Make Shiny Gemstones with Color Pencils for Zentangle Art

Master color pencil basic techniques, including layering, blending, and burnishing, to create rich color transitions on heavy weight paper for Zentangle gemstone designs.

Sharpen soft core and hard core color pencils to reduce waste and breakage. Use the two-hole sharpener for soft cores and keep blunt points for blending gemstones.

Explore the anatomy of a shiny translucent gemstone, from the dark top area to the bright middle, and to the lightest bottom, including bezels, highlights, and bounce light.

Select six colors for each gemstone: dark, medium, light, black, white, and gray. Balance monochromatic and analogous schemes with decreasing value for vibrant gemstones.

Layer greens from bottom to top, blend with white to create a glow, and build saturation by overlapping lightest to darkest greens for a bright gemstone.

Finish the gemstone with the colorless blender, blending white, light green, medium green, and dark green from bottom to top, blend gray into green, then erase stray marks.

Enhance a finished Zentangle tile by building a dark-to-light green background around the gemstone, blending dark, medium, and light greens with a white halo, then burnish for a smooth finish.

Apply a bottom-to-top blending approach with white and blues to soften lines and create a subtle glow around the gemstone. Sharpen pencils and refine edges before the next burnishing step.

Master burnishing a gemstone by cleaning and sharpening a blender pencil, refining dark blue edges, then blending white, light blue, and gray tones while maintaining clean edges with precision erasing.

Create a ruby-inspired oval gemstone with color pencils, layering black, warm gray, and reds, blending and burnishing to reveal light from the top left, then prep for background tangling.

Color the crescent moon tangle on a gemstone background using a progression of medium red, light red, and white pencils, finished with a colorless blender for a burnished, sparkling look.

Create patterned gemstones with a Zentangle-inspired design visible in a smooth, shiny surface. Layer colors from darkest at the top to lightest, using grays for subtle shadows and burnishing.

Create a cracked gemstone by layering color pencils over intentionally fine, partially visible cracks drawn with a dark pen, achieving a subtle, recessed effect in Zentangle art.

Add highlights to gemstones with white gel pens or opaque white paint, using elongated teardrops and small rectangles toward the top where natural or artificial light hits.

Build confidence with color pencils through practice exercises, and watch your gemstone Zentangle art improve. Join the Instagram hashtag community for ongoing inspiration and keep creating.