Q&A for How to Draw With Colored Pencils

Practice, practice, practice! Watching YouTube tutorial videos can also be a big help.

Apply a single shade of color first. Then, use different colors with increasingly darker shades to give your pictures a dark, rich look.

Copy/printer paper is usually fine, but paper like Bristol is good for more complex drawings. Newsprint paper, which is some of the cheapest paper you can buy, is good for planning and sketches, but not for complex drawings.

Start with white paper (or a white base on tinted/black paper), lightly put down a yellow pencil layer, then a very light red layer. Continue doing this, adding brown lightly if necessary. You can also add white between layers or after to lighten.

Start with the eyes, followed by skin tone and hair. Apply a single shade to get an idea of the light and dark regions.

You would need to use a different shade/tint of white and perhaps use a darker tone to outline it.

Certainly not. If you want to have a better idea of what you are about to draw, then that might be a good idea, but it's your choice.

Any time you add depth to any drawing you are making a 3D drawing. If you are referring to drawing land- or cityscapes, I use regular pencil to lightly sketch the basic shapes with either 1 or 2 vanishing points to get the 3D perspective. Then I go to the color pencils, starting with lighter tones as usual, which heightens the 3D optical illusion.

You can start wherever you want. It's your creation, so you can experiment and see what happens.

No. If you want the colors to be brilliant, use watercolor pencils. They have nice, bold, rich colors that look beautiful.

Not really - but don't use brands such as Crayola or Kids Create as they are not good for proper drawings, and they are waxy.

It is helpful to have a slight outline of what you are drawing, but make sure that you are drawing lightly and in pencil. That way you can easily erase the lines when you need to.

Start with a light base color and find where your light and dark areas are. Then, lightly add layers, and use white in between the layers to lighten it if need be.

Any brand is alright, but it is always good to go with a brand that you know works.

There's no such thing as colored pencils "for children." All brands of colored pencils can be used by all age groups. However, Art Attack colored pencils aren't professional quality, like Prismacolor or Faber-Castle.

Do the same as with colored pencils. Very lightly shade with one color, then again, and again with other darker colors.

You may want to draw the black outlines in ink instead of pencil. Let them dry completely before adding any color and this will prevent the colors from mixing. If you want the edges to be in black, then just carefully and slowly add the peach color. Don't just start scribbling all over -- that's how you get the black mixed in.

It depends. If you're using reputable and/or artist-quality colored pencils (like Crayola, Prismacolor, or Faber-Castell pencils), you can use white to blend out lighter areas. For less reputable or low-quality colored pencils, using white may not work. Do not blend dark colors with white, though.