Why Colored Pencils?

First colored pencil piece I created.

I have had so many people ask me why my chosen medium is colored pencils, so today I thought I would share why I love this medium so much!

My first medium was oil paints. I took oil painting classes for 9 years and I did love using them. The problem was when I would come home, I never painted because it took so long to get out my paints, mix them, paint for a short while and then have to clean brushes and put everything away. It just took a lot of effort and so, most of my painting only took place in class one day a week.

Then, one night as I was scrolling through Pinterest, I saw a painting that caught my attention and it said it was done with colored pencils. I couldn’t believe it! Colored pencils, really? Well, I then remembered that I had some Prismacolor pencils left from when I had homeschooled our boys. I went to find them and then found a reference photo of a red hibiscus that I had taken, sketched it out on some paper and started using those Prismacolor pencils to color this in. I fell in love immediately! I didn’t know colored pencils could produce a painterly look. I made some mistakes because I didn’t know much about how to use them. For instance, I didn’t know to save the white of my paper for highlighted areas. I thought I would be able to add my white highlights back in on top of the red. Not so, due to the nature of the pencils, so my highlights were pink. You can see this in the photo I have included. It didn’t matter, I was so excited about the vibrancy I was able to capture with this medium. That led to me finding videos on YouTube, buying online tutorials, buying books about colored pencils, etc. to learn all about this medium. The most wonderful thing was it was so easy to just sit down and work on a project. I could sit in my chair with my paper taped to a drawing board placed in my lap, my reference photo on my iPad or printed out, pencils and other supplies in a caddy beside me and just paint away! When I was tired or ready to stop (doesn’t happen very often, lol) I could just put it down, no cleanup! I was in heaven!

That was four years ago. I’ve learned a lot about this medium since then and bought a lot of colored pencils! I’ve practiced different styles and techniques, tried different subjects to paint with them, and still have so much more I want to try as I see other artists try different things. I have completed several original pieces of my own and actually sold my first original piece in the fall of 2019. Deciding to start my art business has been so fulfilling! Making connections with people and seeing them come to love and appreciate my artwork is so amazing.

My next phase is to begin teaching others how to use colored pencils and how they can create. I plan to teach live classes at our local Hobby Lobby, considering private lessons at my home, and also looking into online classes/tutorials in the future. For more information about upcoming classes, please click here.