Tools of the Trade

• Purchase a good set of color pencils to get started. Any art supply or hobby store carries a wide range. Buy the best set you can afford, with the widest range of color shades. Add a set of flesh-tone color pencils if you can afford it. This will save you time with color blending and shading later on. You'll also need a good kneaded eraser and a sketchbook to get started. You can add other color-pencil types to your toolbox later, including pastel colors, watercolor pencils and pigmented sketching pencils.
  
  

Initial Sketching

• Sketch your drawing lightly with a lead pencil to begin. Some artists use color pencils for sketching, but having a standard lead outline as the base of your sketch is a technique similar to the underpainting technique used by artists who work with oils. Using a lead pencil provides easy guidelines to follow and creates hard lines in your drawing.
  
  

Multi-Tone Blending

• Use multi-tone blending to add layers of tone to your color sketches. Do this by building colors from light to dark. A multi-toned layer of three or four shades of the same color, built from lightest to darkest, enhances your base color by creating depth. In addition to the multi-tone layering, you can use your finger to smudge and blend the various layers to create texture. The more shades of one color you build up this way, the greater the effect.
  
  

Charcoal and Graphite Highlighting

• Use charcoal or graphite pencils in conjunction with your color pencils to create stunning shadow or shiny effects. You can add light touches of charcoal to your colors in areas where shadow should occur, then blend the charcoal into the color with your finger or an eraser. To create shiny highlight, use light sweeping or crosshatching strokes with a graphite pencil.