Tips and techniques about using coloured pencil media to create botanical art
​- plus commentary on associated tools and studio set-up
I've organised videos in this section by the artist producing the video. 
Also included are books by experienced coloured pencil artists.

Ann Swan
​

Ann Swan GM SBA is one of the leading Botanical Artists using Coloured Pencils in the UK. She has given masterclasses in the use of Coloured Pencils at Diploma Courses all over the UK. She's been teaching botanical art in coloured pencils and graphite pencil for very many years - however is relatively new to videos!  It's great to be able to see her techniques online at last! 
​This is her video channel.

Coloured Pencil Equipment

This 6 minute video outlines what you need to know about coloured pencils and associated equipment.

Clear explanation of her opinions of different brands of coloured pencils and associated equipment. 

Introduction to Creative Colour Mixing with coloured pencils 

In this video Ann introduces her Colour Mixing Workbook and describes some of the techniques used for colour mixing and creating the right saturation and colour which need to be practised BEFORE you start to work on a coloured pencil drawing. The idea is to prevent the potential for accidents when mixing and laying down colours.

She demonstrates basic techniques for:
  • a graded saturation/tonal bar
  • basic colour layering (see video image) - using a range of colours for a drawing of orange Chinese Lanterns
Note the pencils she uses and how sharp the points are and her ellipse method for laying down colour.

Layering a Green Mix

This video demonstrates how Ann uses four Faber Castell Polychromos pencils - of varying green hues - and a Lyra Rembrant Splender blender to create a basic green mix.

Creative Colour Mixing

​A short 'how to' clip from her new online 'Creative Colour Mixing Workshop'.
Lyra Rembrandt Splender Colourless Blending Pencil

This is the blender pencil used in the video above. I use coloured pencils and find that Lyra Rembrandt pencils and other products - such as this blender pencil - work really well with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils in smoothing out the colour and filling all the little white holes in the paper. You don't actually need to press hard if you have a lot of pigment already on the paper.

This is certainly my favourite coloured pencil blender. If you use other pencils other artists suggest that it works well with most brands of pencil, however you may find that another blender suits you better.

​As with everything you need, if you have two rather than one, it saves frustration when you can't work out where you put down the one that you were using last!
BUY this Blender Pencil

Janie Gildow
​

Colored Pencil Techniques made easy

Janie Gildow is not a botanical artist. However she is one of the doyennes of coloured pencil art. ​This particular video focuses on:
  • how to apply a coloured pencil to paper in the most efficient and effective way to get good colour saturation - and avoid the need to reapply colour
  • how to indent the lines of leaves to make it easy to see them
  • how to blend colours on apple or a cylindrical shape
Janie has two books which provide a masterclass in coloured pencil techniques. This is one of them.

Colored Pencil Solution Book
​by Janie Gildow and Barbara Benedetti Newton

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
  • ​Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars by 37 customer reviews (UK)
  • Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars by 70 customer reviews (USA)

This was one of the first books about coloured pencil art that I ever bought - and it's still one of the best.

The tips and techniques in the book focus on the following topics although her examples are not always botanical. They're still relevant to botanical artists
  • set-up (pencils, paper, equipment and keeping your artwork clean)
  • design of your composition
  • application of coloured pencils (tracing, mixing, application, grading colour, making colour look smooth, liquifying pigment, removing colour etc.
  • making colour and light work for you (mixing complements, the difference between hue, intensity and value etc.)
  • practical solutions for achieving texture and translucency
  • how to fix mistakes - a section not often found in other books!
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: North Light Books
Publication date (paperback): May 29, 2006

BUY THIS BOOK

Gaynor Dickeson
​

Crab Apples and a Pink Tulip in Coloured Pencils 

Botanical artist and tutor Gaynor Dickeson Dip SBA(Dist), SBA, SFP demonstrates how to use coloured pencils for botanical drawing with this impressive 37 minute video.  

​She talks about what she is doing, the type of strokes she uses at different stages and the pencils and tools she is using throughout. The video includes close-ups of her techniques. 

​You can see her series of crab apple drawings on her website. I saw them in person at the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2014 where she won a Silver Gilt Medal for the series.
The second video demonstrates how a tulip was drawn in coloured pencils in 7 hours - reduced to two and half minutes.
This third video is one prepared for a workshop at the 2017 ASBA Conference.

It's a step by step with lots of photos of the stages of applying colours to first the leaves and the camellia bud.

Wendy Hollender
​

Wendy Hollender is a botanical artist, illustrator, author, and instructor. Wendy is an instructor of Botanical Art and Illustration at the New York Botanical Garden and leads independent workshops  in various locations. Her botanical artwork has been included in exhibitions of botanical art at Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew and the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

Getting Started with Botanical Drawing

Wendy Hollender teaches drawing with coloured pencils and in this video she demonstrates some basics in relation to a course she offers. The video shows the art supplies for working in colored pencil and watercolor pencil and demonstrates techniques for rendering. 

She has a new book out in 2020 which you can read about on 
NEW Books about Botanical Art & Illustration in 2020
Botanical Drawing in Color:
A Basic Guide to Mastering Realistic Form and Naturalistic Color
by Wendy Hollender

Rated an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars by 77 customer reviews (USA)
​
The book works through various topics:
  • basic techniques related to drawing value, form and perspective - applied to botanical art subject matter
  • an in-depth section on colour and how to explore and record the colours that can be created from a limited number of pencils
  • aspects particularly relevant to the botanical artist eg creating a sketchbook page; observing and drawing under magnification; developing a composition
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Watson-Guptill
​Publication date: July 20, 2010)

BUY THIS BOOK

Rose Marie James

Creating Neutrals with Coloured Pencils

I found these on the Tutorials page Rose Marie James's website (she teaches botanical art at NYBG.).
​However the 'owner' on YouTube is very anonymous. So I think these are by Rose Marie but I've not yet checked this.

Either way they're a useful couple of videos showing you can create your own neutrals using complementary colours - in two different brands of coloured pencils:
  • Part 1 uses Faber Castell Polychromos pencils
  • Part 2 uses Prismacolor pencils 
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