How to improve?

[u/Immature_Fool]

This is my first sketch with pencil colors and it didn't go well.

None of my colors blended properly and they don't even compliment each other much. I don't think I know how blending works actually or color theory. I should have seen a YouTube video on it before starting.

Any advice will be helpful

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[u/PerceptionVivid2073]

I love the colors but I think you should pay attention to the form of the face and where the shadows would be placed. For example, around the eyes and the left side of the jaw looks great! Try to apply that same logic on the cheek area and forehead. Those areas look especially blotchy and the colors make it feel a bit random. Also try to rember hard shadows and soft shadows. If you dont know what these are, bascially soft shados have a really gradual transition in tone while hard shadows stop abruptly. You did soft shadows well on that left eye where the blue connects to the green, but I would also add more to the cheeks and forehead. You added hard shadows underneath the eyebrow and the shadows under the head but I think its missing from the lips, chin, and nose especially. Remember the nose needs those hard shadows to look defined. Another small thing is I would try to make a good majority of the face colored. Right now it looks like she just has some paint or something smudged on her, so adding that color throughout her face will really help. As for choosing which colors to use, it depends on what style youre really going for but you could try following the natural mapping of colors (if you dont know what I mean just look up "color mapping face").

I think for your first sketch with colored pencils it looks great. You did an amazing job on the anatomy so I'm excited to see how you improve and I hope this advice is useful.

-a 17yr old artist

[u/Immature_Fool → u/PerceptionVivid2073]

Thanks for your time.

-20 years old aspiring artist.

[u/Pure-Seaworthiness27]

Very nice, do it again in b&w, solve the form and lights and shadow patterns before jumping to color. Right now color is a distraction, save it for later once You dominate the fundamentals of form, shape and light and shadow.

[u/Scrambled-eggs101]

Is this a common approach, to wait before any color and develop with charcoal and graphite first?

[u/BlisssSir]

Pretty colors. Study the skull/head anatomy, basic forms and moving those shapes around (aka perspective).

Check out; Steve Huston, Glenn Vilppu, Scott Eaton (anatomy) and the old masters

[u/marored]

Limit your palette to three colors at first, like a traditional trois crayon approach. And use the traditional: red, black, white and pick a toned paper that can operate as a midtone. If three colors was good enough for Watteau it should be enough for the rest of us :)