Well... first we startwith paper. Ideally, you'd want to be using Bristol board. It's100 lb. paper, very nice to use. However, it's very expensive.So if you can't get that, just about any other paper is good.Computer paper is about the worst you could use. For the pictureI'm demonstrating with, I think I used 70 lb. paper, which isthe standard Sketch pad weight. For the color pencils... Prismacolorsare really the only brand I recommend, however expensive theyare. Crayola's would be the second. You can get a box of fiftyat Walmart pretty cheap. All of the other brands I've expirimentedwith, just turned out to be too waxy, or had other problems. Youpencil sketch should be light, I sometimes find it helpful toink first when I'm using paper thats not Bristol Board.
Gingergets to be our example ;) I've inked her beforehand and takenthe colors I want her to be and lightly applied it. Lightly becausewe'll be adding alot of layers, and we don't want to get the layerstoo thick before we add everything. Depending on how you wantto color it, we do need the white of the paper showing throughsome right now.
NowI take the same pencil I used to lightly fill in the areas ofcolor and I got back and start shading in the areas I want tobe darker. I usually pick and edge and make a dark line, thenslowly blend out.. Some people are content with their pictureafter this stage and call it finished. And it is! There are somany cool ways to use pencils, or to leave them, it's a matterof personal preference.
Herewas my next step. I decided to add more color. I added it intothe lighter spots I left earlier. Yellow in the hair, and alongthe beak. I used a lighter blue on the clothes. On the black fathers,I left the white alone and used the grey pencil on the darkerparts to help smooth it out. Solid black is usually one of thehardest things to color pencil. Once again, this would be a perfectplace to stop and call this your finished work if you like theway it looks :)