Craftsy Review: Getting Started With Colored Pencil & Water-Color With Janie Gildow

Getting Started With Colored Pencil & Water-Color is a craftsy tutorial course consisting of 6 lessons at intermediate level. In this course, you will learn basic water-color techniques and how to incorporate them into your colored pencil work to create vibrant works of art as well as how to recreate color and texture in a variety of subjects.

Lesson 1

Janie begins with a demonstration of how she uses colored pencil for color layering and blending techniques. She also shares some tips on the varying amount of pressure you should exert on colored pencils of different shades while blending them.

Janie later discusses how to select water-color materials to best suit your needs - for eg: paper, brushes (flat & round) and different grades of water-color paints. She shares some samples of the same water-color painted over different types of papers, to show you that different paper produces different results (for eg: Fabriano Hot Press Paper produces a smooth finish). Janie also explains why it will not really matter whether you are using student grade or artist grade water-colors if you are going to combine your water-color paintings with colored pencils.

Janie ends this lesson with a tip on how to clean your brushes, and explains why you should never soak your natural bristle brushes in hot water with soap.

Lesson 2

In lesson 2, Janie will teach you how to create a color predictor for combining colored pencils and water-colors. This color predictor is basically a scale of colors that provides a rough indication of what color you can expect to achieve when combining colored pencils and water-colors (of same or different colors) even before you actually combine them.

You will learn key techniques for applying water-color over a layer of colored pencil coloring as Janie demonstrates coloring a yellow 'm & m' chocolate.

Lesson 3

In lesson 3, you will be taught two more methods for combining colored pencils and water-colors. In lesson 2, you will have learnt how to create a layer of colored pencil coloring first, then later applying water-color over it. In this lesson, you will learn the reverse - ie: creating a layer of water-color first, then later applying colored pencil over it, as well as an integrated approach (the simultaneous use of both water-color and colored pencils).

Janie demonstrates coloring a pear with the aforementioned reverse approach, and two cherries with the integrated approach.

You will also be taught how to achieve deeper tones in your subjects.

Janie ends lesson 3 by sharing tips on how to burnish your work.

Lessons 4 to 6

Throughout lessons 4 to 6, Janie will be demonstrating how to use key techniques in combining water-colors and colored pencils to draw and color a landscape (consisting of a pond, trees and grasses).

You will also see how Janie simplifies details within a complex reference image of the aforementioned landscape, and how she uses tracing paper to create impression markings on her work.

Conclusion

Getting Started With Colored Pencil & Water-Color is an interesting course where you will learn how the combination of colored pencils and water-colors allows you to create results that you won't be able to achieve with either medium alone.

Enroll in the course or check out more on Craftsy