Colored Pencil Step by Step: Explore a range of styles and techniques for creating your own works of art in colored pencils (Artist's Library) Paperback – January 1, 2003

This is a good book for teaching drawing techniques.

This book is excellent. I have been giving them as gifts to others.

I am new to colored pencil and bought this book for the techniques and portrait chapter. I like the book overall but was disappointed in portrait and parrot drawing. They were done step by step in grisaille technique: first 3 steps were done in monochrome and then color was added. This is the first time I saw it done this way and did not like the result. The girl has greyish tint, especially evident on the skin, which does not look realistic. The same was done with parrot, the picture looks dusty, like a mix between graphite drawing and colored pencil. I prefer more vivid and vibrant colors. The rest of the book I enjoyed.Update: On page 39 in the box about sgraffito technique the last sentence is not finished. It ends with "but remember that". What do I need to remember?

Begin with a simple handful of pencils, then find a hobby or arts store, and on to your ability. In the art store when you bought the book, ask the staff... They like to talk, and to show you books that you'd like.

The only piece of advice I got from this was to start with a gray tone drawing for the shadows and build the color on top. It was fine.

I'm still learning from it

This is a beautiful book that’s easy to learn from. I’m not saying that my renditions of the drawings are excellent they are not but I am saying that there’s hope. I wish there was a way to know exactly what color pencils are going to be used so that you can get them in advance. I got to the point in my drawing where I couldn’t go further without the colors and had to wait a few days to get them.

This book gives information about drawing with colored pencils. Then it looks at specific drawings and asks the artist to tell how they drew them. Unfortunately it leaves out critical information specifying what exactly was required to use their techniques. Not all pencils and papers behave the way these authors describe. There are other books that are more informative with regards to types of pencils and types of paper. Those other books acknowledge the different methods available with the variety of materials. Get those books first. Then you can supplement your library with this book.