Posted by Lydia Fiedler
on March 20, 2023
Hi friends! Lydia here with one of my favorite coloring techniques – it's a selective focus technique with colored pencils.
By selective focus, I mean a technique that is similar to a spotlighting technique, but it's more like portrait mode on an iPhone – it creates a sharp, focused foreground, with a soft, fuzzier background. If you are a photography buff, it's a similar effect to a macro or large aperture photo effect.
Grab your favorite colored pencils, the Poppy Field Bold Prints – a swoonworthy background stamp – some Dandelion Core ink and let's do the following steps:
- Pick a colored pencil as close to Dandelion as you can, and one in a slightly darker yellow shade and softly shade the solid and line art poppies.
- Using well sharpened yellow, cyan and magenta pencils, make well defined sharp lines on the outer and inner edges of petals on the one flower that you've picked for your focal point.
- Using a dark blue-violet pencil, add deep dark shading selectively.
- Color the center of the flower magenta, adding dots for texture.
- Color a portion of a stem to match.
- Stamp a sentiment – I used the sentiment from the stunning Wisteria HeroScape stamped in Intense Black ink – intentionally having the stem disappear into the sentiment.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep your pencils very sharp when you are doing any sort of pencil project. Getting details like this are impossible without a sharp pencil.
Here's a video of the process – enjoy!
(If you are having trouble viewing this video, please watch HERE on YouTube.)
Thanks for stopping by today – make it a crafty day!
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2 comments
This is an amazing technique, Lydia! It really makes the card lovely. I’m one of those “chemical” users but you make a great case for keeping colored pencils for their intended use.
I love colored pencils, and you don’t see many videos using them. So thank you so much for this one. Beautiful work and a great idea.