How-To: Chrome
Feb 20
You’ve spoken, and we’ve taken notice. Many of you have been requesting some how-to demos on various surfaces and textures, specifically on chrome. Well, here is a quick little guide to how to create the effect!
Follow this step-by-step process to achieve the look of chrome
Find the reference you want to use: I used: http://www.psdgraphics.com/backgrounds/chrome-sphere-background/ First thing you should notice: there is a lot of black, very little white. Even the highlights aren’t purely white. There is also lots of color in the highlights; I see purples and blues
Pick pencils: gray, black, white, purple, blue
Roughly sketch out where the shapes are on the sphere: It’s easier to approach this subject as an abstract drawing. Focus on separate shapes rather than the piece as a whole
Start blocking in color: Don’t be afraid to put color where the black is; color creates depth and deeper darks
Continue adding pigment: Push your darks by adding navy and violet; leave whites white
Add lights: Go in with a lighter colored pencil over your colors and darks to create the illusion of highlight and curve in the sphere
Compare your drawing to the reference and check for any last details
FINISH!
Hi I have a 48 pack I have the following colours
Metalic Silver
Ebony pencil
Cool Grey 70% {verithin}
Warm Grey 20% {verithin}
Black
White
I ordered warm grey 90% in Softcore .
And True Blue
Purple etc. Would it work ?? =]
I would worry about the ebony pencil because it’s not made of the same material as the colored pencil (lead vs wax). I would stick to a gradiated spectrum of colors. One black, 3 grays (dark, med, light), 2 purples (medium, light), 2 blues (medium, light), and white! Hope this helped!
Nice job! I am so happy to see all of the great new content on the blog. It keeps me coming back to see what is new!
I just bought the Prismacolor products, the Premier and the watercolor. I can’t wait to see what I can do with them! I have been doing graphite and charcoal, and want to switch to color, I think this will b a good way to go!
Fabulous! Thanks for an awesome tutorial!
Simple Amazing….
Duh Simple and Amazing….
This is what makes people want to try colored pencil! More demos like this please…
This is a usless tutorial skips too many steps like how the graphite turms colors under the pencil this is a waste of webspace yoi vsn lrstn more at DeviantArt thn form this waste of bandwidth
I’d have to agree on its weakness. There’s no mention of how sharp the pencils should be, or the pressure level, something I’ve seen in all my cp books.
Happy 75! I am 70+ Cannot believe I have been using Prismacolors my entire life. Glad to see interest in the medium returning. Please include Demos using various new “paper” surfaces and mixed medium on these surfaces.
Loved this demonstration. I would like to start a file on your lessons. Could you provide an option so that we could print it for our reference file?
Thanks,
Helen
Hey Helen! Great idea! Have you tried print the blog post as a whole? The pictures and steps should stay in order, just “print as a webpage” to help with formatting!
To really achieve the correct look, it is essential to watch your edges: Are they soft or hard? Also, keep your pencil absolutely sharp & stay up on its point. For dark values, don’t press harder; just keep your touch soft & layer, layer, layer! To pull a project like this off convincingly requires a lot of practice & patience.
See? Now that should have been in there somewhere!
Great tutorial! Thanks
This was very good. I thought the best advice is to not just use black…many think that black is the only color that will darken an object. Nice job.
IT WOULD BE AWESOME IF YOU HAD A DOWNLOAD PAGE FOR LESSONS, OR AT LEAST A PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION. I WANTED TO PRINT THIS OFF FOR REFERENCE, BUT, DON’T WANT TO PRINT ALL THE EXTRA STUFF THAT GOES WITH A WEB PAGE.
Thank you for a such a conplete and down to the detail tutorial…..Please keep them coming.