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blending colored pencils with color gradationColored pencils are a fun and versatile medium. They are an easy medium to begin with and are suitable for children and beginners, yet amazing realism can be achieved by a practiced artist.

I have a soft spot in my heart for colored pencils because they were my first “serious” art supply when I graduated from crayons at around age ten.

Learning how to blend them is a fundamental skill to learn with this medium, but there are several methods that can be used. In this week’s tutorial, I will show you how to blend them optically by layering different colors next to and over previous layers.

Video Demonstration: Blending Colored Pencils

Video Transcript

I’m just going to show you a short demonstration on how to blend colored pencils. There’s lots of techniques for blending colored pencils, in this case I’m going to show you how to do it optically just by gently layering one layer of color into another to get a gradated blend.

This is the smooth side of Bristol paper, 96 lbs. and in this case I’m just going to use 5 colors I chose somewhat at random.

Have you used this colored pencil blending method? What is your favorite way to use colored pencils? Please leave your comments and questions below!