8 Pros and 5 Cons of Colored Pencils & How to Work Around the Cons
A variety of pieces that I’ve created using colored pencils.
Currently, my two favorite art media are colored pencils and soft pastels. They are similar, but have some key differences. I’m going to take a look at the pros and cons of each and how to decide which one to use for an artwork. For part 1, I’ll concentrate on colored pencils. In part 2 I’ll go over pastels and give some insight into how I select which medium I want to use to create a piece.
Both media can be scary to use if you’ve never tried them before. I know because I have been very intimidated by both colored pencils and pastels.
If you look on social media (I’ll also provide links so you can see what I’m talking about), you will find some amazing artists who create masterpieces using both. Don’t be overwhelmed by their work, though. Be inspired by it. I promise that if you practice using them and find an instructor who you admire, you can achieve great gains in a relatively short amount of time.
8 Advantages of Creating with Colored Pencils
This Palamino piece was created with Prismacolor Premier pencils on Strathmore mixed media paper, series 400 (tan). I did this as a learning piece by reading Meg Merry’s tutorial book on how she works. I like to follow other artists a few times a year to learn new techniques and tricks which I can incorporate to help me develop my own style.
Okay, so let’s take a look at colored pencils. Here are my thoughts on the specific positives of them. I do have a few Amazon affiliate links in here for when I’m referencing supplies. If you use that and buy something I get a few pennies :)
Portable- You can pack them up and take them wherever you want. This is actually why I started using colored pencils 5 years ago. I used to be a teacher, and I brought my colored pencils to school with me so that I could draw on my planning time. My goal was to draw for at least 1/2 hour each day, and I was able to do that because they are easy to bring anywhere. I put the pencils I wanted to use in a ziplock bag, put a piece of glycine paper over my work on a drawing board, and off I went!
Easy clean up- Before I began my art journey in ernest I dabbled in oil paints. I still would like to get back to painting at some point, but it’s so much easier to talk myself into creating if I don’t have to deal with a big clean up afterwards. If you work with paints you need to clean your brushes and palette, which can take away time from actually creating. Clean up after drawing with colored pencils can be as simple as putting them to the side or at the most reorganizing them when you are finished with a piece (which I like to do by brand and then color, of course! It’s very satisfying to see all of the jars of color afterwards.).
Control and precision- Colored pencils called to me because I was drawing in graphite, which allowed me to achieve realism, but my pieces lacked color. I wanted to be able to add color using something that I could control like a graphite pencil. You can definitely do that with colored pencils. You can get a crazy amount of detail using colored pencils. They sharpen to a fine point (unlike soft pastels), and so it is easy to get tiny lines and shapes into place. This means you can use them to create very realistic pieces.
I strive for realism in my work, but I do not have the patience or skill for hyperrealism. However, if you do strive for that, you can do it with colored pencils. You should really check out artists who excel at this like these two (warning- be prepared to have your mind blown): Tanja Gant and Jesse Lane.
Great for creating small pieces- Colored pencils are better suited to create smaller pieces than other media. That is piggy backing off of #3, but I feel like it deserves its own number. Other media (like soft pastels) are “clunkier” and harder to maneuver in smaller spaces.
Variety of techniques- I’ve written some previous blogs on colored pencil techniques. I’ll include links to those if you want to get more information about them. The variety of techniques is one of the things that really blew my mind when I started using them 5 years ago. There are so many methods that artists have come up with. Different techniques will help you to create a variety of artwork styles. Here are the main techiniques: burnishing, layering and blending (involved in most colored pencil work), and using solvent.
Variety of pencils- I’ve also written blogs on the main types of colored pencils you can choose from. To keep it simple, there are wax-based pencils and oil-based pencils. Each has it’s own properties that are beneficial for different effects. If you check out the blogs I wrote for the pencil types, I explain the properties of each and the brands that are considered wax or oil-based.
Artists are drawn to different types of pencils based on their techniques and preferences. Experimenting with each type is a great way to find out what works best for you.
Variety of paper- Oh my goodness there are so many paper types. I haven’t even scratched the surface of trying all of these, but it’s pretty amazing to have so many choices.
The different paper types also allow you to achieve different effects and styles. I’ve written a few blogs on paper type, if you want to check those out. One of my favorite types of paper is Clairefontaine Pastelmat. Here’s a link to the pros and cons of that paper surface. But there are many other types. I discuss a few more in this blog, 5 Colored Pencil Paper Types Explained.
Longevity- As colored pencils have increased in popularity, companies have made sure to develop products that will last over time by creating pencils with high lightfast ratings. This is particularly important for pieces intended for exhibition, sale, or long-term display.
Lightfastness in colored pencils refers to the ability of the pigments in the pencils to resist fading or changing in color when exposed to light over time. Colored pencils, like many art materials, are susceptible to fading or shifting in color when exposed to light, particularly ultraviolet (UV) light.
Make sure to buy products that are lightfast when trying to ensure a piece will last. Usually you can find this information on a company’s website.
Negatives of Colored Pencils
All good things have some sort of drawback, except my dogs? Well, there are vet bills, but they are worth it. Anyway, my beloved colored pencils are no exception! Here are my complaints:
Time consuming!!!!- I had to put this as number one because it is my biggest issue with colored pencils. They take so much time to use to complete a piece. This will of course vary among artists, but a pet portrait that is 8” x 10” for me will take anywhere from 40 to 60 hours, depending on if I am rendering a background.
They are so time consuming because to make a drawing look realistic you have to add many layers. It can be meditative to draw using them, but if you are in a hurry to make a deadline (like for Christmas), it can be stressful.
There’s no real workaround here. You just have to know and accept that these pieces take a long time and schedule accordingly. You can use this knowledge to decide if you want to use colored pencils or something a tad quicker, like pastels.
Hard to erase/fix large mistakes- If you make a big mistake, it can be fairly devastating for your piece. I wrote a blog on how to fix mistakes made in colored pencil drawings: How to Correct Mistakes in Your Colored Pencil Piece. But you are far better off not making any to begin with.
Over time I have learned to head this off at the pass by drawing everything in VERY lightly at the beginning and then slowly darkening. However, this can still be hard to do especially when you have parts of your subject that are very light colored.
Not as easy to blend as graphite or pastels- You can’t glide the pigment of a colored pencil around as easy as a graphite pencil or pastels. That is why artists have developed techniques such as burnishing and using solvent to blend.
Another work around that I like do is to use oil-based pencils like Faber Castell Polychromos on Clairefontaine Pastelmat. In my early layers I like to brush the pigment around with a dry paint brush or blending stump to smooth out and move the color. It’s a game changer, in my opinion.
Other techniques help you to blend layers that are specific to colored pencils. I mentioned them in the “positive” section, but here they are again: burnishing and using solvent.
Light over dark- It’s very hard to add light pencil strokes over dark ones using colored pencils. As a result, you have to map out light areas and leave them pristine. That is what I do.
Some artists use masking fluid. You paint this over the light area to keep it clean while you work on the surrounding parts. I’ve never used this, but I can see how it would be super helpful, especially for things like whiskers. Come to think of it, I believe I have bought it before, so I will have to experiment with it and report back.
People also use indenting tools. The idea is that if you create an indented line on your paper, when you draw over it (lightly!) there will be a space that is compacted and so it doesn’t take the pencil color. I’ve only tried this once, and so I haven’t gotten good at it yet. But it is a good option, especially if you are using a Bristol vellum or smooth paper.
Lastly, my favorite paper, Clairefontaine Pastelmat, has enough tooth in it to allow you to draw some light strokes overtop of dark. Be aware, however, that you will never get a true white line overtop of a dark area. I only use this property of the paper to put a few whispy hairs on top of a dog’s fur, for example, when using pastelmat.
Not as widely recognized in the art community- I wish I could get into people’s brains to hear what they are thinking when I say that I use colored pencils as an artist. I bet they think of those Crayola colored pencils and they think ???? huh????. I only say that because that’s probably what I would think had I not delved into this world.
I say this because I find that some people are mildly surprised when I show them pictures of my work. Or at least they seem like they are.
That said, there are many fantastic artists who have paved the way for colored pencil art. Ann Kullberg is one such artist. Not only did she help to increase colored pencil artist recognition, but she has a website that provides instruction. As a result of people like her, there are many other famous colored pencil artists today.
Now there are even colored pencil works in galleries. So that is something to aspire to!
Conclusion
My artistic journey with colored pencils has unveiled a world of precision and versatility, allowing me to infuse realism with color. The control of colored pencils enable meticulous detail, making them ideal for smaller pieces. Yet, the medium comes with its challenges. Colored pencils demand time, as achieving realism requires extensive layering. Erasing large mistakes is challenging, and blending is not as easy as when using graphite. Despite these hurdles, I believe that colored pencils are a beautiful medium. I love to use it to express my appreciation for animals and nature alike.
