Don't forget to leave some highlights white. It adds punch to the picture. You can also use that wall putty to pick out highlights that get lost in the blending. Also an ink eraser is good for pulling out highlights but be careful not to tear the paper. I use Bristol smooth medium paper and Stonehendge. The second one is very durable and can take both wet and dry applications and is almost indestructable.
I need to get some of that wall putty yet. I've heard that I should use 100% cotton paper for colored pencil. I don't think the paper I'm using is 100% cotton. Do you have any tips for shadow areas (ala around the nose,eyes,etc.)? I basically used a light peach base, with a layer of white, followed by just a touch of rose in cheek areas, topped off with putty beige in entire face area. I then tried to get the shadow areas darker with indigo blue and brown. I'm wondering if I should only use darks in the shadow areas (instead of applying the general base first)? What do you think? It seems hard to blend the darks with that many colors already built up.
I don't do any under layer work I like the fresh effect of the raw color. I also leave some white showing for highlights especially the sparkle in the pupil. Note that the pupil is not really all black. It has a gray area in it too. The nose and ears have more of a pink cast and the cheek has a slightly pink cast as well. You can experiment though any color is indicative of mood. You may choose a bold type of color like Brian does he has some fantastic work here with watercolor but he is a genius with color compositioning also Shahin has some fantastic color work he works on the computer but he is an expert with color too. Brian's gallery is under Brainfree, Shahin is under his name. They will be more than happy to help you they have helped me considerably!!!
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