Christmas Themed Drawings with Colored Pencils

In this lecture, I'll go through the materials that you'll need to complete the drawings later on in the course. Owning and using the right materials is absolutely key to drawing with coloured pencils. If you're using the right paper, and generally have the right tools, you're already off to a great start.

In this lecture, I'll show you all of the key techniques you'll need to know to complete the drawings. From understanding layering and color swatches, to how to actually use the pencil, these are so important to master.

I always use the same method to create all of my drawings. In this lecture, I'll explain what this process is and it should make all of the drawings seem much simpler. I think colored pencil drawings can look really complicated, but they don't have to be!

Creating an accurate sketch is one of the most important preparation tasks to complete before starting with the colored pencil. I can't stress enough how important it is! I'll show you how I create my sketches to make them as accurate as possible. Don't forget, you can always use my sketch outlines if you get stuck!

That's the main skills you'll need to know to draw with coloured pencils and complete this course. Don't forget you can find the resources to each drawing in the first lecture of each section!

Before we can start the drawing, I first want to have a really good look at the reference photo. I'm looking for the main colors and shapes, plus anything else I'll need to bear in mind whilst I'm drawing.

Let's start this drawing by building up the base layers. The goal here is to get something on the paper. I can start with the lightest color that I can see in each section, remember that'll be different colors in each area. I can then start mapping out the key shapes.

Now that I'm got the main shapes marked in, I want to start building up the contrast. This is such an important aspect of color pencil drawings - get the contrast right and the drawing will always look good. I want to focus on getting those darkest colors marked in.

The final lecture on this drawing is to brighten everything up. It's all looking too muted at this point, I'd like to make really bright greens and reds that pop!

Before we get started on this drawing, let's look at the reference photo. I'm particularly wanting to look at the colors in this photo. I find white areas are often viewed as tricky as they're not really white. Lets look at the colors which are really there.

In this lecture, we'll be mapping out the lightest colors on the lego santa. I want to look for the lightest color which I can see in each section, and that'll be different for the red vs white sections!

Now that the basic colors have been mapped in, lets start building up the contrast. I'll show you how to gradually work from those light colors towards the darkest colors. The goal at the end of this lecture is to have a realistic looking santa, but with much too muted colors.

Lets finish off this Santa by brightening up the colors. I'll show you how I increase the vibrancy of all the strong colors so that we have a Santa which is as bright as Lego should be!

Let's take a minute to have a look at the reference photo before starting to add any colored pencil. I'm looking for the most obvious shapes and colors that I'll need to take into account throughout the drawing. I think this is a really nice way to get your bearings on a picture.

Let#s get started with this drawing as I usually would by building up the base layers. I want to put the lightest color I can see in each area onto the paper. Don't forget to put the pencil down smoothly for the base layers, even if it'll need to be textured later.

Now that I've got the basic colors and shapes marked in, let's start building up the contrast. I want to gradually work towards the darkest colors.

Now that the darkest colors have been marked in, the whole drawing is looking very muted. All of the vibrant reds that we need in the finished drawing, aren't looking very bold. Let's brighten everything up and finish this drawing.

Let's take a minute once again to look at the reference photo before starting on this drawing. This is a pretty complicated reference photo, both due to the colors as well as all of the detail. There's a lot we'll need to bear in mind before getting started!

NOTE: I use a Gelly Roll pen towards the end of this drawing. This is an optional additional material.

Once again, let's map in the base layers of this drawing. I want to approach this in the same way as I did on the previous drawing, but filling in the lightest color I can see in each section. I don't want to build up any texture at this point, I just want to block in the colors making them as smooth as possible.

Now that something is mapped in, let's start building up the contrast. I'm working from the lightest colors towards the darkest colors. There are so many colors in this gingerbread house though, I won't get to the darkest colors in this lecture.

Lets keep working towards the darkest colors. In the last lecture, we filled in a lot of the midtones. at this point lets focus on getting the deepest areas mapped in. By the end of this lecture, the gingerbread house should have great contrast, but it won't look vibrant enough.

I now want to focus on getting all of the colors looking as vibrant as they do in the reference photo. Particularly tweeking the colors in the icing roof and on the gingerbread itself.

This is the end of the course! I hope you enjoyed it and have created some really fun Christmas drawings.