Drawing Fruit and Vegetables in colour P. 59

Drawing Fruit and Vegetables in colour  P. 59

For this exercise, I chose to use Colouring Pencils as I felt that they would be a good medium to use for the hatching technique.

I made myself a small diagram in the corner of the picture as a reminder of where the highlight, midtone and shadows were then set about adding colour in layers.

At this point, it occurred to me that the colouring pencils I was using were not at all blending well, but creating a shiny layer of colour that other colouring pencils could not stick to. So I did some research into Pencil quality and found that a really good brand was needed to get the best effect. I was stuck between two brands, Prismacolour and Polychrome Colouring Pencils, I went for the Polychromes by Faber Castell.

I used a strong desk lamp to the right of the picture to create interesting shadow.

In truth, I am quite shocked at how a better quality Colouring Pencil can improve your work and I found the Polychromes fantastic to use, the way I was able to blend colour and add layers to the picture. I was able to employ various hatch styles to the different fruit and even added a touch of water to the shadow near the pear and apple which blended out perfectly. Generally, I think there is a vibrancy to the colours that is missing with a cheaper pencil and I felt confident enough to shade in the background while not outlining the fruit.