Rainbow Crassula

I decided to tackle a 8"x10" size colored pencil drawing because I was having such fun with them and wanted to do a slightly larger size. This one uses black Strathmore paper and eight different Prismacolor colored pencils - red, orange, yellow, green, light green, blue, light blue, and purple - for a colorful, rainbow effect.

This drawing is for sale through my Etsy shop for $59!

"Rainbow Crassula" - 8"x10" Colored Pencil Drawing by Andrea Arbit

Because there are so many layers of colored pencil on this drawing, it's hard to get a photo that's "true to color" - the glossiness of the layers reflects the light of the room and the camera. The pictures shown without the white mats show the colors more accurately. The cool white of the mats emphasizes the cooler green colors over the bright oranges and reds.

"Rainbow Crassula" - 8"x10" Colored Pencil Drawing with 11"x14" White Crescent Mat

The source material I used for this drawing was a personal photograph taken of a succulent garden in the Norfolk Botanical Gardens in Virginia. I tried to stay as true to color as possible, because I loved the bright colors of this crassula plant.

Step 1: Red

Here, my goal was to just get an outline of the succulents down so that I knew how everything would fit on the page.

Step 2: Erase

I erased the 2x2 grid I'd drawn on my black paper with graphite pencil, as well as the 8"x10" outline I'd measured. Now that I have my red layer down, I don't need them anymore.

I had to go through and re-add some red where the eraser deleted the red.

Step 3: Light Green

Because the green was the "undertone" underneath the oranges and yellows, I wanted to get that color down early.

Step 4: Purple

There isn't much purple in this drawing, but there is a bit blended in to the red on the edges where the red is darkest.

It's not really a "true" purple color - more of a red-violet.

Step 5: Blue

Again, I'm simplifying when I call this color "blue" - it's a blue-green shade I often add to green on black paper, for the green colored pencils on black tend to look too yellowish without darker blue tones to draw out the green color I truly want.

Step 6: Green

This green is not too different from Step 3, but it is a slightly greener color, not as yellow.

Step 7: Orange

Now that the green undertone is sufficiently layered, it's time to make it look more like the actual source material by adding a yellow-orange color.

Step 8: Yellow and Blending

Though I often like the contrast of black paper showing through bright colored pencils, it didn't seem to fit in this case, where the interior of the succulent plants weren't very dark. So as I added a bit of yellow (to blend the orange and green into each other), I also went back through and added more red, more green, more blue, and more purple, to fill in the black edges I wanted to get rid of.

Step 9: Light Blue Highlights

Finally, I added highlights. In the previous step, I used the yellow to outline some of the highlights on the edges of the petals, but I found that the yellow wasn't bright enough. Plus, I wanted to make parts of the background lighter, to mimic the white-ish colored rocks in the background of the source photo.

Instead of true white, I used a very pale blue. On black paper, they look very similar anyway, but I wanted that hint of blue to tie in the bit of blue that was blended into the green.

And here we are! Here are some images of the final, completed drawing:

(Remember that the above four were taken with a different camera, of the final product with the white mat, so the coloring isn't as "true to color" as the four photos below.)

Don't forget - this drawing is for sale through my Etsy shop!

As far as symbolism goes, where my flowers (are succulents actually flowers? or are they just plants? are those petals, or leaves?) stand in for sexuality (especially female sexuality) and/or the experience of life and humanity in general (especially womanhood and the "essence" or soul of that idea, or of a specific woman) -

I find succulents very interesting. These are plants that survive arid climates by keeping all their juices inside, plants that often have prickly spikes on their exteriors as defense mechanisms (though the plants in this drawing, don't in fact have spikes). You could interpret this as sexual - sexual repression, celibacy, perseverance in the face of adversity (abuse or assault, perhaps) - or you could interpret it more generally, as someone guarded, someone shy, someone reserved, someone who develops a thick skin, someone who keeps her (or his) thoughts to herself (himself).

These are often traits we deride (in America, at least, where we're all supposed to be gregarious and friendly and open) - but look how beautiful these succulents are! They're not ashamed of their nature. And they show so much of their beautiful selves - even as they choose to keep certain parts inside.