Trudie writes: In your colored  pencil drawings I see you using your airbrush tot create a background I am only using colored pencil I really can not paint are there other ways tot create a background for colored pencil  art?

Absolutely! You can of course just use colored pencil for everything, but if you’re looking for something that is faster, you can use watercolor or Inktense. The main drawback here is that Inktense (and many MANY types of watercolor) are lacking in how lightfast they are in comparison to many of the higher end colored pencils. If this is something you are planning to sell you need to be aware of that. I will be testing how well they hold up behind UV glass and with UV spray.

This does mean that you will need to learn to paint with those mediums, but you can get absolutely beautiful results with them! I will do a tutorial with a watercolor background and colored pencil in the near future 🙂

I’ve done graphite backgrounds with my colored pencil too. They don’t layer over each other well (the graphite makes the paper too slick for the CP to really stick to), but that is another option. The mixture of black and white with colored pencil is always striking.

Another option would be to make a collage of sorts. You can get acid free scrapbook paper, or sheet music (my favorite) and attach that to your paper for the background. Just make sure all of the supplies you’re using are acid free. Not all glues or adhesives are.