Coloured pencils
The delicious art
of coloured pencils
Follow Steven Hughes as he shares his process for creating
a variety of surface textures in coloured pencil
STEVEN
Marquette, Michigan, USA
Steven is associate professor
of illustration at Northern
Michigan University. His
paintings and illustrations
have been featured in many
exhibitions and publications,
including The New York Times.
www.primaryhughes.com
C
reating interest in a still life is
about engaging the viewer with
a variety of flavours. Colourful
sprinkles will certainly catch the
eye, but what makes someone
stop and continue engaging with the piece?
If you’re working realistically as I am,
research and the process of acquiring the
objects is a vital first step.
In this case that meant a visit to the
best doughnut shop in the Upper
Peninsula of Michigan, Huron Bakery.
Looking at the contrasts between props
guides the still life set-up for me. If
something is dark, put it against
something light, and vice versa. Play
pattern against solid areas and look for
repetitions to move the eye across the
composition. Once the objects are
organised, I pick up a camera and look
at viewpoint and cropping. This is an
alternative to sketching thumbnails, and
does double duty of providing reference
from which to work. You never know
when a hungry kid will run into your
studio and grab that carefully positioned
doughnut! The still life remains in
position as I work, allowing me to go
between photo or life to observe and
develop accuracy of colour and depth.
Ma terials
Steven uses Prismacolor
Premier (wax-based)
coloured pencils. He prefers a
paper surface such as Vellum
Bristol that is at least 100lb in
weight with a little tooth or
texture. An X-ACTO knife and
kneaded or white plastic
eraser can be used to gently
lighten small wax build-ups.
This coloured pencil drawing
is 7.25x10.75 inches on a
Bristol board measuring
10.25x14 inches. The extra
border around the drawing
allows for a place to grip and
move the piece without
1
Preliminary drawing accidentally denting a corner
With a coloured pencil that will blend into the or marring the surface.
form, develop a contour drawing of the subject
on Vellum Bristol or similar heavyweight paper. I
avoid using graphite as it can show through the
transparency of the coloured pencils and overly
grey or darken tones. If you worry about mistakes,
or naturally use a sketchier line, consider working
out the drawing on separate paper and transferring
it to the final Bristol surface with a light box.
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Projects

Use layers
for colour
Developing more complex
colour through the layering of
multiple pencils is key to
unlocking the potential of this
medium. Just like nothing in
life is simply one thing or

another, no orange can be
fully realised with only the
orange coloured pencil. Light
and shadow will imbue your
subject with a multitude of
colours that need to be
observed and studied to
best capture them.
2 3
Patterns in the wood
Colours will vary for other varieties
of wood, but here I start by
creating the darker pattern of the wood
grain with Burnt Ochre and Light Umber.
Look for differences in edge and tone.
The lower-right corner is darkened with a
layer of Tuscan Red to begin establishing
a reference point for the image.
Establish local colour
With normal pressure, apply beige and Yellow
Ochre pencils over the entire table surface to
create a gradient of light to midtone (left to right). I
also add Clay Rose to the shadows and some of the
stripes in the wood grain. To darken some of the
cast shadows, I repeat step 2, while adding dark
brown to the mixture. I layer dark green over the
corner to increase its value range.

4
Build dark tones
A layer of Indigo Blue completes
the dark values of the lower
corner. Rather than using black, layers
of Tuscan Red, dark green and Indigo
Blue create a far more complex tone.
The wood grain becomes more visible
and the cast shadows darken through
the application of Yellow Ochre or Burnt
Ochre. A colourless blender helps
smooth the shadow tones. In the light
areas of the wood, I burnish with cream
and Yellow Ochre, solidifying the
gradation of light on the table.

5
White shadows
Putting a layer of Cloud Blue down before the other shadow colours
on the bag creates a barrier between the paper and the layers of
Jade Green, Clay Rose and Greyed Lavender that I mix into the bag
shadows. Reflected from the surrounding wood and orange juice tones,
light applications of peach, light peach and cream warm up the grey side
plane of the bag. Burnishing the bag with white helps smooth the tones. I
work with the cream and Greyed Lavender pencils to create depth inside
the bag and reveal a little translucency as it rests on the wooden table.
The doughnut shadows on the napkin reach a darker contrast through
layers of dark brown, Dahlia Purple, Clay Rose and Greyed Lavender.

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