MODULE 3 · COLORED PENCIL

Burnishing

Making colored pencil look like paint — about 15 minutes, then the practice strip

STOP 1 OF 6

Make Your Guess

  • 1Why does colored pencil usually look grainy and speckled, with little white dots showing through?
  • 2What do you think happens if you press as hard as you can on your very first layer?
  • 3How could you make a pencil drawing look smooth and shiny, like a painting?

Talk to the person next to you for one minute. Then click on.

STOP 2 OF 6

Paper Has Teeth

Paper looks flat, but up close it's covered in tiny hills and valleys. Artists call this the paper's tooth.

When you color lightly, the pencil only touches the tops of the hills. The valleys stay white — that's the grainy look.

Burnishing means pressing hard with a light color (or a clear blender pencil) over layers you've already built. The wax gets pushed down into the valleys, the colors melt together, and the surface turns smooth and shiny.

Light layers: color on the hilltops only
Burnished: valleys filled, surface smooth
Tooth
The tiny bumps on paper that grab pigment.
Layering
Light coats of color on top of each other.
Burnish
Pressing hard with a light pencil or blender to fill the tooth and blend.
Gradient
A smooth change from one color or value to another.
STOP 3 OF 6

Light First, Hard Last

This is a zoomed-in patch of paper. Add 3 light layers, then burnish. Then hit reset and try pressing hard first — watch what happens.

Layers: 0
Blank paper. See the texture? That's the tooth.
STOP 4 OF 6

Spot the Mistake

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Your Practice Strip

On your paper, draw a strip about 1 inch tall and 6 inches long. Split it into 3 boxes. Use the same 2–3 colors in every box:

Box 1
One light layer
Box 2
3+ light layers
no burnishing
Box 3
3+ light layers
then burnish

Box 3 should look clearly smoother than Box 2. Keep this strip — it's your reference card for the real project.

  • •Sharpen before every layer.
  • •Small circles, not stripes.
  • •Darks? Burnish them with the lightest color in that area, not white — white over dark turns chalky.
STOP 6 OF 6

Pick Your Burnisher

Tap every color you used in your art piece. You'll get the pencil to burnish each area with.