Book Review: Creating Textures in Colored Pencil, Gary Greene

While I'm working on the next part of my coral reef, I thought I'd post another book review. This is the only colored pencil book I own. I learned almost everything I know about colored pencils from this book.

Greene begins by giving the usual introduction of materials and tools. He describes different types and brands of colored pencils and erasers, and what kind of paper gives what kinds of effects. This is all great information if you're new to this medium.

Then he goes into the three basic techniques: layering, burnishing and underpainting. He does an excellent job of using the same drawing (an apple) for all these examples, so you can clearly see the differences.

And then the meat of the book. Example after example of how to apply these techniques to achieve texture. There are several flowers, fruits and vegetables, leaves, trees, water, animals, people, and man-made materials. Each one he takes you step-by-step: which colors he used in what order; how hard to press with the pencil; whether he used solvents. And there's an image (or part of an image) showing each step. After a while, I started getting the hang of it and could almost predict what he did in each step.

The pictures in this book are incredible - you probably wouldn't have guessed they were colored pencil if you didn't already know. Greene is an amazing artist and he does a great job of explaining how to use the colored pencils.