The 3 Keys to Realism to Transform Your Coloured Pencil Drawings

When it comes to creating realistic drawings there are three key areas, the values, details and finish, and they really help to transform your coloured pencil drawings! So if you’re looking to improve your realism and learn some helpful new tips, this blog is for you.

Values and Details:

I’m going to talk about the first two together as they go hand in hand when it comes to explaining how they impact your drawings. I always say to focus on the values rather than all the little hair details and when I’m building my layers, the values are definitely what I’m concentrating on. Although I do still get a few hairs in there when drawing a smooth animal, you want the drawing to appear smooth as well and you’ll find that if you focus on trying to draw every hair, it’s going to end up looking too textured.

That being said, you need to make sure you’re getting your values right. You need to make sure your darks are dark and your lights are like, and I know you’re probably thinking “Bonny, that’s obvious of course your darks need to be dark”, but what I actually mean by that is really checking that your darks are actually dark enough and your lights are really light. I’ve found that, especially when I’m drawing a human, using really dark oranges or browns on fair skin can feel like it doesn’t look right because you're brain is thinking peachy and pink shades, but once you get all the context in around it and really look at the colours that are present, you find it’s correct. So, check your darks are dark enough!

Once you’ve got those darks and lights you then need to look at the other values. Take it one step further and look at all the tones and make sure even the subtle changes are correct. They can be incredibly subtle, but if you start to focus on the little shift in tone, these become your details, how you create shine, highlight and structure. It was like a lightbulb moment for me when I realised that you create details with values and you don’t need to try and draw every hair.

Finishing:

What I’m talking about with finishing is those little details to really complete your piece. Such as adding the extra little bits of colours to just sort of boost the vibrancy of the fur you’ve already got down. Also, softening your edges. If your drawing isn’t finished around the edges, it detracts from all the work you’ve put into the rest of your portrait, so you want lovely soft edges that don’t look like pencil marks. It elevates your drawing when the fur at the edges really connects with the surface behind it.

Ideally, what you want is either a lost or a found edge. A lost edge is where the subject kind of just bleeds off and your fur is a similar colour to the background, like with a pale-coloured subject on a white surface or a dark-coloured subject on a dark surface. A found edge is where you’ve got a really lovely string shadow at the edge of your piece and it’s really nice to bring these sorts of elements into your work because they help to elevate them.

I talked all about this in a recent live event, so if you want to hear more and see some examples of what I’m talking about, watch the video at the top of this page!