How To Draw Rust With Colored Pencil

Today's reader question comes from an artist who wants to know how to draw snowfall with colored pencils. Here's her question.

I am a student of John Middick's Sharpened Artist Class. I have a snow winter scene project, and would like to know how to create snow with colored pencils. I'll be using Polychromos and Luminance pencils.

Cheers.

How to Draw Snow with Colored Pencils

Creating snowfall with colored pencils is pretty much the same as creating annihilation else. Information technology frequently looks more scary because of all that white!

So the key is to stop thinking of it as snow, and look instead at the shapes, and at the pattern of calorie-free and dark. In other words, think of it as an abstract!

Simply before y'all start drawing snow, there'due south one important thing to consider.

Because snowfall is white, information technology's very reflective. That means lighting makes a huge impact on the colors y'all see in snow. Let'due south look at 4 examples.

White Snow in Four Different Lighting Situations

The first example is what most of the states think of when we recall of snowfall. White snow on a sunny solar day. Y'all'd await to use a lot of white to depict this scene, wouldn't you? The truth may surprise y'all, but more than on that in a minute.

Hither's the aforementioned scene (or a portion of information technology) photographed on a cloudy day. It's actually even so snowing in this photo. The snowfall still looks white, only where are the bright highlights and clear shadows? You lot run into no highlights because clouds and falling snow veil the light.

Without highlights, the shadows are likewise less dramatic in this scene than in the previous scene. Defused low-cal decreases the departure between the lightest low-cal values and the darkest dark values.

Okay. Those are two "normal" lighting situations.

What well-nigh this ane?

I took this photo in bright sunlight, only the sun was starting to set. Since I was shooting toward the lord's day, the snow is back lighted, which gives it an entirely dissimilar wait.

And the snow likewise picks up the golden colors of the setting sun. No white to speak of here!

Finally, here'due south the aforementioned location photographed at night, lighted merely by street lights. Very golden. That's i of the things that appeals to me near this scene.

The street lights have since been changed to LEDs, so the snow no longer looks yellow like this at night. Information technology looks bluer.

But y'all get the idea. The first thing you demand to practice when cartoon snowfall is to really look at the colors in your reference photo.

And the first question you need to inquire is not "How do I draw snow?" The first question is "how practise I depict the colors in the snow I'm looking at?"

Bank check Your Colors

I mentioned above that fifty-fifty in the "normal" snow picture, there probably wasn't much white. Hither'due south what I mean.

I used a photograph editor (GIMP) to select what looked to me similar the lightest value in the image; the snowfall on the flat surface. The color picker doesn't show white. It shows a light gray. You lot can see the departure between that color and truthful white by comparing the box immediately above the HELP push with the smaller white box above the Cancel push button. They're not very close at all!

And then I chose another very low-cal value in the same scene. It was a little bit lighter, but still clearly gray.

Take a close look at your reference photo. I'm guessing you'll run into that there really isn't that much white involved in drawing snow. The shadows aren't white, and often the snow isn't true white either.

If you don't trust your eyes, the color picker in a photo editor can be a dandy help. Match your pencils with the colors in the color picker.

But yous will have to trust your color picker, and that can be hard!

Employ Your Colors

Once you've chosen the colors, go back to looking at your subject as an abstract. Mask the drawing and reference photograph to testify but a pocket-size expanse if that helps. Describe each shape within that modest area every bit accurately as possible, matching colors and values.

When you lot end one surface area, motion to the next. Use color smoothly to avoid leaving pencil strokes, and utilise light pressure and lots of layers to build color and develop the values.

If you're using traditional paper, proceed your pencils sharp. If you're using a sanded paper, that's not equally important.

When yous've finished each department, remove the mask and accommodate colors and values as needed.

Learning How to Describe Snow doesn't Need to be Difficult

The well-nigh important thing to retrieve is to study your reference photo and draw what yous run into. Get by the idea that you "know what snow looks like" so you don't need a reference photo.

Now that I think nearly information technology, that is probably the well-nigh difficult function of the process. It's and then easy to get into the habit of thinking you lot know what something looks like that you lot could draw information technology with your eyes closed. Especially something you've seen a lot.

Yous probably can draw a decent snowfall scene that way, but information technology will probably exist quite generic in nature. It also won't be as detailed and realistic as what y'all'd draw when you use a reference photograph or depict from life.

So identify the shapes, values, and colors in your reference photograph, and then utilise bones drawing principles, and your snowfall scene volition turn out not bad!

Do you have a question virtually colored pencils? Ask Carrie!