Colored Pencil Step by Step

Color Theory

Colored pencils are transparent by nature, so instead of “mixing” colors as you would for painting, you create blends by layering colors on top of one another. Knowing a little about basic color theory can help you tremendously in drawing with colored pencils. The primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) are the three basic colors that can’t be created by mixing other colors; all other colors are derived from these three. Secondary colors (orange, green, purple) are each a combination of two primaries, and tertiary colors (red-orange, red-purple, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-purple) are a combination of a primary color and a secondary color. Hue refers to the color itself, such as blue or purple, and intensity means ...