Coloured Pencil–Red Pepper

Here are a few photos showing a coloured pencil drawing of a red pepper.  As I showed in the last post. I start with a tonal scale to work out how to get a gradation from light to dark.  In this particular case, the scale from light to dark is not just one colour but several colours that range from pale yellow to orange to orange red to different tones of red for the pepper.  This is not just a tonal gradation but also a colour gradation following the colour wheel.


I chose to work on grey paper because of the dark background of the composition and I also wanted to experiment with the use of lighter colours on a darker ground.  The coloured pencil process is one which starts with relatively light tones working towards darker tones.  Many layers of colour are added progressively on top of each other.

The basic shape of the composition is drawn in and the lighter colours are added using very light pressure.

I continue to add the lighter tones of colour on the pepper, stem and background. I use light pressure and I am weaving one colour into another to create a smooth transition.

I have focused on the lighter tones of the pepper using the oranges and red orange colours. Once enough of these colours are applied  and the background colours are added, I can start to slowly darken the shadows of the pepper.

This is the finished study.  The darkest colours were added during the last half of the drawing process. Colours are constantly layered one over the other to get smooth transitions. Working is layers is a slow process that demands much patience.  The pay off is that layering dark over light creates a more dense and rich depth of colour.