101 Textures in Colored Pencil by Denise J. Howard

101 Textures in Colored Pencil by Denise J. Howard ISBN-13: 9781633223400 Paperback: 128 pages Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing Released: Dec. 12, 2017

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
101 Textures in Colored Pencil provides artists with step-by-step instructions for drawing a wide variety of the most common textures and surfaces, including sand, water, metals, foliage, wood, fabrics, stone, grass, hair, and many more. Each page is a comprehensive resource on how to create a specific texture, complete with two to three easy-to-follow steps and a final, detailed image of the finished artwork. Plus, the book is organized into sections based on subject matter, making finding what exactly what you need a breeze.


My Review:
101 Textures in Colored Pencil provides instructions on how to produce 101 textures using Prismacolor Premier colored pencils. She used white Stonehenge paper (a fine-toothed paper) and Prismacolor Premier colored pencils for all of the examples in the book. In her directions, she used the pencil names rather than describing the actual color. So we're told to "go over almost all the lemon yellow with a wash of a sharp Spanish orange" or "go over almost all the pale vermilion with a wash of a very sharp crimson lake." (The "sharp" refers to how sharp your pencil is, and "wash" refers to a technique that she described earlier.)

She assumed that you know the basics of drawing and even of using colored pencils, though she did explain the main techniques she used in making textures. There were four illustrations for each step-by-step description of how to produce a texture. Sometimes she demonstrated making a small patch of texture, like fur, but left it up to you to apply this to the animal's whole body. Other times, she demonstrated a completed object, like an eye. At the end, there was a short gallery of her finished works, and she indicated what textures from the book were in each picture.

You can see exactly what's covered in the table of contents, but she basically covered people (hair, skin, eyes, nose, lips), animals (fur, mane, scales, skin), fabrics (burlap to silk, leather, lace), woven basket, glass, stone, ceramic, wood, metal, various food textures, and nature textures like bark, grass, water, clouds, leaves, and fire. You can get an idea of how to create a texture from the directions, but this book is really most useful to a person who owns a Prismacolor Premier colored pencils set.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.