Kullberg - Colored Pencil Portraits Step by Step

Colored
Pencil
Portraits
Step by Step

ANN KULLBERG

NORTH LIGHT BOOKS
CINCINNATI, OHIO

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ann Kullberg, a self-taught artist, received a degree in education from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. After discovering colored pencils in 1987, she devoted herself to art and portraiture. Her work has been published in Creating Textures in Colored Pencil, Creative Colored Pencil, the American Society of Portrait Artists' Portrait Signature magazine, and in several volumes of The Best of Colored Pencil. She has conducted numerous workshops in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the country. Ann invites you to visit her portrait web site at: http://www.prtraits.com/kullberg.

Colored Pencil Portraits Step By Step. Copyright 1999 by Ann Kullberg. Manufactured in China. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by North Light Books, an imprint of F+W Publications, Inc., 4700 East Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45236. (800) 289-0963. First paperback edition, 2005.

Other fine North Light Books are available from your local bookstore, art supply store or direct from the publisher.

09 08 07 06 05 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Kullberg, Ann

Colored pencil portraits step by step / Ann Kullberg1 st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-89134-844-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) ; ISBN 1-58180-639-6 (pbk : alk. paper)

1. Colored pencil drawingTechnique. 2. Portrait drawingTechnique. I. Title.

NC892.K86 1998

743.4'2dc21

98-19181
CIP

Editor: Jennifer Long

Production editor: Nicole R. Klungle

Designer: Angela Lennett Wilcox

DEDICATION

To Katie, my babydoll

THE SECRET
30 12 (75cm 3lcm)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I owe this book and all else I've accomplished with my art to the two people who bought me boxes of crayons and little watercolor sets in the sixties, when the budget was already stretched too tight and there really was no extra money who paid electric bills in the eighties when gallery sales were slow who wired mortgage payments in the nineties when there were no portrait commissions who continued to believe in me when most would finally have given up. From my heart, thank you Mom and Dad, thank you.

And there are others to thank: my brother, Phil, for being my first customer; my sister, Marylou, for happily accepting art as payment for outstanding loans; all the friends and family who encouraged and helped me through the years; the fine editors and staff at North Light Books who made this book possible; and finally, Vera Curnow, friend and founder of the Colored Pencil Society of America, for cheerfully and enthusiastically answering all my way-too-many questions.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE
Getting Started

CHAPTER TWO
Composing a Portrait

CHAPTER THREE
Seeing the Light

CHAPTER FOUR
Creating Believable Skin Tones

CHAPTER FIVE
Painting Features and the Face

CHAPTER SIX
Painting Hair

CHAPTER SEVEN
Painting Fabric

CHAPTER EIGHT
Putting It All Together

APPENDIX

OCTOBER MORNING
20 27 (51cm 69cm)
Collection of Alan Yates and Linda Tweedie

INTRODUCTION

In grade school I was frustrated with colored pencils and crayons. Crayons put down lots of rich color but were never sharp enough for detail. Craft-grade colored pencils could be nice and sharp, but no matter how much pressure I used, the color was pale and lifeless. Mind you, I didn't lose sleep over any of thisI just wished my little maps of Uruguay's mountain ranges and major rivers could have a little more oomph. Little did I know that someday I'd be making my living with just the sort of tool I wished for in fifth grade!

When I did pick up my first professional-grade colored pencils around 1988, I admit I immediately felt I was home. This was it. This was a medium I could do something with. No time-consuming setup. No messy cleanup. No toxic fumes or dust. No stretching. No color mixtures turning to mud. No expensive surfaces and supplies. I could draw for ten minutes, heat a baby bottle, draw for twenty more and change a diaper. Life was good.

Then I stumbled onto portraiture and life got better. Who could complain about a career that allows you to travel to beautiful homes, meet darling children, then go home and draw to your heart's content, ten feet from your kitchen and in your slippers? What could be more satisfying than doing what you love, and knowing that what you have produced has already become a family heirloom? Just when I thought it couldn't get better, I received the thrilling opportunity to write this book. I love teaching almost as much as I love making art, so now I guess I've reached nirvana.

Some of you are new to colored pencil and still can't quite believe the quality of work the medium can produce. Others of you already know what can be done with colored pencils but haven't yet tried them out on a portrait. I've attempted to address both the inexperienced and experienced in this book. For the novice, I begin with the most basic information about materials and colored pencil techniques. For the initiated, I offer a step-by-step progression through all the elements that go into a portrait. It is very important to me that I really