Tutorial: Easy Skin-Tones in Colored Pencil

Hello folks! Today I am going to show you an easy way to color skin tones with colored pencil. You may have forgotten this basic art supply and you probably have a box of them sitting in your craft drawer so grab your pencils and lets begin! Here is what we are going to make today:

Supplies:

I used the Hello Vintage Girl stamp set from Pink Persimmon

Prismacolor Colored Pencils (wax-based, not watercolor) for the skin tones I used Sienna Brown (PC945), Mineral orange (PC 1033), Light peach (PC927), I also added the colors French Grey 90% (PC1076) and Lemon Yellow (PC915) for other parts of the picture. If you do not have those colors you can use what you have on hand.

Brown dye based stamping ink (Memento)

Cream pre-folded 5″x7″ cards (they come with envelopes in a 50 pack from Nicole) and pattern paper with a small print (I used a piece of Basic Grey from the Nook and Pantry 6″x6″ pad but this is a good time to use up your pattern paper scraps!

Step 1. Stamp the lady centered on you cream card. Stamp her again (you really only need to stamp the dress portion) on pattern paper. This is a great card to make in batches because it can be used for any occasion just by writing or stamping a different sentiment on the inside! Cut out the dresses you stamped on the pattern paper and set aside.

Let’s color the skin tone! you might be wondering why I am using colored pencils on this project instead of markers, well, I’ll tell you. Markers would bleed through this inexpensive cardstock so I would need to add a layer and I wanted to keep this project clean, simple and fun!

Step 2. To begin add Sienna Brown to all of the darkest parts of the skin such as under the hairline, under the chin and near the dress.

Step 3. Next add the medium value (Mineral Orange) overlapping the dark and working to the medium values of skin.

Step 4. Now add the lightest value (Light Peach) and color firmly to blend the other flesh colors together, this is called burnishing. Keeping coloring and blending until you have a smooth skin tone. On smooth cardstock it will not take long.

Step 5. (see above photo) Color the shoes and phone with French Grey 90% (or black if you do not have it) and add shadows in the hair with that same color. Color the rest of the hair with Sienna Brown with firm pressure.

 Step 6. Glue the cut-out dress over the stamped dress on the card.

Step 7. Now stamp the other stamps from the Hello Vintage Girl set as shown to resemble a sewing pattern packet.  You can color the tiny dresses a shade to match the paper-pieced dress (I chose lemon yellow).The sentiment on the bottom of the card “Just calling to say…” is great because you can stamp whatever you like (such as happy birthday, thinking of you, thanks, congratulations, etc.) on the inside!

And that’s all you need to do! Oh wait! Don’t forget to add some pretties to the envelope! There is nothing like getting a hand-stamped envie in the mail and you will likely brighten your mail carrier’s day too!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!