Colored pencil techniques become much more useful when you stop thinking of the medium as simply filling an area with color. I get better results by building transparent layers, changing pressure, watching color temperature, and letting the direction of my marks help describe the subject.
I usually begin with the largest relationships of light, shadow, and color before working toward smaller details. Colored pencils are especially good for this because I can gradually build one layer over another instead of committing to the final color immediately.
The techniques below focus specifically on coloring with colored pencils. If you’re still learning the broader basics of the medium, including how to start a drawing and build your first layers, begin with my guide on how to use colored pencils.
Colored Pencil Techniques at a Glance
| Technique | What it helps with |
|---|---|
| Large color and value shapes | Form and composition |
| Low-pressure layering | Rich color without filling the paper too quickly |
| Pressure control | Changing saturation and contrast |
| Warm and cool layering | More varied, natural color |
| Directional strokes | Texture and form |
| Crosshatching and broken marks | Optical color mixing and texture |
| Selective burnishing | Smooth, saturated areas |
| Preserving paper tooth | More layering capacity |
| Reducing white spots | More even coverage |
| Mixed-media underpainting | Faster broad color and depth |
1. Start With Large Shapes of Color and Value
Before thinking about tiny details, I squint at the subject and look for the largest dark, middle, and light shapes.
I can then begin establishing those areas with a muted color related to what I see. The goal isn’t to finish them. I’m simply organizing the drawing into larger visual relationships first.
This keeps me from getting trapped in small outlines before the overall form is working.
Heavy outlines can also make a drawing feel flatter if every edge receives the same treatment. Letting some edges emerge from changes in color or value can create a much stronger sense of form.
2. Build Color With Multiple Light Layers
Layering is one of the techniques I rely on most with colored pencils.
Instead of trying to reach the finished color in one pass, I use lower pressure and gradually place several colors over one another.
For example, a green area doesn’t necessarily need to begin and end with one green pencil. I might combine yellow ochre, green, blue, and a small amount of violet or another cooler color as the form moves into shadow.
Because the layers remain partially visible through one another, the resulting color can have more variation than a single pencil used heavily from the beginning.
3. Control Color With Pressure
Pressure changes what a colored pencil can do almost as much as changing pencils.
With lower pressure, more of the paper remains available for additional layers. As I increase pressure, the color becomes stronger and the tooth of the paper begins to fill.
That is why I avoid pressing hard too early.
I would rather build several adjustable layers and reserve heavier pressure for areas where I actually want stronger saturation, contrast, or a firmer edge.
4. Layer Warm and Cool Colors Together
One of the easiest ways to make colored-pencil work more interesting is to stop treating every object as one local color.
A green leaf can contain warmer yellow-green areas, cooler blue-green shadows, reflected colors, and neutral areas where complementary colors interact.
I look for those shifts rather than automatically reaching for a darker version of the same pencil whenever something moves into shadow.
This is especially useful when I want the drawing to feel atmospheric rather than mechanically colored.
5. Let Your Strokes Follow the Form
The direction of a colored-pencil mark can help describe the subject.
If I’m drawing fur, feathers, folded fabric, clouds, or another directional texture, I can let my strokes follow the larger movement I see rather than covering everything with identical back-and-forth marks.
I used this approach when drawing a sunset with colored pencils, allowing the direction of the pencil strokes to reinforce the movement of the clouds.
The marks don’t all need to disappear. Sometimes visible strokes add more life than completely smooth blending.
6. Use Hatching and Broken Marks Instead of Blending Everything Smooth
Smooth coverage is only one option.
You can also build color with short marks, hatching, crosshatching, scribbled textures, and overlapping strokes.
When two colors remain partially visible beside and over one another, your eye can combine them without the surface becoming completely polished.
This is particularly useful for fur, feathers, bark, grass, weathered surfaces, and sketchbook drawings where I want some of the drawing process to remain visible.
7. Burnish Only Where You Want a Smooth Finish
Burnishing means applying enough pressure to compress and blend the existing colored-pencil layers into a smoother surface.
I don’t think every part of a drawing needs to be burnished.
If I smooth everything equally, I can lose some of the variation between soft areas, textured areas, and sharper focal points.
Instead, I reserve heavier blending for places where that finish actually supports the subject.
For a more detailed explanation, see my guide to burnishing with colored pencils.
8. Preserve the Tooth of the Paper
Colored pencil needs some surface texture to hold pigment.
If I fill that texture immediately with heavy pressure, later layers have less surface to grab onto. That can make it difficult to adjust the color or continue building depth.
This is another reason I begin with lower pressure and gradually increase it.
Paper matters too. A very smooth surface behaves differently from a heavily textured one, so I choose the surface based on how much layering and visible texture I want.
I compare surfaces in more detail in my guide to the best paper for colored pencils.
9. Adjust Your Stroke Direction to Reduce White Spots
Small white gaps often appear when the pencil only catches the raised texture of the paper.
Instead of immediately pressing harder, I can change the direction of my strokes and add another layer from a different angle.
That lets pigment reach different parts of the paper texture while preserving more layering flexibility.
For drawings where this becomes a persistent problem, see my guide on coloring with colored pencils without white spots.
10. Use an Underpainting When Colored Pencil Alone Feels Too Slow
Colored pencil doesn’t have to work alone.
For some drawings, I like using a loose watercolor layer underneath the pencil. Once the watercolor is completely dry, colored pencil can add smaller color shifts, texture, edges, and details over the broader painted shapes.
This can be especially useful when covering larger areas where building everything from dozens of pencil layers would be unnecessarily slow.
If you’re interested in combining the two mediums, see my guide to colored pencils and watercolor.
How to Practice Colored Pencil Layering and Pressure
You don’t need to complete a finished drawing to practice these techniques.
Try making several small swatches instead:
- Build one color from low pressure to higher pressure.
- Layer yellow over blue, then repeat with blue over yellow and compare the results.
- Combine a warm and cool color in the same shadow.
- Make one smooth swatch and one using visible crosshatched marks.
- Burnish only half of a layered swatch so you can compare the surface.
Small tests make it easier to see what each technique is actually doing before you try to manage color, composition, and detail in a complete drawing.
Common Colored Pencil Mistakes That Limit Your Layers
- Pressing hard immediately: this fills the paper tooth before you’ve had time to develop the color.
- Using one pencil for every part of an object: layering related warm and cool colors can create much more variation.
- Starting with tiny details: establish the major value and color relationships first.
- Blending every area equally: varying smooth and textured passages gives the drawing more visual variety.
- Ignoring the paper: the surface changes how many layers you can build and how visible the grain remains.
Colored Pencil Techniques vs. Basic Colored Pencil Use
I think of this page as the next step after learning the basic colored-pencil process.
If you’re trying to understand how to begin using the medium, build your first layers, and approach a complete drawing, start with how to use colored pencils.
Once those fundamentals feel comfortable, techniques such as temperature shifts, layered color mixing, burnishing, pressure variation, and directional mark-making give you more control over how the finished drawing feels.
For pencil recommendations, see my comparison of the best colored pencils for artists. For the complete collection of guides, continue to my main colored pencils page.