Getting to Know Colored Pencils

'East Palatka' Holly - 11x14 - Colored Pencil - February 2016

Colored pencils have many positives.   Some of those positives include the following:

1. the pencils can be left out and don't take up a lot of space
2. pencils don't leave a mess
3. pencils don't require clean up like paints
4. no issue to leave out around children/grandkids
5. easy to sharpen to points
6. mix on the paper
7. allow a wide variety of strokes
8. produce nice artwork
9. allow for a wide variety of values

With these positives being said, I did find the medium to be time consuming and tedious.   On this one drawing I spent the better part of a week sketching, completing in graphite, sketching and completing in color.   I thing it's perfect for the project our class was working on - natural science illustration.    It is a medium I will try again.