Customer Reviews

Creating Textures in Colored Pencil

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Creating Textures in Colored Pencil" is a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to know how to create rough brickwork, soft, shiny ribbon, or any texture in between. Gary also gives the color pallets for each demonstration (including skin tones) and explains the different types of supplies. I've had this book for 5 years and still find myself referring back to it.

The real merit of this book is the absolutely gorgeous drawings which, if not for the title, I wouldn't have beleived were colored pencil. It is wonderful to see colored pencil treated with the same legitamacy as acrylic or oils, and I now look forward to "painting" with my pencils.
The most useful aspect of the book is the rev iew of materials, where the author breaks down how to use rubber cement thinner, odorless turpentine, and colored markers to enhance your colored pencils, as well as various artistic tools.
Before I used this book, my colored pencils always were grainy, and I didn't even really realize it. There were too many "flecks", too much white showing through the paper. This book taught me a technique called burnishing, which has dramatically and instantly improved my drawings, I'm sure it can do the same for you. I also am experimenting more with layers, after looking at the phenominal results that can be achieved.
My only complaint is the lack of detailed how-to's. The individual colors used are explained, and there is some break down of the process, but not enough to produce satisfactory results. However, I think it is definatley worth the modest price, and would recommend it to anyone interested in this medium.

I have a Bachelor degree in drawing and had no problem getting the hang of any drawing tool except for coloured pencils. Several years ago I took a class specifically on drawing with colour pencil and was disappointed when the teacher told me that I'd have to settle for a light layered application of the pencil on paper so as not to develop wax bloom--what I wanted out of the pencil was rich, vibrant colours, not something washed out. I put down my Prismacolours and resigned having to use them to colour in my anatomy colouring book, not for actual drawing.

That's why I was encouraged when I found and read my way through "Creating Textures in Colored Pencil". The author mentions the use of burnishing to build layered colour so it is rich and vibrant, as well as the use of solvents. He also mentions different coloured pencils, like water-soluable pencils, which I normally would use not for drawing but for fine touches on my watercolours, and oil-based coloured pencils. After reading this book it feels like a whole new world of drawing has opened up to me, in addition to my use of graphite, conte crayon, pastels, and of course what I already do in paint.

Incidentally, the author addresses dealing with wax bloom by spraying the drawing with several layers of workable fixative--I've also heard that wiping the bloom with a paper towel will remove the cloudiness.

Mr. Greene includes several examples of items to draw, including step-by-step instructions with colours mentioned. I'm sure those would be great for the beginning/intermediate student to build up skills and confidence; that sort of thing doesn't appeal to me as I'm used to grabbing tools and drawing from life.

I think this is a great basic book on how to handle the medium. As for handling textures, I thought some were very well done while others were not as realistic as I would like. It has very nice full colour reproduction and is very easy to read.

I agree with a previous reviewer who stated that there were not enough how tos in the book. The book does demonstrate that wonderful pictures can be created with colored pencils. It needs more details especially for beginners like me.

This book is supposed to be for beginners, however, it barely touches on the basics (a mere 20 pages). It does contain a 100 pages of examples of textures, but the instructions are practically non-existant. It does give you a list of colors used to achieve the look, but the book does not explain why these colors are used. This makes it difficult to adapt the instuctions to work for a different color flower, for example.

A MUCH better book is "Colored Pencil Solution Book". I bought both, and the "Solution" book has a very extensive explanation of techniques and how colors work (Such as, when applying a color from the opposite side of the color wheel on top of another, it will neutralize the bottom one, making it grayer and more muted. Layering green on top of red, for example).Colored Pencil Solution Book

I was doing a very detailed colored pencil painting as a gift, and desperately needed a book which contained outlines regarding techniques on creating specific textures. I did not want an "ego book" which only showed an artists works and a tiny bit of "how to," but I also did not want an agonizing this-is-how-you-draw resource.

This book covered all the bases for me. Though I agree with previous reviewers in that I wish it had been a little more detailed in its presentation of instructions, the success I still achieved from the pages was still more than I had had with any other book in my colored pencil library (the exception being Ann Kullberg's Colored Pencil Portraits which is truly the master work for me).

Despite its lack of a detailed step-by-step, you can't go wrong with this book as a reference material. The information presented about burnishing and the use of solvents was a lifesaver for me and my own colored pencil work. I consider it the best quick and handy guide out there for overcoming troublesome textures.

There is alot of good colored pencil instruction and examples in this book. It is worth a try.

"THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK is to get your 'creative juices' flowing by painting interesting,
realistic textures with colored pencil,
then applying what you glean to develop exciting and unique colored pencil paintings."
- Gary Greene
[from the front flap]

Excellent Step by Step direction by Gary Green. Basic life textures explained in simple detail, such as water droplets, wood, rust and glass. I would have rated it a five star had he included landscapes such as sky and those tough clouds. Don't confuse "textures" with scraping off layeres of wax. "Textures" described here are creating the look of textures such as rock, aged wood, and tree bark. His pictures of "shiny metal" are beautiful but his example doesn't show how to create that specific metal.

I was disappointed in the book. Just couldn't get much out of it. Not many detailed how-to's.....