I’m finding that I’ve been using a pretty similar process for all the pieces I’ve done recently. The first step, before any color is applied, is to go in with a sharp metal stylus and etch out the textures I want to see in the final drawing. For this one that included the texture of the girl’s sweater, the fabric she’s sitting on, her hair, and the lamb’s wool. This is the most challenging part because it can be hard to see what you’re doing when there’s no marks and only faint impressions on the paper. It’s also hard to capture that step in a photo!
Then I go in with colored pencils and lay in the base colors.
Next comes the first round of blending. I use either a blending pen like these, q-tips, a small brush or soft cloth dipped in mineral spirits, depending on the size of the area I’m working on.
Finally, I go back in and add the details and the background.
I find that this process is pretty efficient compared to how I used to work with colored pencils in the past using just a colorless blender pencil or paper stumps to try to smooth things out. And I really love that I don’t have to always get out my paints when I want to work with color!