Page 15 - The Decorative Painter Spring 2018

Certification Corner
THE BEAUTY OF COLORED PENCILS
PAULA LEOPOLD cda website: www.paulaleopold.com email: paula@paulaleopold.com
The colored pencil frenzy is amazing and exciting. The world of painting, both decorative and fine art, has embraced this me- dium with new passion even though colored pencils have been around for a long time. Some form of colored pencils goes back to the Greek Golden Age.
In 2015, the Society of Decorative Painters Certification pro- gram opened up colored pencils as an accepted medium to use for the Accredited Decorative Painter (ADP) and Certified Decorative Artist (CDA) Still Life program categories. Stroke categories must be done with paint and brush.
SDP has many teachers and members who now enjoy this medium. Colored pencils are an excellent choice to take and use anywhere. Plus, we love the “no clean up” aspect.
So where do you begin in the process of using the colored pencils for your certification board? Education is key. There are many teachers offering classes at our SDP Conventions with a wide spectrum of styles. Taking classes is the best way of starting to learn any new medium and mastering it. I would encour-
age you to take from a variety of teachers to learn different techniques. The style that I teach is more realism, the finished piece looks like a refined oil painting but with colored pencils. The Certification Program judging process is based on specific criteria: value, form, blending, intensity, and overall effect. All of this can be achieved with colored pencils.
There are many brands of colored pencils available in the art market. I have chosen the Prismacolor Premier colored pencils be- cause I love the rich pigments and vibrant colors. As I travel-teach to conventions and groups around the country I encourage the student to slow down and build slowly, reminding them that this is not coloring but painting.
My favorite surface to use is paper. There are many choices available such as Mi-Teintes by Canson (on which I always use
the smoother back side), Stonehenge, and many other excellent choices. The paper industry is constantly coming out with new products just for the colored pencil artist. Be careful that the paper you use has some tooth. You will not be able to apply multiple lay- ers to achieve depth in your work on smooth paper. If the paper is too rough then it is a hindrance in achieving good blending and the beautiful refined finished appearance.
When using colored pencils it is important to begin with the highlight and lightest values first. The method that I teach is a gentle and slow layering of color which allows you to get amazing detail and well-blended areas without fighting with hard lines or waxy build-up. You will want to build up all the hues/values in a very thin and even application before fine-tuning each object. Once I have all items filled in with the desired color theme and enough highlighting and shading to give shape and form, I can then start refining each item bringing it to completion. I would encourage you not to burnish any item until you are very near the finishing stages. Burnishing is a term used to mean binding color to color and color into the pores of the paper. This technique can achieve an oil-painted finished appearance I referred to earlier. This will allow you to go forth and refine each object.
Many times I use a solvent technique to soften my blending with a brush dipped in an odorless paint thinner, but being careful not to over-blend. Learning to control intensity in your work and not creating mud by over-blending is a fine line, as it is in all other mediums. One tip I always encourage the student to do is to avoid, at all cost, getting hard lines by picking up on the pressure of the
pencil and using little tiny circular strokes to create soft blending where two hues/values meet.
Theory is theory no matter what medium you choose to do your certification board in. Technique varies and that is where
the education process begins. One of the most helpful tools to
me in my Certification process was to go back through all of my magazines and read the articles on the Certification process before beginning. Before submitting, I reevaluated my finished piece by using the helpful tools put together by the Certification Commit- tee. There are many amazing and very helpful resources on the SDP website under Certification.
The SDP Member Only resource library online is available to our members on different educational subjects. I have a colored pencil project you can watch to learn many techniques and theory on colored pencils. Pencil along with the DVD — the practice is always a helpful learning tool. Also, if you go to my website www. paulaleopold.com you click on “Links.” This takes you to free YouTube demonstrations and will further help you achieve excel- lent results. You may want to check out the variety of DVDs on many subjects on my website. Painting is visual and
“a picture is worth a thousand words” – truly!
Most of all I encourage you to enjoy the process of learning something new. The Certification process is just that, a process, to better train all of us to discern color management, blending skills, value control, intensity, neatness, and the overall fin- ished appearance. Best to each of you in using colored pencils for your Certification board.
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