Colored pencil fashion illustration
isn’t something I always recommend!
I often discourage my Parsons Fashion Design students from illustrating with ONLY colored pencil because they simply never spring to vivid life on the page as easily as gouache.
COLORED PENCIL with BLACK INK PEN
MIXING MEDIA IS THE SECRET
My primary use for colored pencils is in tandem with gouache, as in this example from my weekly live zoom studio fashion sketching sessions.
In this first example BELOW, I used colored pencil for its ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS line quality, but added wet media (gouache) to bring LIQUID/FLUIDITY and vibrance to the fashion sketch.
MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT ABOUT COLORED PENCIL IS THE “DRYNESS”
(and this also depends on the quality of colored pencil too).
When lots of white paper is showing through the pencil, it can “flatten” the appearance of the illustration.
Actually, I generally discourage using just colored pencils alone to create fashion sketches precisely because they can be so thin and dry looking.
It’s not that they’re terrible when used alone, it’s that they’re BETTER when used with wet media.
what a huge difference that can make in COMMUNICATING your visions
Everyone knows, I love vibrant, vital, fluid, dynamic effects in fashion illustration! I love it when it feels like your fashion illustration is jumping off the page to life in your clothes!
The softest, creamiest, richest colored pencils I know of are the Prismacolor Premier. Polychromos colored pencils have a great quality pigment too, but are much firmer so they require more pressure to make a rich color.
I also have purchased various brands of watercolor pencils and found them to have good quality. I use them dry or melting into damp or wet paint.
Gouache and colored pencils fashion illustration
Marker and colored pencils fashion sketching
Here I used the colored pencil in white to add shine and highlights to tafetta, satin, etc.
Colored pencil fashion illustration
takes on a whole new life when you use TINTED PAPER!!!
PRINTS ON TINTS
So, that makes today’s piece even more exciting for me! I used Bee Paper Company’s tinted recycled rough sketch.
It has a great gritty texture to it, and because it’s so absorbant and loosely pored, I felt more secure using colored pencil on it than wet media. (We’ll try that another day, okay? :0)
I know, I know, it’s African Print/ Wax print fashion too. MY FAVORITE!
What I love is that the rough, dull, dark paper contrasts so well with the creamy opacity of colored pencil.
WAIT !
CORRECTION: it works amazingly with GOOD colored pencils. My go-to, always, is the Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencil fashion illustration. Sure, they break easily but they also have the richest, lushest pigments and go from dark and opaque to very light and sheer.
BLENDING
Prismacolor colored pencils also blend beautifully into each other.
DIGITAL COLORED PENCILS
For rendering prints, patterns, and textures in digital fashion illustrations, I use colored pencils to create the pronounced textured knit or woven look by using the side of them.
I used digital colored pencils here.
COLORED PENCIL ALONE FOR MODEL DRAWING
here you can see the sensitive storytelling, but also notice how the white paper is always showing through, which can be distracting
USING COLORED PENCILS FOR THE SENSITIVE LINE QUALITY:
Observe some examples of Prismacolor sensitivity in action.
USING A DARK TONE will give you a wider range of lights to darks from a single color (dark brown, navy blue, burgundy, black, forest green for example).
From dark creases to fine straps… use the side of the pencil or the tip to get different line qualities and contours.
COLOR BLOCKING EXERCISE
I use artist colored pencils for this wonderful exercise as long as my paper is relatively small like A4 or smaller.
OVERLAYS
In this example, using a different colored pencil for each model study makes it easy to differentiate each one as separate even when they are overlapping in a layout.
Want more secrets?
I use Prismacolor colored pencils in my gouache illustrations, over flat, dried gouache or watercolor fashion illustrations. I sometimes use it alone but usually only for sketching flats for design or for model drawing.
I do have an example here of flats in Prismacolor Premier pencils.
KNITS, WOOLENS, SWEATERS
The crumbly, fuzzy edge of a Prismacolor colored pencil communicates knits and woolens, cables, ribbing, mohairs, velvets, jerseys and more with such accuracy!
Even the wrinkles and curls in knitwear are more believable in colored pencil:
I prefer to use Colored Pencil over color
because it’s the perfect way to render prints and textures OR to show highlights, shines, iridescence or deep shadows.
(MORE ON ALL OF THAT>>>>INCLUDING ALL OF THOSE ART SUPPLIES>>>IN MY EVENINGWEAR COURSE!!)
This gets funner- and funnier
(welcome to my world!!) because when you go DIGITAL and start using digital painting apps for fashion illustration,
EVERY digital drawing app has a pencil tool in it, that you can choose any color in the world for, as well as adjust the thickness of its tip and its opacity!
So now even your digital apps can be used for colored pencil fashion illustration, INCLUDING THE TINTED PAPERS! (see this one)
Here I used the side of my digital colored pencil for highlights and shadows, but digital markers for the vivid silk print caftan.
If you don’t have tinted paper OR fancy pencils,
grab your smartphone and tryout some art apps and you’ll have both for under $4.99.
ABOUT FACES online course is another AH-MAZING way to learn these apps and really dig your heels in to getting comfortable with them!
So, however you decide to use them
I hope you’ll treat yourself to sensitive, brilliant colored pencils (some can be hard and waxy in a way that makes it hard to get any rich color).
I spent most of my life thinking all colored pencils were created equal, but they aren’t. Give yourself a chance at discovering how different your experience can be when you use SUPER HIGH QUALITY PENCILS!
Beware trying colored pencil fashion illustration with pencils that are
- so hard that they dent the paper, or
- so shiny and weakly pigmented/diluted that they feel like chapstick
- or both.
Even oil pastels will give brilliant brightness, but without control. So that’s a discussion for another day.
We never know when we’re buying colored pencils what the quality is until we get them home.
Unless you take my recommendation on the Prismacolor Premiere (and a sharpener, will be needed ).
YOU DON’T NEED FIFTY COLORS.
(and good colored pencils can be almost a dollar a piece). Try 5.
Start with light, medium and dark grey, black and white, and a rainbow.
Maybe add a few neutral skin-and-hair-and-makeup type colors, and then remember you can mix and blend everything else.
I absolutely love that you are on this journey, and that I’m a part of it!
NOTHING CAN STOP YOU!
#artisyourbirthright.
If you want to get really deep in busting loose, check out my MODEL MAGIC online course, or in weekly Fashion Sketch Group where we experiment, play, explore, study, and discover by doing in real time.
These are designed to be incredibly liberating and deepening experiences!
love
Laura
