Wildlife art| animal art| bird art
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    • None animal art >
      • Broken Gem heart
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    • Layering Tutorial
    • How to draw a Monarch Butterfly Wing
    • How to draw cat's eyes
    • How to draw owl eyes
    • How to draw feathers 1 (hummingbird/Jacamar type feathers)
    • How to draw feathers 2 (irregular feathers)
    • How to draw feathers 4 - parrot feathers
    • How to draw feathers 3 chest/breast feathers
    • How to draw feathers 5 - Wing feathers
    • Hummingbird Head Feathers
    • How to draw cat fur
    • How to draw chimpanzee fur
    • How to draw a grasshopper’s wing
    • How to draw fish scales
    • How to draw snake scales
    • How to draw lizard skin
    • How to draw fish fins
    • How to draw a gemstone
    • How to draw tree bark
    • How to draw rose gold
  • Tips and Techniques
    • How to get white
    • What pencils should I use?
    • All about sharpeners?
    • How to blend with colored pencil
    • How to burnish
    • Erasing colored pencil
    • How to mix colors
    • Keeping your work clean
    • Reference photos and copyright
    • What to draw
    • How to make your work look real
    • I can't draw
    • What paper should l use?
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Layering Tutorial

I thought it might be useful to show you how l layer pencils up until pretty much the final layers.
This was a good piece to demonstrate as there is no real detail on this bird’s chest. Normally l would start adding feather detail at layer 20.
Layer 20 is nearly finished on this piece which doesn’t have real detail. At this point l will look at the piece and then use hard pressure to really ramp up the vibrancy.
But all the underlying layers still show through and add to the complexity of the finished color.
My apologies because to take so many photos l had to do it in funny light.
Picture showing layers 1-9 of a 20 step layering tutorial using colored pencils.
As you can see there is very little obvious difference from one layer to the next and it can feel as if you are getting nowhere. The trick is to keep layering long after you think you are done. I added more layers after photo 18. And actually more after layer 20 that you see in the bottom photo.
Picture showing steps 10-18 of a 20 step layering tutorial using colored pencils.
Layer 20 is shown below.
For those interested here is a list of what l did on all twenty layers.
1. Pink and darker red shadows.
2. Yellow all over
3.Ruby red all over.
4. Violet shadows
5. Scarlet all over
6. Yellow all over
7. Scarlet all over
8. Geranium Lake all over
9. Violet shadows
10. Pale pink highlights
11. Geranium Lake all over
12. Violet shadows
13. Light red all over
14. Coral pink highlights
15. Grey feathers around the neck
16. White feathers
17. Light red in the lighter areas and dark red in the more shaded areas
18. Luminance orange red for vibrancy
19. Luminance dark red in the shaded areas
20. More Luminance orange red

Picture showing layer 20 of a 20 step tutorial showing how to build up colored pencil layers to create vibrancy.
So l go back many times with the same colors each time increasing the depth of the color.
  • Home
  • Shop
  • Original Artwork page 1
    • Original artwork page 2
    • Original artwork page 3
    • Original Artwork page 4
    • Original artwork page 5
    • Original artwork page 6
    • Original artwork page 7
    • None animal art >
      • Broken Gem heart
  • Videos
  • Tutorials
    • Layering Tutorial
    • How to draw a Monarch Butterfly Wing
    • How to draw cat's eyes
    • How to draw owl eyes
    • How to draw feathers 1 (hummingbird/Jacamar type feathers)
    • How to draw feathers 2 (irregular feathers)
    • How to draw feathers 4 - parrot feathers
    • How to draw feathers 3 chest/breast feathers
    • How to draw feathers 5 - Wing feathers
    • Hummingbird Head Feathers
    • How to draw cat fur
    • How to draw chimpanzee fur
    • How to draw a grasshopper’s wing
    • How to draw fish scales
    • How to draw snake scales
    • How to draw lizard skin
    • How to draw fish fins
    • How to draw a gemstone
    • How to draw tree bark
    • How to draw rose gold
  • Tips and Techniques
    • How to get white
    • What pencils should I use?
    • All about sharpeners?
    • How to blend with colored pencil
    • How to burnish
    • Erasing colored pencil
    • How to mix colors
    • Keeping your work clean
    • Reference photos and copyright
    • What to draw
    • How to make your work look real
    • I can't draw
    • What paper should l use?
  • Blog
  • Contact