This metallic green beetle is a perfect subject to practice color blending, gradients, and transition of colors. It may look challenging at first, but if you focus on a leg or segment at a time, it is an enjoyable and satisfying project.
Highly recommended, if you haven’t done so already, create a color swatch chart for your colored pencils.
The beetle color is green, with shadows being a dark purple/blue, transitioning to turquoise, then green and yellow towards the light. Seeing the colors laid out in front of you helps you pick the best colors that will transition naturally into each other.
If you can’t find the perfect color match, you may also need to blend two or more colors together, which I found necessary in this drawing.
Study the reference picture carefully, identifying the areas of low lights and high lights. Observe how the colors transition, slowly work your way through each segment.
Smooth Color Transitions
The secret for smooth color transitions is light pressure and lots of layers. Vary the pressure so your color is applied in a gradient pattern, getting lighter towards the next color transition.
I applied the colors lightly using different strokes, hatching strokes contouring to the curve of the beetle’s exoskeleton, and circular strokes.
Creating Shadows
To preserve the vibrancy of your drawing, avoid using black or grey, instead opt for complementary or analogous colors. For the dark shadows on the top of the beetle next to where the shell appears yellow green I used the complementary color of magenta (blending purple and red).
For the shadows at the edge of the body I used an analogous color, so the color transitions from dark purple to blue.
I then carefully blended the colors with the help of a blending stump. If I was home, I may have also considered using other blending methods such as odorless mineral spirits.
I’m still travelling so I used the travel sized version of my hand-drawn sketch (half a page of instead of full-sized). The colored pencils used are Prismacolor Soft Core pencils.
The Green Beetle sketch is from my Color Pencil Practice coloring book. Which includes 36 hand drawn sketches and reference photos. It also includes a swatch and blending charts, and tips to get you started.
Available from my Etsy shop:
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