Chicken Lover in colored Pencil

[Amy Otteson]

Here is a better image, I hope. Thanks Cynthia

[Sharon Knettell]

Amy,

It is a much lovelier and more cohesive picture, that I first thought.

You can try it that way, but the pencils are waxy, and they tend to repel the washes. Airbrushing leaves a beautiful matte surface to work back into with highlights, unlike using washes. Also, You can darken certain areas more easily that pop. Not to criticize I probably would have taken the plant down a couple of notches.

I drew the picture up quite substantially, then used the airbrush. I then later touched it up with more pencil. Take care however with too much waxy build up (sounds like a floor commercial) as it repels the airbrushing. You can hit the darks later.

[Amy Otteson]

Hey Sharon. Thanks for looking again. Well, duh! of course the wash would repel on the waxy surface. Boy, my brain is....somewhere. I think you are right about the plant, I didn't even think about that, but it should be in the background a bit more. I guess that is part of the colored pencil 'focus too much on the detail and not on the whole piece' problem that you mentioned earlier. Thank you for the feedback, thats what critiques are for, to criticize. I can really use it because I have no one around me that is able to help that way.
Amy

[Sharon Knettell]

You can get really beautiful saturated color with the airbrush method. I wish I could post my old illustrations so I could show you. You can get them as rich as any other medium.

One of the problems I have seen with colored pencil is its paleness. Try really pushing the color on the next one. If you know your way around an airbrush, try that. You seem to have the drawing skills to accomplish something quite lovely in this medium.

If you have any further questions, let me know. I did that method for at least 20 years.