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When I first decided to take up drawing again one of the things I found I liked using the most was coloured pencils, having seen some of the amazing things that people manage to create using them really inspired me.

So when I saw this Skillshare class Painting with Colored Pencils: A Beginner’s Guide by Kendyll Hillegas I decided to give it a try. In the class she draws a strawberry using both watercolour pencils and coloured pencils.

I don’t have any fancy pencils, just a set of WHSmith ones plus a set of their watercolour pencils, and my colour choices are not vast so when it came to choosing a fruit to draw I decided to go with a dragon fruit image that I found on Pixabay, knowing I had the colours to create it.

I enjoyed the lesson but I did find using the cold pressed watercolour paper wasn’t really my thing, of course the problem could just be that my pencils are not creamy enough to work with the grain, but in any case I have since bought myself a mixed media pad although I have yet to really use it.

Kendyll has since published two more classes, one for pastry which I’d love to try but I lack suitable colours at the moment, and another for botanical illustrations which I have yet to watch.

The one thing I really took from this lesson was using the watercolour pencils for underpainting, something I will definitely try again.