Male Cardinal 5X7 Colored Pencils

This is the step-by-step colored pencil drawing of a male cardinal.  It is a 5X7 on Strathmore drawing paper.  I used Derwent colored pencils for this picture.  It's my first time using the Derwent.  I usually draw with Prismacolors but I received a set of Derwent's as a gift.  They took a little getting used to but I really like the way they blend. 

Anyway, here's the process I used for the cardinal:

As always, I began with a graphite sketch of the cardinal.

Using NeocolorII, I covered the background with a thin layer of light lemon yellow and vermillion.  The colors were blended with a small amount of water.

I started working on the eye and beak first using indigo, dark green, and orange.  I also began layering the cardinal's head with dark green for the darkest areas, scarlet red, and red.  I also used yellow ochre in some areas.

In this step, I started layering the body of the cardinal using the same colors that I used for the head.

Continuing with the layers, all the colors were darkened.  I also added lichen gray for the tree, along with cloud blue.  I also used cloud blue for the gray areas of the the feathers.

Here is the finished cardinal.  I added more neocolor to the background and enhanced it with red and ochre colored pencils to make the colors richer.  I also used black for more contrast in the feathers and added detail to the tree.  An exacto knife was used to scratch out some of the lighter highlights on the feathers.  After scratching out the highlighted areas, I drew over them with cloud blue and white.


This drawing was done for my enjoyment.  It's not a commission piece.  I think I'll hang it in my kitchen after I draw a female cardinal to match.

 The female cardinal is finished.  I drew this using the same method as with the male cardinal.