How To Draw A Pear With Colored Pencils - The Virtual Instructor

The light yellow pencil is chosen deliberately. Combined with the color of the paper, this color creates a harmonious yellow-green tone. It is more saturated than the color of the surface. I wouldn’t be able to achieve such an effect with an orange or red pencil, applied in one layer.

Adding the Colored Pencils Applications

First, I apply Cadmium Yellow to the body of the pear. I keep the pencil moving using small circular strokes as this color is applied. This ensures a smooth and even coverage. To increase the effect of blending, I gently touch the layers of color with the tip of my finger, mixing them and softening the transitions.

I then cover the leaf with Earth Green Yellowish.

Raw Umber is then applied to the stem.

Next, I use Dark Naples Ochre to create a darker nuance in the pear’s body. I also include some Walnut Brown strokes to the stem, making its sides darker.

Olive Green Yellowish is great for deepening the green of the leaf.

With Raw Umber, I work on the pear, adding some shadow and giving it more volume. The light is coming from the left, so the core shadow will be more evident on the right side of the object.

I leave a thin line of the reflected light near the edge of the pear. We’ll make it look a little duller in the next steps.

Raw Umber does a great job of muting the bright yellow applications. The art is beginning to appear more natural.

I also add some Raw Umber to the leaf and stem to unify the image in terms of color.

Let’s make the artwork a bit livelier. With Dark Chrome Yellow, I add an orangey nuance to the upper part of the pear’s body. I also leave a few areas open to communicate the texture.

Then I use Deep Scarlet Red, which creates a pleasant saturated accent in the upper part of the pear.

I add this hue selectively to other areas of the pear, and to the leaf. Green and red are complementary colors. The result of placing them next to each other results in rich, contrasting, vivid, and appealing color. Applied directly on top of each other, complementary colors easily create a deep desaturated color.

We mostly see highly saturated colors in areas of highlight. Shadows also have color, but the colors are less intense.

See also: How to Draw with Colored Pencils – 3 Techniques

The pear’s local color is mostly yellow with some areas closer to yellow-orange. I’m going to include orange and red to the darker midtones and core shadows. Alternatively, the lighter areas are developed with desaturated yellow with a hint of green. This creates the impression that the color temperature and saturation shifts alongside the values.

I add Earth Green Yellowish to the core shadow of the pear’s body, desaturating and slightly darkening the existing applications. The shadow looks more realistic now.

This green hue presents a beautiful contrast to the reddish nuance that we already have here. (Again, green and red are complementary colors on the color wheel.) Also, it works perfectly in combination with the yellows and the color of the paper.

I add just a little of Olive Green Yellowish to the darkest areas of the core shadow, closer to the edge of the pear. Use this shade wisely – it is quite intense! The leaf needs some of it, too.

As a finishing touch, I’d like to make the color applications denser. The goal is to restore and strengthen the initial color of the pear’s body.

I apply Cadmium Yellow to the highlights and Dark Naples Ochre to the midtones with slightly heavier pressure. I touch the leaf and stem with those yellows as well.