Colored Pencil Drawing Technique: Blending with Solvent

In this class, I will teach you how to blend colored pencils with solvent. Blending with solvent is an important drawing technique to know and practice when using colored pencils, as it allows you to enhance the vibrancy of your colored pencils and remove any graininess from your drawing. This drawing technique makes your sketch look more like a painting and makes realism a lot easier to achieve in your artwork.

Class Outline

Lesson 1: Supplies needed. In this lesson, I will show and explain all of the supplies I will be using for the class. I will discuss my favorite brands of colored pencils and give you some tips on how to select the best paper for blending with solvent. I also discuss all of the other necessary supplies for this technique.

Lesson 2: Shading with colored pencils. We will start to draw a sphere. In this lesson, we will focus on shading with colored pencils and how to prepare your drawing for successful blending with solvent. I will go through tips on how to hold the pencil, layer the colored pencils and also some mistakes to avoid.

Lesson 3: Blending with solvent. In this lesson, we will blend our sphere with the solvent. I go through some best practices for blending colored pencils with solvent and some mistakes to avoid.

Lesson 4: Layering colored pencils. I will finish off the sphere demonstration by showing how you can add additional layers of the colored pencil after you have blended the drawing out with solvent. We will add shadows and highlights to our drawing.

Lesson 5: Animal study part 1. We will now practice all of these techniques by completing a final study of a cat. In this lesson, we will work on the base layer of shading.

Lesson 6: Animal study part 2. We will blend out the base layer of colored pencil using solvent in this lesson.

Lesson 7: Animal study part 3. In the final lesson of this class, we will work on drawing in all of the detail, such as the fur texture and details in the cats' eyes. We will define the drawing more, deepen up the shadows and brighten up the main highlights.

• Introduction to colored pencil blending with solvent
• Materials: colored pencils, paper and other supplies
• Shading with colored pencils- tips and mistakes to avoid
• Blending with solvent- tips and mistakes to avoid
• Layering colored pencils
• Final animal study: part 1
• Final animal study: part 2
• Final animal study: part 3
• Class summary