at home on Arches Hot Press watercolour paper – using information collected in the sketch and photographs. It’s nearly 12” x 16” – more or less the same size as the sketch. The main benefit I get from observation and sketching is a very clear understanding of the place plus I can clearly remember being there. It’s a much better memory than one ever gets from just taking photos!

FMP is the subscription-based online magazine of Ann Kullberg. Ann is one of the best known coloured pencil artists and the author of two best-selling books on working with coloured pencils (see the coloured pencils section in the right hand column of this blog). Her portraiture work can be seen here. Ann also focuses on educating people about coloured pencils. Her own website focuses on the workshops, on-line classes and kits she provides. Access to FMP for subscribers is via this website.

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