It happened that I finally decided to order prismacolor pencils and to my surprise I checked what is new going on here on TVI and saw there is a lesson with color pencils. Cant be better timing!
I have polychromos color pencils at home, but never tried prisma. I must say it was very nice feeling to try them. They are very soft comparing to polychromos so I am excited to work with them during this drawing.
Well, thats a little introduction.
Really enjoying this journey with PeeWee. During the lesson I did go back and work on additional details in the feathers as Matt taught - I feel like I’m getting a good feeling of how the pencils work BUT it seems to me the black paper sucks the light away from the brighter colors. Also made a poor color choice in the lower tail feathers but I’ve also learned everything can be adjusted. I do enjoy this class so much- I was there live- just couldn’t chat along- see you all next week!
So nice to have you participating and thank you so much for the kind words. Much appreciated. We are all here to support each other. By the way, we have a lot of members from Texas (but I’m NOT one, I live in Minnesota and yes, we still have snow on the ground).
Hi Lisa @HarleysMom -
Nice to see someone else is drawing a little ahead of the lessons. Those tail feathers are pretty challenging, but you are doing great with them.
WOW your drawing is wonderful. So happy to have another member sharing their PeeWee here. How fun to have new colored pencils that you can put to good use right away.
All the peacock drawings are fabulous! I looked it up, and “a group of peafowl is called an ostentation, or a pride —very appropriate for this showy bird.”
It can also be called a “muster,” but that’s just too basic. LOL
Another 4 hours working on PeeWee. When I started today, I realized it was time to pull out the “acrylic bridge” (because mine is being done with pastels). I learned about this tool from Ashley’s past lessons. Works great!
Now that this is on the computer, I see that the background needs to be dulled down - color is too intense. Helps to get away from it every now and then.
I can imagine doing background with pastels (sticks) as it is blurry but drawing the details with pastels pencils? I dont know why it seems somehow more difficult. But I may be completely wrong here
If you would compare working with color pencils and working with pastel pencils, what would you say is the biggest difference? Lets say you would be drawing PeeWee, as an example.
I dont have much experience with pastel pencils (I made only one piece with soft pastels, 99% using sticks, but I did hold one pastel pencil for about 10 seconds, making around 5 marks in that drawing ) so I am curious what would you say
Interesting question you ask. I should probably start by saying pastels is way down on the list of media I like to use, and colored pencils are a lot higher on the list of what I like and am most comfortable with.
In my opinion, pastels take a lot less time than colored pencils, but I find it easier to obtain the details with colored pencils. Part of that is because pastels need to be sharpened a lot and quickly lose a point. They don’t do well with any pencil sharper ( and believe me I’ve tried many sharpeners) so an exacto knife followed by a sandpaper block is the only way to do it.
My big issue with pastels is the dust. It’s hard on your throat if working with them for extended periods of time. But worse than that is when you blow the dust away, it can contaminate adjacent areas that might already been finished. So I find it hard to keep lighter or brighter colors pure and not becoming dull.
Finally, you have to be very careful with the completed drawing with pastels so as not to damage it. I try to get it framed right away with a double matt to keep the artwork away from the glass. If you spray fixative on the pastel artwork it will alter the colors.
Dear Terri (@robichon),
Thank you very much for such a great explanation! Lots of valuable info!
I will remember all this if I will ever want to do a pastel piece.
And I must add, well done for picking up this medium even its not on your list of favorite mediums. It is great that you are challenging yourself, and so we can as well benefit and see our PeeWee in pastel colors
Hello Teri (@TLP),
Thank you for sharing your beautiful art! Looks so soft and I love the combination of colors as well!
Pastels looks like a great medium for achieving that softness in the piece.
But I may be completely wrong here 
