Review: Realistic Textures in Colored Pencil with Cynthia Knox (Craftsy)

Cynthia Knox is an award-winning artist who specialises in traditional realism. Much of her artworks are created with coloured pencils and they are just stunning.

She's the author of many instructional books on coloured pencils and conducts workshops as well. It's great that Craftsy was able to get her to put out a course on their platform.

The course Realistic Textures in Colored Pencil is on creating textures with coloured pencils.

The lessons in the 104-minute course are:

1. Organic Textures - 20 min
2. Uneven Surfaces & Markings - 17 min
3. Metallic Textures - 24 min
4. Woodgrain & Branches - 10 min
5. Fur & Feathers - 18 min
6. Fabric & Leather - 15 min

The course is meant for intermediate artists. It's to help you get that extra level of detail and realism in your artworks. The Knox uses wax-based Prismacolor pencils so your results may vary if you use other brands, such as those from Faber Castell for example.

Each lesson focuses on a specific material and surface, such as for fruits, metal, wood, fur, feathers, fabric and leather. Knox would take an example artwork, zoom in to a specific area and show you how to create those specific textures. When drawing fruits for example, she teaches you how to create the dimples, the crease, and also underlying colour.

If you're used coloured pencils, you'll know that it can be time consuming to complete each piece of work. You'll find that many of the techniques do require more time even if they are actually quite simple to execute. There are lots of laying, blending, burnishing and going back to and fro. It's worth it when you get to see the final result. Cynthia Knox's personal artworks are sources of inspiration and will act as motivation to push you further.

Overall, it's an insightful course with lots of practical knowledge. Knox is a top notch teacher and the course is well worth the price.

Enroll in the course or check out more reviews on Craftsy. There's a 50% discount for Parka Blogs readers until 17 June 2016.

Disclosure: This course was provided to me by Craftsy for review purposes. You can support Parka Blogs by using the affiliate links as I get a little commission from each sale. :-)