Red Pencil...why?
5yr
Glen Piper
I've noticed a lot of artists I follow on Instagram use red pencil when they make sketches. Can anyone fill me in on the reason for this? I think it looks great - just wondering where this idea came from and why it's a thing. Have tried looking around on google for answers but there seem to be a lot of conflicting opinions. Here are some examples from artist Rik Lee:
Thanks!
Aside from what have been said by @Milan Čolović , it may also be a trend.
When working traditionally, artists often use red pencils called "sanguine" since the XII-XIVth century. It's similar to charcoal or graphite.
Absolutely! Anne-Lise is correct with the assumption that it simply may be a trend. I saw a Faber Castell Polychromos pencils, so they didn’t associated me to Sanguine tones, automatically. But she’s right. Actually, there are some brands that sells “Sanguine” pencils packages, which are a bit different from regular colored pencils. They are rusty colored and to be honest, I’m not sure what they actually are, but those reminds me of something between charcoal/pastel, relatively similar to graphite. They are a bit harder, but don’t break so easily. It can be quite interesting medium. Conté à Paris makes great ones.
Well, I assume that trend of using red, or blue, started from people who uses colored pencils in initial, rough sketch drawings. When you use it in combination with graphite pencils, it’s easier to distinct refined graphite lines, when you draw them upon rough sketches done with (not so prominent) red. Practically, it’s simulating layers of Photoshop. 😊 Digitally, I would simply drop opacity of rough sketch, and draw more prominent lines in layer above.
Why people using just the reds? It looks good. 😊 I’m not sure, I rarely do that. But, I assume that is because colored pencils preforming similarly to graphite pencils, in the way of gradation, layering, range of values, they smudge less in compare to graphite. Also, they don’t have that “graphite shine” so expressed. I mean that reflection which graphite leaves when you press hard soft graphite pen and fill the area with it.
These are my assumptions, maybe someone more experienced with colored pencils would give you better answer…. :)
I believe it's traditionally because certain reds and blues don't show up when scanned in. Animators would do all their underlay work in red and blue and final linework in another colour (say, black). When the artwork was scanned in, the scanner would only pick up the black linework and there would be less cleanup digitally
