Pencil Crayon Colouring

Colouring with Pencil Crayons

1. Decide where the light will shine the brightest. Think of the source of the light and the part of the object that protrudes the most.
2. Decide what colours you will use. Lay them out on your desk.  Remember that shadows are created with violet or dark blue.  Remember that light is added with yellow.
3. Start with the lightest colour.
4. Shade relatively lightly over the picture.
5. Colour in the direction of the object to add depth.
6. Add the second lightest colour, leaving out the parts where the light is supposed to first touch the picture.
7. Continue, colouring with short strokes in the direction that makes the object have three dimensions.
8. Go back and add a bit of yellow or pale orange to add more highlights.

Colour a picture of apples in a basket:
1. Clear everything off your desk except your materials. Look at a variety of real apples.
2. Lay out your pencil crayons so you can see all your colours.
3. Put some extra paper beneath your colouring picture so the surface is softer.
4. Decide from where the light is coming so you know which areas will be lightest on your picture.
5. Start by lightly shading with a pale colour such as light yellow.
6. Work with short strokes, changing direction frequently to follow the shape of the object and create a three-dimensional effect.
7. Add a second colour, such as orange, leaving out the areas that will be lightest.
8. Add a third colour, such as pink, and blend it in so that some areas have all three shades.
9. Add a fourth colour, red, remembering to change the direction of your colouring frequently. Look at a real apple and notice how the red can appear almost like stripes in some cases. Look at the picture I coloured and observe how the colours blend together. Don’t press too hard.
10. Add a fifth colour, purple, to create shadows where the apple starts to be hidden by another apple.
11. Now start on the basket. Colour the entire basket a pale yellow.
12. Add a pale orange, always colour the vertical pieces in a vertical direction and the horizontal bands in a horizontal direction.  Be careful to notice which areas should be lighter in colour.
13. Add some darker oranges, reds and browns.
14. Add some purples and dark blues to the areas further from the surface and in the shadows.
15. Add some yellow to where the light would touch the basket.

Project to do after your picture is coloured:
a. cut it out
b. practise a quotation and go over it with a felt pen
c. ask Ms. Rosen for good paper
d. trace over your quotation in pencil
e. go over it with a fine liner
f. get a large piece of background paper
g. arrange your picture and quotation on the background
h. show Ms. Rosen before you glue them down

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