Sandy Allnock

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Complementary hues for colored pencil shading

by 22 Comments Filed Under: Colored Pencils

First

… a little shout out to the grammarians in my readership!

Complementary: kämpləˈment(ə)rē/

  1. combining in such a way as to enhance or emphasize the qualities of each other or another.
  2. relating to complementary medicine.

Complimentary: ˌkämpləˈmen(t)ərē,ˌkämpləˈmentrē/ <—two pronunciations, who’d a thunk?

  1. expressing a compliment; praising or approving.
  2. given or supplied free of charge.

Today’s video is about using complementary colors – combining colors opposite of one another on the color wheel to “enhance the qualities of each other.” I hadn’t thought about that as an explanation of why they work – but it’s pretty cool!

I got such excited feedback on the recent pencil videos I made that I thought I’d try it again – this time with foxes! No orange pencils were used….can you believe it?

Isn’t it amazing to see yellow and purple turn into such a pretty combined color?

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Comments

  2. Sandy, This is gorgeous! This non-Copic gal loves your colored pencil videos! And, I’m proud to say that ‘ve been channeling some inner Sandy when shading outside the brown box. Great idea to send cards to journalists. 🙂

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  3. As a ‘real’ fox (my last name translates as ‘fox’ into English), I cannot help but love this. I’m thinking this colour combo would also be perfect for colouring ginger cat (I have two of those). Cannot wait to try this on whatever image I choose. Kristina Werner’s recent video on mixing simple watercolours by adding a tiny bit of the complemenary colour was a real eye opener and your video really helped to reinforce this principle in my mind. I had better put it into practice soon, before I forget it again. I suppose it’s an age thing lol.

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  4. Love this technique! Thanks for inspiring me to get out my pencils and color some Crazy Cats. Can you recommend any other trios that work well? I tried orange, peacock blue, and violet but wasn’t thrilled with the results.

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  6. Love that you teach us something all the time…I would love to get more lessons on the color wheel in the future.
    thanks

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  9. Morning! I am so thankful for all I’m learning from watching and listening to your videos and coloring classes! While I was watching this one I was racing ahead in my thinking about all the masking you had done. The idea of stamping the head and then the body so that it can be tweeked is genius!! I don’t have this particular stamp, but I’m going to rummage through what I do have to see if there is one with which I can try this technique. Just to clairfy, you colored on a stamped foxy? Brilliant!! Thank you for being obedient to His call on your life, you share more than art, just so you know!!

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  10. Well, I kinda wondered what happened to the foxes – and they were definitely worth waiting for. Love the experimentation of coloring you used with your pencils – what a treat! And thanks also, for the spelling/grammar lesson. Even tho I’ve been speaking English for well over 65 years, I still enjoy learning something new.
    You always start my Mondays off right –

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  12. Hi Sandy, I love your work and view your blog site every day. I am having trouble viewing the foxes video. Just wanted you to know. Thanks for sharing all of your beautiful talent with us. – Carol G.

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