Discover the new Caran d’Ache Luminance 6901 Portrait Assortment with Liz Seward

Perfect pencils for portraiture

Liz Seward is thrilled with the Caran d’Ache Luminance 6901 Portrait Assortment of 20 colours as she uses them to demonstrate a portrait.

Luminance 6901 are my No.1 favourite when it comes to coloured pencils, so imagine my excitement when I tried the Portrait Selection for the first time.

I wasn’t disappointed. This selection contains 20 assorted colours that will make portrait and figure drawing easier, as well as four additional colours that have been missing from the main range and will appeal to artists who paint a wide variety of subjects.

READ LIZ'S REPORT ON LUMINANCE 6901 HERE

Top features:

Luminance 6901 are world leaders when it comes to coloured pencils as most of the colours have the highest lightfastness rating.
The finely-ground pigments are chosen for their purity, intensity and resistance to UV.
The waxy softness of the leads means that they glide onto the paper with a smooth silky feel, giving an intensity of colour that is unsurpassed.

Where to buy

The Luminance 6901 Portrait set can be purchased from Jackson's Art Supplies by clicking here and from art shops and other online retailers.

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A wise choice

Any artist who wants to try a new drawing medium would make a very wise choice with these; any artist who is already into coloured pencil work would relish their superior quality.

Although I do own all the colours in the Caran d’Ache Luminance range I was anxious to stick to the 20 colours in this set, as it contains a selection of new and welcome colours, such as ultramarine, which is a fantastic addition to both portraits and other subjects that I do, such as landscape.

The subjects that I decided to try with this selection are two patient neighbours.

The portraits

Sue, Caran d’Ache Luminance 6901 Portrait Assortment of coloured pencils on Bristol Board paper, (40.5x58.5cm)

The first is my laughing companion, Sue (see above and demonstration below), who is a regular model for both me and my students.

The second is Andrew, see below, a gardening friend who has come to my horticultural rescue many times.

Andrew, Caran d’Ache Luminance 6901 Portrait Assortment of coloured pencils on Bristol Board paper, (48x.538cm)

I enjoyed giving Andrew a suitable green background with chromium oxyde green – this colour is a very useful addition to the range, both for portraits and landscapes.

Demonstration: Sue

Sue and her phone are constant companions so I decided to include the phone in the picture as I always like to personalise portraits in this way.

Portraits, particularly of friends and family, are a minefield. I see Sue most days and know her face well but portraits require a different way of looking and analysing.

There are aspects of her face that I was anxious to retain, such as her ‘smileyness’, without showing teeth, which can look like tombstones.

As this was going to be purely a coloured pencil work, I chose a very smooth piece of 280gsm Bristol Board paper that has almost no texture.

I spent a long time on the first stage of the drawing so that I didn’t have to make too many corrections when I started to add the colour.

I lifted the corners of her mouth and eyes to create the effect of a smile on the way, although I left the hand on the phone slightly unresolved.

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I took herculanum red (a pale flesh colour) and laid it lightly over the face, neck and hand as a base colour.
I then started to lay in the shadow colours, creating the contours of the face, using violet pink and dark flesh 5%, varying the pressure on the point of the pencil – a vital technique – to intensify or lessen the tone of the colour as required.
With ultramarine I started to lay in the colour of the shirt, but having already decided that this was not going to be a piece about a T-shirt I planned to leave some of it undescribed.

Top Tip

In some areas such as under the chin, the back of the neck and under the hair I also used dark flesh 40%.

Indanthrone blue, another great addition to the range, was used to model the hair – the darker areas were made more lively using bleu de Nimes, rather than just shading them with grey.

There is an element of reflected colour of this in her chin so I very lightly ran the ultramarine over this, but not too much as I didn’t want it to look like a ‘5 o’clock shadow’.
Anthraquinone carmine and dark indigo completed the phone.
Working lightly, I ran some Indian yellow over the chair, placing a shadow at the back of the head with dark indigo.

Sue has pale blue eyes and with the new Luminance 6901 portrait selection I was well equipped to colour these.

Using dark flesh 40% I modelled the eyelids, upper and lower, even daring to put a few wrinkles in!
With the same colour I darkened the top lip, which is usually darker than the bottom lip (there is often quite a pronounced highlight).
This set has the most beautiful bright turquoise colour called chrysocolla blue – I couldn’t resist it so I put a layer of this on the iris, followed by a very light layer of indanthrone blue, then coloured the pupils with dark indigo.

There was a very pronounced highlight on the eyeball, particularly on the one nearest me, which I took out with some precision with my battery eraser, an essential accessory.
In the corner of the whites of the eyes I put a very light layer of dark indigo to make them look curved.
Finally, carmine lake described the upper lashes.
Using chrysocolla blue and dark indigo I finished the glass earrings, another of Sue’s trademarks.

Top Tip

The eyes, the most important part of the face, were left until the rest of the portrait was well under way.

Finished portrait

Sue, Caran d’Ache Luminance 6901 Portrait Assortment of coloured pencils on Bristol Board paper, (40.5x58.5cm)

This set comes with a useful blender, which I used over many areas of colour, smoothing and softening as I went.
I coloured the background chair more so that it wasn’t so stark, darkened the shadows and enlarged the shadows on the T-shirt.
I put some colour behind the hand as a background but decided to leave the rest as the piece is about Sue, not the setting.
After another session with the blender it was finished.

Discover Caran d’Ache Luminance 6901 Portrait Assortment with Liz Seward

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Perfect pencils for portraiture

Top features:

Where to buy

A wise choice

The portraits

Demonstration: Sue

Top Tip

Top Tip

Finished portrait