If you watch my youtube videos then you’ve probably seen and heard me talk about my “Rule of Blending Thirds.” It’s a simple colored pencil blending technique that allows you to get beautiful blends from one color to the next, with or without the use of other blending tools such as colorless blenders, white pencils, odorless mineral spirits, etc.

CHAPTER MARKERS
00:00:00 – Welcome & Introduction
00:01:57 – How to Pick Light, Medium & Dark Colors
00:05:08 – How to Pick Colored Pencil Paper
00:06:15 – Step 1: Fill the Whole Area with the Light Color
00:07:07 – Step 2: Color 2/3rds of the Area with the Medium Color
00:07:44 – Step 3: Fill 1/3rd of the Area with the Dark Color
00:08:12 – Step 4: Fill the 2/3rds Area with the Medium Color Again.
00:09:00 – Step 5: Fill the Whole Area with the Light Color Again
00:09:57 – Blending a Complex Selection of Colors
00:14:40 – Coloring Example
00:15:29 – Why Keeping Your Pencil Sharp is Important
00:16:40 – Step 6: Fill 1/3rd of the Area Again with the Dark Color

Free Coloring Page

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Free Blending Guide

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Basic Coloring Thirds Steps

Additional Blending Thirds Videos

Part 1

Part 1 introduces you to the basic rule of blending thirds concept and how to get great blending results with any brand of colored pencils–including Prismacolors, Polychromos or even Crayolas!

Part 2

Next I show you how after using the blending techniques shown in Part 1 you can get even richer and deeper blends using two of my favorite tools–highlighters and odorless mineral spirits. Any brand of highlighter or marker will do, including Sharpies, Bics, Copics, Cra-Z-Art and Prismacolors. The same goes for the mineral spirits, although Gamsol is the most well known.

Download the Worksheet

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Products Used in the Videos

View the Charts

These are the charts I created during the video. Note that my scanner has a tough time picking up some of the more vibrant colors like red and yellow, so what you see here isn’t exact.