Coloured Pencils Tutorial - How to acheive a smooth blend

The hand is conformed to use a writing pressure and that's how it will want to hold and use any writing/colouring utensil. So, firstly we need to retrain the hand.

The obvious way to apply pressure is to press more firmly, but that will cause you to tense up and take away the relaxation element of colouring. Also it will cause your hand to tire easily, which is off-putting.

Hold the pencil further away from the tip end. This is a comfortable way to hold a pencil for colouring, and it will allow you to use small movements of the finger to produce a much larger movement of the pencil tip, therefore more coverage of colour can be quickly applied. 
To apply more pressure move the hand closer to the pencil tip. A firm pressure is unnecessary. A writing pressure is enough to achieve a nice blend. 

Let's begin...

Pick three pencils a light, mid and dark tone of your choice. 

• Use the light to lightly lay down colour all over the circle
• Use the mid tone to apply colour from the bottom to the centre of the circle
• Use the dark to apply colour to the bottom quarter of the circle
• Use the light colour to go over all of the circle 
• Repeat the above steps as many times as it will need to achieve a good blend
• Use a cotton bud to give it a spit n polish! not literally!!! just go over it with a dry cotton bud and for larger areas use a cotton wool ball 
• Final step. Practise is key, so please don't give up. Keep on having a go!

I hope you find this tutorial helpful. 

Barbara