BLUE IRIS: Free Colour Pencil Tutorial

click on this image to download reference photo

The blue Iris may look a little complex, but really, it's just three uprights, two dangly bits and a stem! This short tutorial will explain how to work on Pastelmat and how to get a smoother look for florals.

When drawing flowers on any surface, it’s important to try to see the form and flow of each petal. If you can colour using strokes that follow the contours of the form, the ‘direction of travel’, then you’ll have more chance of creating a flowing, floral at the end. If you colour edge to edge, rather than base to tip on a leaf or petal, it will be more challenging to make it look real.

Keep your pressure light on the lower layers so you can build colours slowly. Use my images as a guide for how much colour I’ve added by the end of the section. If you go too hard too quick, you can dab off a bit of pigment with a soft kneaded eraser.

Pastelmat is a very forgiving surface, but if you haven’t used it before you may be worried that your drawing will never smooth out. It will, I promise. ‘Smooshing’ or smoothing/squashing your layers together (described in part 4) will help to even out the colour and fill the tooth for a smoother look.

I am using the following materials.

• White Pastelmat. Approx A4 size, or 8x10.

• Derwent Lightfast colour pencils, but you can use a different brand if you want to find your own colour matches.

  
  

Let's get started!

PART 1

Create a pressure shaded underpainting

Begin by lightly colouring the yellow areas using Mustard for the main internal shape, then feather that shape out a little way across the petal using Champagne. Then lightly map in the rest of the petal shape with Mid Ultramarine, creating subtle shading by varying your pressure from very light to light. This serves as the underpainting for the rest of the petals.

 PART 2

Using Violet over the blue underpainting

Using Violet, very lightly cover the blue areas matching the subtle shading you added in the previous step by varying your pressure. This is a very dark colour, so work as lightly as you can, and ensure your strokes are following the natural flow of each petal. After an initial layer, you can build the intensity, darken some of the shaded areas, by increasing your pencil pressure to begin defining the natural undulations and shadows and add a few of the veins too. If you have gone too heavy too quickly, dab a hand-warmed kneaded eraser on the area to pull up a little of the colour and ease any harsh transitions.

 PART 3

Adding some colour dimension with Sapphire!

Do not fill the tooth of the pastelmat yet! Next add some colour dimension by including a layer of Sapphire over the darker parts. This is a strong colour, so again, keep a light pressure and build up to a subtle coverage. Try not to obliterate the Violet below.

 PART 4

Time to SMOOSH!

Now it is time to ‘smoosh’ or smooth and squash the layers together using a lighter colour. The aim here is to smooth and squash (hence: smoosh) and embed the previous colours to create a more blended look. The technique I use is to work in overlapping ovals with a light pressure at first, then going back over the area multiple times with increasing pressure until smoother. Checking the reference, I can see a slight pinkish colour running through the petals, as well as the blue tones, so I chose to do this step with Wild Lavender for the bluer areas and Heather for the pinkish ones. I also added a touch of Bordeaux to the little area centre section and smooshed the really light areas with Oyster for a lovely lost edge look. The tooth of the page should still not be filled but you should now be seeing a much smoother finish.

 PART 5

Re-apply colours for saturation and contrast

Returning to that vibrant Violet pencil, replace some of the smooshed-out contrast by darkening the shadow areas and re-establishing the natural undulations and flow. You can also gently return any lost veins or add more at this point too. Take care not to lose the yellow shapes, and for best effect, finish your pencil strokes at the edge of the Champagne/Yellow by lifting off the page in those sections to create the uneven edge.  You can revisit steps 4 and 5 a few times if you need to, but still don't fill the tooth just yet!

 PART 6

Creating shadows on the yellow sections

The lower central section is very dark and this will be important for creating depth and drama. Using a sharp Nightshade (a purple/black) pencil ensure that curved shape and the very bottom edge of the two centre petals are nice and crisp. Remember to take the shading as dark as it neds to be and smoosh to gently lighten if needed.  In the yellow section, reestablish your deep yellow shape first with Mustard, then use Wild Lavender to create the two shadows which will create the impression of a ridge through the middle. The top shadow is more of a line, whereas the lower one is more gradual and covers more of the lower half.

 PART 7

Time to deal with that stem

Erase or lighten your linework if you haven’t already done so. Using Champagne, map in the stem and adjacent leaf. Just like you did with the pale blue at stage one, make a light underpainting as a base for colours on top.  Next, use Racing Green to add your shadow edges. Be sure to fade them out into the stem. They should not be a hard line. And take care to follow the structure of the stem, working at all times with light strokes that follow its form.

 PART 8

Creating roundness and form with multiple greens

With long close together strokes, lightly colour the rest of the stem and leaf with Grass Green 70% (or Spring Green Luminance) taking care to overlap into the Racing Green. If using Grass Green 70% add a touch of banana to bring some yellow into the highlights. Next, use Foliage to amalgamate these two colours, and begin define the shading to create roundness and the direction of the individual leaves. Smoosh the layers with Champagne to encourage the smooth texture to emerge. You might like to add a little white on the left side to create more of a shine and highlight.

 PART 9

'naturalising' the greens

After smooshing in the last section, add the contrast back in with Racing Green in the shadows again, and then add a tiny amount of Dark Orange to the base of the stem, and a few strokes into the shaded areas. This adds dimension and makes the greens appear more natural.  

At the end, look over the whole piece, and neaten or sharpen any edges, clean up the background with a putty eraser and then take a photograph and look at that for a moment. This will trick your brain and allow you to see where you need more contrast, or more colour, or different colours. I added a touch of Dark Orange to the centre section at this point which I thought added some interest and drama.

It’s also a good opportunity to just sit back enjoy what you created.

My final drawing

Let me know how you get on. Comment below if you thought this was helpful.