Colored pencil artists are always looking for ways to speed up their creative process. Most often, that means finding faster ways to apply and blend color (we’ve all been there, haven’t we?) and sometimes, it means using other media for part of the drawing.
So today, I’d like to share some of my favorite video tutorials on using different kinds of mixed-media with colored pencils.
Eight mixed-media and colored pencil videos:
1. Colored Pencil and Airbrush Butterfly Tutorial
13:33 minutes
Lisa Clough of Lachri Fine Art shows how she drew a realistic butterfly in colored pencil over an airbrushed background. She also used odorless thinner to blend colors and a Touch up Texture and Colored Pencil Titanium White to add final details. Even if you aren’t interested in airbrushing, you will want to see this tutorial.
The video is time lapse, but Lisa describes what she’s doing and why. It’s a great view for anyone interested in fast and easy backgrounds and/or mixed-media with colored pencil.
2. Horses in Colored Pencil, Airbrush, and Acrylic Inks
13:24 minutes
Artist Michelle Cashmore also uses an airbrush to create backgrounds for colored pencil pieces, but in this video, she airbrushes acrylic inks into the background.
The video is narrated time lapse in which the artist describes her method at all stages of the process. It includes tips on drawing short and long hair, and skin.
3. Colored Pencil with Various Mixed Media
8:56 minutes
Morgan Davidson shows how she used a variety of mediums and tools to draw an “outer space” view of the earth. She used a Kimberly 2B graphite pencil, Prismacolor Premier brush tip markers, Artist’s Loft Watercolor pan set, Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, Winsor & Newton Gouache, and TekWriter gel pen.
The video is time-lapse, but Morgan narrates each step of the process. This tutorial shows you how to build colored pencil over a marker and watercolor base. It also includes adding highlights with gouache and gel pens after everything else is finished, so there’s plenty to see and learn.
4. Colored Pencils and Pan Pastels
12:15 Minutes
In this video, Anne Koivumäki paints a horse with colored pencils and pan pastels. She uses pan pastels exclusively for a bokeh-style background, but mixes pan pastels and colored pencils for the horse.
This video is unique because the artist is doing a series of studies based on the methods of members of her art group. It’s part of a seven-part series and includes a link to the artist whose method she’s trying.
The video is time-lapse, but is captioned and includes information on colors and methods. Several of the other videos in the series also include colored pencil with other mediums.
NOTE: This video features a mix of music in the background. I found some annoying and some fairly easy to listen to. The video was more helpful and less jarring with the sound down or muted altogether.
5. Using Pan Pastel with Colored Pencil – Horse Portrait
4:21 minutes
I included this short video because artist Lisa Ann Watkins uses pan pastel to add highlights over colored pencil rather than as a foundation. She then worked over the pastel with more colored pencil. The results were quite pleasing.
The video is all time-lapse, but is narrated by the artist.
6. Colored Pencil and Watercolor Floral Portrait
3:37 minutes
Artist Tomás Morán Iturralde shows how he combines watercolor painting and colored pencils to create a yellow rose. The artist uses pan watercolors for most of the work, then adds detailing throughout the painting with colored pencil.
This short video is time-lapse, but is also captioned and provides excellent information on the artist’s methods, including how he seals the watercolor under painting before moving to the colored pencil phase.
7. Mixing Acrylic Paint and Colored Pencil
19:10 minutes
This video from M. Mixed Media Art is a narrated time-lapse in which the artist describes the support, the tools she uses (including an airbrush which she uses to keep the acrylic on the canvas damp) and tips on her painting process. Parts of the video also include her palette so you can see how she mixes her paint.
The video includes tips on drawing a nighttime moon, water reflections, clouds and stars, stroking both paint and colored pencil, and much more. The only caveat is that some of these methods—particularly those described toward the end of the video—may not be suitable for fine art uses.
8. Markers and Colored Pencils – Beetle Illustration
15:58 minutes
Artist Matt Fussell from The Virtual Instructor demonstrates how to create an under painting with alcohol-based markers, then finish the drawing with colored pencils.
The video is a combination of real-time and time-lapse, and includes excellent narration to provide details on color selection, order of color application, and other tips for creating highly realistic art with these two mediums.
Of course, there are many other video tutorials available on combining mixed-media with colored pencils—these were simply the best ones I found for each particular medium. Even so, they definitely reveal possibilities for combining your colored pencils with another medium (or two).
Enjoy!
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