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How to draw gold / metallic object with colored pencils — A golden beetle.

How to draw gold / metallic object with colored pencils — A golden beetle.


Hi guys, today i am going draw a golden beetle
with colored pencils. The main aim of this tutorial is to make you familiar with drawing
golden objects or metallic objects in general. For this tutorial i am using some prismacolor
pencils and faber castell polychromos pencils. Most of the time i use pencils from several
brands for a single drawing. This is because most of the times i cannot find the exact
shades i am looking for in a single set. There is nothing wrong in using pencils from multiple
brands in a single drawing. The paper I am using here is canson fine grain drawing paper.
First of all lets see what all colors have been used for this drawing. The colors used
are sand, golden rod, light umber,and indigo blue from prismacolor, raw umber and black
from polychromos. One think you have to do here is to avoid all metallic colored pencils.
We dont need metallic pencils to draw metals. and another misconception is that it is difficult
to draw metals like gold or copper. But actually it is not. Because most of the shiny metals
have sudden change of colors over their surface. There are no smooth gradation of colors usually.
This is helpful because we dont need to be an expert in blending two colors as most colors
end abruptly and change into another. I have already made a rough outline here,
if you are planning to draw the same beetle you can copy this outline. But i recommend
you to find another golden object and try for yourself.
You can use the color picker tool from photoshop to know the exact shades for the drawing.
I did the same for choosing the colors for this drawing. i will show you one examle here.
Inthis picture i used photoshop to pick colors from various places and made a palate out
of it. Then you can compare these colors with the box of colored pencils to chose the similar
shade.This is an easy way to identify the exact colors.
I am starting off with the lightest color first, the sand. I am using a sharp point
to reduce the grainy look here. since the surface is very shiny, a grainy finish is
not going to help here. I am erasing the pencil lines as i proceed. Now i am using golden
rod to make some areas a bit more yellowish, I am making all this changes by looking at
the reference photo. I am also using golden rod as a base layer for some areas as you
can see. Now i am using the raw umber from polychromos
for drawing some darker areas. I am going over the golden rod base i made before, with
raw umber. Raw umber was the most identical color i could find for this area. but still
the reference picture was slightly more yellowish. That is why i used golden rod for the base
layer. Now with the color light umber i am drawing
the remaining darker areas. Notice that i apply the color in several thin layers until
i get the desired value. Now i am using indigo blue for darkening it further. I could have
used dark umber for this but using indigo blue gives it a bit more depth and realism.
In some really dark areas i am adding a few layers of black as well.
Now i have completed the body of the beetle, and it is time to blend the colored pencil.
I am using baby oil for blending as i find it ideal for me. you can use mineral spirits
or odorless spirits for blending too. The end result is almost the same.
After blending with the solvent, you can make modifications again with colored pencils.
Now i am drawing its legs using the same colors i have used for the body. and i am blending
it with baby oil again. Now for the shadow the best is to use an air brush. but since
i dont have an airbrush with me i am using the pencil shavings from the sharpener tub.
I made it into a powder and rubbed it to the shadow areas. Make sure to use a piece of
paper to protect the drawing. and make some modifications with pencils if necessary.
Thus the drawing is complete. Thank you so much for watching and dont forget to subscribe
to my channel for more videos like this. and you can follow me on all social media linked
below.

Author Since: Mar 11, 2019

  1. Very cool using the pencil shavings!! I was wondering if there was a use for the shaving because I hate wasting any of my colored pencils!!

    Reply

  2. Does'nt the oil for baby risk to make tasks of fat (oil) on the paper later ? Sort of halo. I hope I am clear, I do'nt speak English well.

    Reply

  3. Loving this, it's so nice to have someone explain their process. I have spent many hours wondering how some processes are done in a range of media.

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  5. REFERENCE PHOTOS! Use them! Don't try to draw realism stuff from memory. It never comes out as good as when you use a picture or actual reference. He touches on it in the beginning. But it's probably one of the most important things about this drAwing.

    Reply

  6. The thumbnail looks perfect where as the bigger and more detailed the image the flatter it became. Though gold presents hard edges within these color patches you still have a gradient produced by light and shades of a 3D form. You can improve this image by introducing a little light and shadow.

    Reply

  7. You should really consider making a DVD with Tips & skills on Drawing. This really inspired my child thank you for this!!!!

    Reply

  9. I just bought a box of Prismacolor Premier, waiting them to arrive.
    Your videos will be of great help for me to understand how to use them at best. I am really grateful for what you do, thank you!

    Reply

  23. Can you tell me the source music you use on background? Its amazing soft and perfect for instructional videos like this one. I would like to get it for a space animation.

    Reply

  30. Thank you for your great tutorial on drawing metallic items with colored pencils. I did the drawing and it turned out beautifully considering it is only the 4th drawing I've done with colored pencils in about 40 years. I've watched a number of artists use the Prismacolor pencils but so far you are still my go-to guy for fully understanding the best ways to use the pencils to get the best results. It took me a couple of episodes, to understand what you were saying, but I was able to quickly get used to your accent by watching the closed captioning while listening to you. Now I don't need the closed captioning and I am going through as many of your tutorials as I can each day. I feel like I am once again in art school and I'm having a great time learning all the new techniques and materials that have been developed in the last couple of decades. Thanks again for taking the time to make these tutorials.

    Reply

  37. Fabulous! Thank you so much for this vid. You make it look so simple, very impressive results too. Hope mine look this good!

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  39. I never thought of using baby oil! I have used odorless mineral spirits but it needs many layers first or the "grain" will still show.

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  40. Love your voice!! <3 so melodic and soft. What is your native language? You have excelent english, but your accent, spice it up. (y) 😉

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  42. Merci beaucoup, quand vous sous-titré en anglais, mon traducteur le traduit et je peux ainsi profité moi aussi de vos conseils 🙂

    Reply

  53. for some reason the colored pencils look like paint brush and if I get 100 likes on this I will get hello neighbor for steam so plz like this and if I get 1000 likes I will get a game counsel or something like that so please like

    Reply

  56. Hi.. I do follow your colouring.. Can you suggest me which paper to use with prisma colour pencils.. I love to blend colours without any other material.. Thank you

    Reply

  62. This tutorial was super helpful in understanding how you don't need any shiny metallic color pencils to create the metallic effect. I followed this tutorial to TRY to make a shiny beetle myself, but turns out my beetle ain't shiny enough. You can look at my work @jyo_explores_art on instagram. Would love to hear your feedback on my attempt 🙂
    Thank you for such wonderful tuorials, keep'em coming 🙂

    Reply

  65. i really have to try this, that was amazing congratulations and keep up! and i wanto share this https://tapas.io/PP-Asper/series  https://pp-asper.deviantart.com/gallery/60705756/drawings

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  69. This is one incredible drawing!! You should be proud! The beetle really does just come to life in front of your eyes and quickly looks 3D.

    I know I will most likely get every person and their mother biting my ear off for having an opinion. It is meant as constructive criticism and in NO way, shape or form am I trying to be mean, nasty, stuck up or any other insult people can come up with.

    Just 1 tiny little detail I felt let down the picture and that was the shadowing. Done in the right places however, it wasn’t blended in with pencil blend, or in your case, baby oil. Just looked a tiny bit strange having this incredibly realistic looking gold beetle and a grainy shadow.

    Keep up the absolute amazing work!! Love it! 💜

    Reply

  70. I have a request… I know it’s old, but the Dragan effect from “300” would look amazing with this method. Would you be willing to do something from that movie? I did a photoshop version of the Dragan style on a photo. It took thirteen different steps. I would love to see your interpretation of it in this medium.

    Reply

  71. How do I or someone make brass for coloring I would like to know I have some books with musical instruments everything isn't silver please help thank you Karen vasey

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  72. Great work.  fantastic how you produce gold from browns, amazing the blending of colours  Great music I usually don't like background music

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  75. Until the baby oil blending I thought 'Yeah. Right. Ha. Ha.'
    But all of a sudden – that thing started shining, and when you finally added the shadows I had to pick up by lower jaw from the floor. Wow! This is amazing!

    Reply

  76. Thank you for showing me how to make metal objects golden like. I needed to make my oc's crown shiny and royal-like. I used Crayola colored pencils for this. I gave video a thumbs up!

    Reply

  80. I need that type of pencils. Cos mine I can't add several layers (I have normal sñfaber Castells Wich I love but doesn't let me reach certain techniques)
    Thanks for sharing ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

    Reply

  83. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LIGHT SOURCE IS CRUCIAL. Guys, that will determine 80% of the good result. Once you determine where the light source is coming, that's the area where the maximum hit of light will be so that area will be almost white, from there down is that you are working your other color, REMEMBER WHEN YOU ARE PAINTING METALS, GLASS OR HIGHLY REFLECTIVE OBJECTS, YOU ARE PAINTING REFLECTIONS AND LIGHT STROKES, NOT REALLY PIGMENT.

    Reply

  84. Fadil I love your tutorials! They are easy to understand and follow and you have a relaxing voice. I also like that you clearly list everything needed.

    Reply

  86. How anyone can say this looks flat I don't know, it's great, I wish I could get a gold effect like this, thanks for sharing, love it.

    Reply

  89. I can't possibly imagine why 100 people could give this excellent instructional video a thumbs down. This is genuinely excellent from start to finish.

    Reply

  94. Can you use baby oil on normal Faber castle color pencils? And can any oil do as a substitute? Like coconut

    Reply

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