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Colored Pencils: General Tips/Techniques
Burnishing is a common technique where you layer several colors lightly and then a finial color over them to get a very smooth/solid look. I usually do it with Prismacolor Thick Lead Art Pencils, white and their clear blending pencil work well for this. Another method is to use a clear blending marker.
Sometimes I use Milky Gel Pens and/or white ink to add highlights over my pencils.
Always keep your pencils sharp while working! This is especially true with Thick Lead Art and Col-Erase Pencils. I use a hand held Panasonic electric pencil sharpener that I can carry with me no matter where I draw. It is REALLY handy and I recommend them over the plug-in kind if you plan on going anywhere to draw.
Do not blend with your fingers - this can cause messy fingerprints or smudging! For Col-Erase use a tissue, q-tip, cotton or a stub (AKA tortillon). For other types of pencils they should be "burnished" not blended.
Do not brush off your artwork with your hands!! When working with pencils little flakes of color may come off and sit on top of the paper. Brushing off with your hands may press them into the paper or streak the color. Instead tip the paper up and "tap it off" or then brush it off with a clean, dry paintbrush. Another idea is to buy a makup/blush brush - they are nice and soft and the retractable ones are easy to carry with you.
Do not lean on your artwork - you could smear or streak it. Keep a clean sheet of paper handy to put over parts of your artwork you need to lean on in order to work on other sections. Plus you can test your colors on the other paper first - preventing you from adding a color and then realizing it does not look right.
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