Colored Pencil Art☺️

It's so fun looking back at old art pieces and seeing how much you've grown or finding inspiration to revisit a style! For these monochrome colored pencil drawings, I really wanted to push my creativity by focusing on form and line work rather than relying on a full spectrum of colors. It's a fantastic way to develop your drawing skills and create truly unique pieces. When I started these stylized female faces, I usually began with a simple sketch, letting my imagination run wild. For instance, the piece with the purple hair and small horns was inspired by a mix of fantasy elements and a desire to create something slightly ethereal and mysterious. Working in monochrome, whether it was black, green, blue, or even orange, really forces you to think about contrast and how different pressures with your pencil can create depth. You'd be surprised how much range you can get from a single colored pencil! One thing I've found helpful for creative drawing ideas is to play with combining unexpected elements, just like the stylized female face with wavy hair and dollar signs dripping from her eyes – it’s about expressing an idea or emotion in a visual, metaphorical way. Or the one with two hair buns and intricate swirling patterns covering her face and neck, which allowed me to explore abstract designs within a portrait. Don't be afraid to experiment with adding non-traditional features or patterns. For materials, I absolutely love using Arteza Colored Pencils. They have such a smooth application and blend beautifully, which is crucial when you're trying to achieve subtle transitions in a monochrome piece. And Strathmore Bristol Paper in 9x12 is a dream to work on; its smooth surface is perfect for layering colored pencil without too much tooth, allowing for those clean lines and vibrant pigments even in a single hue. If you're looking to try something similar, I'd suggest picking one color and challenging yourself to create a character portrait or an abstract drawing using only that pencil. Think about how you can use different tones of that single color by varying your pressure. It’s amazing how a simple blue colored pencil can create such deep shadows and bright highlights, or how a red colored pencil can bring out such warmth and intensity, even without other colors. Don't worry about perfection, just enjoy the process of exploring new forms and patterns. It's a genuinely rewarding experience that can spark so many new creative drawing ideas!