I am a self-taught colour pencil artist and I have been using colour pencils every day for the last four years to create my portrait commissions and develop my skills. I have learnt a lot about the types of colour pencils out there and which ones work best with my style of drawing. When I first started drawing I used a small tin of Derwent drawing pencils. These were ideal to get me going and are an inexpensive way to start developing your skills as a colour pencil artist. But as I started experimenting with other brands I realised the significance of more expensive pencils and they were so much better in terms of saturation and depth.

This blog post contains the colour pencil brands I love to use along with the other materials I use to create my colour pencil commissions. I have also explained how I use them but this is through trial and error and the development of my style. Find your own way of using these materials. There is no wrong way and right way for using these materials. I will just be talking about the way I like to use them.

When it comes to the medium of colour pencil there are so many different brands to choose from and it is hard to know which ones would be right for you and your style. I have tried a few different ones and have narrowed it down to two of my most favourite brands. I’m sure some of you can agree.

5 Must-have materials for colour pencil pet portrait artists:

1. Windsor & Newton Smooth Bristol Board paper

2. Pan Pastels

3. Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils

4. Caran d’Ache Pablos pencils

5. Faber Castell Polychromos pencils

1. Bristol Board Paper

When I first started my pet portrait business I used Daler & Rowney Smooth Heavyweight paper which was ideal for developing my style and understanding my medium. The thickness of the paper works well with adding many layers of pencil and is great for practising.

To create a desired realistic effect with colour pencils you need to add many layers in order to create depth and eliminate the colour of the paper underneath. Therefore, a paper with a lot of tooth is normally desirable.

After developing my skills, I realised I preferred brighter smoother paper. Smoother paper doesn’t allow for as many layers but it doesn’t need many to completely cover the colour of the paper.  The benefit of smoother paper allows for highly detailed drawing and artwork which is perfect for colour pencils. In my opinion.

Winsor & Newton Bristol Board Extra Smooth Surface Drawing Pad is the paper I now use for my colour pencil portraits. Even though it doesn’t have a lot of tooth you can use tricks to create more layers to work on. By blocking in colours with pastel allows for more colour pencil layers to be added. Using fixative on the surface can also add another layer on the paper. I usually use this process to add fine white hairs.

I prefer to buy gummed pad papers so each size is perfect and identical and it is easy to then sell specific portrait sizes. If you can’t afford to buy all the sizes you need then it is best to buy the largest size and cut it down to the various sizes you need for your artwork.

There are so many types of paper and every artist will have a favourite one that is best for their style and technique. Experiment with a few and see which one works best for yours.

2. PanPastels

Pan pastels have been revolutionary for my portraits. I use them as the under base to my portraits by blocking in the mid-tones and darkest areas. Using the soft knives tools, I apply the pastel in a circular motion, smoothing and filling the paper so there is no white showing through. I then apply my luminance colours like before and finally the Polychromos and Pablos for the details.

These pastels are expensive but they are so pigmented that you don’t have to use a lot, just a touch. I would recommend the two sets below which you can use to draw any animal type.

These are listed below:

2. Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901

I saw many other artists using these pencils and I was incredibly surprised how bright and beautiful the quality was. They are expensive but I guarantee they are completely worth every penny. There are smaller sets to buy online but I saved up and bought the full set of 76 pencils and I’m very glad that I did. There are so many useful colours that I hadn’t used before or even seen in other sets with other brands. These pencils are wax-based so they are quite good at creating a base layer for portraits and because they are soft they are really good at covering large areas faster. They are so bright and vibrant they really do bring your art to a whole new level and beauty.

3. Caran d'Ache Pablo

I recently purchased the full set of these pencils after using the white pencil for highlights and whiskers in my portraits. I really love how bright and pigmented these pencils are and well they show up over the top of my luminance colours. I love the broud range of amazing colours for any subject. They remind me of the polychromos pencils in terms of hardness which means they are perfect for fine lines and details.

These are definitely my new must-have pencils for any colour pencil artist looking to add a new brand to their collection.

5. Faber Castell Polychromos

I think these are by far the best pencils I have ever used. They are very pigmented and so good for detail. Lightfast, which means the colour will not fade over time and they are perfect in combination with other textured mediums such as pastel or wax-based pencils. The black pencil is my favourite black to use in my portrait commissions because its very deep and covers the paper really well. I also really like the variety of browns and greys which are perfect for fur and makes colour matching easy. Their cool greys a perfect fur drawing white fur.

You don’t need to buy the full 120 pencil set to start with since there are a lot of colours that you won’t use if you are just drawing animals. I bought the 36 pencil tin set and then other pencils individually.

Thank you so much for reading this blog post. I’d love to know in the comments below, how helpful (or not) you thought this was.

Also if you have any suggestions for pencils and paper that you think I should try I would love to hear about them!

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