Fixing Mistakes in Your Drawings | Coloured Pencil Tips

When things don't go quite to plan, don't panic. Do a bit of planning, and you'll soon find your way back.

When I was drawing the lovely Tilly Two Shoes, I realised that I’d brought the fur around her ear in at the wrong point, making the whole drawing look odd. We’ve all done it, you start plotting bits in and get carried away, and then you realise that actually you've missed out a whole section of the dog's head!

I spotted my mistake when I noticed there was a whole load of fur on the reference but not on my drawing! Top tip: always remember to regularly refer back to your reference photo!

When you find yourself in that sort of situation, don't panic like I did. Don't have a meltdown! Just work out how you can rectify things and get to work on making things right again.

Remember to have a bit of a plan first. Are you going to focus adding more layers or do you need to consider carefully removing some of the pigment?

I also always recommend measuring your reference photo first to make sure that what you think has gone wrong actually is what’s gone wrong! You could be surprised!

The most important thing to remember is not to go into panic mode, thinking: "Oh no, I've got this all wrong, it's all in the wrong place,”. Often, these mistakes are easily rectified and keeping a cool head always helps to ease the situation.

To find out how I fixed my mistake when working on my drawing of Tilly, click on the video at the top of this page.