I like Arches HOT press. It’s got enough texture for layers, but smooth enough for getting good details. Also Canson DRAWING paper. It’s not for wet techniques but will take solvent. It’s a cream-colored paper. In SPITE of the name Colored-Pencil paper, Strathmore Color Pencil paper is a problem. It’s fairly thin, and buckles with even a small amount of solvent to mix pigments, and doesn’t have enough tooth. D-. I’m just starting out with Canson Mi-Tientes, which has TWO DIFFERENT TEXTURES, and is supposed to hold up to light washes and has a rougher side for pastel work. Luckily, it’s reasonably priced and is available in sheets as well as pads. Many professional artists have no problem recommending it, and some use it themselves. I hope this is useful information.

The tiger looks so derpy, it's actually pretty cute though.

I wish other artists would more often discuss their 'failures' and mistakes they've made with their particular medium.....unlike the home renovation TV shows where the end products seem to have been done perfectly, without stripped screws, broken saw blades, unexpected expenses, split joists, etc. Your willingness to share mistakes will no doubt help others to avoid them. I guess Murphy's Law applies in most areas of life: Nothing's as easy as you think. Everything takes longer than you thought. And if anything can go wrong, it will. Your 'failures' are beautiful and I aspire to produce pictures that are as lovely as yours. Thanks so much for some very helpful, solid advice.

the cross-eyed tiger is ADORABLE

Lol.. your bad examples... are my masterpieces!!!

I don't make mistakes, I make learning experiences

The pieces you show and call mistakes are beautiful art to my eyes. Wow, you are so talented! Thank you for sharing!

The cross-eyed tiger is absolutely adorable.

Mistakes are just techniques you haven't yet found a use for.

Me (looks at colorful stickman I made) "Ah so it's not me it's my paper" 😂

Apart from the poor tiger, I actually liked all those pieces! Just started with CP's myself and appreciate the tips very much; thanks for posting xx

Thanks! I am just starting out in colored pencil. Now for that posture, I have been sewing for over 50 years. It is very easy to slouch over the machine. One must discipline oneself to sit straight. Here is a tip I learned from Nancy Zieman, she says when quilting, "Sew a block, walk a block." Meaning, get up and walk around at least every 30 minutes. I actually set a timer on my mp3 player ( always listing to books or tunes) to remind me to GET UP. This little interruption refreshes mind, body, and creativity.

Your talent is enviable!! Your boo boo's would be framed in my house!!!! Wow! 🤗

Watching this video makes me realize that courage is required to showcase our mistakes. Shine a light on them for all the world to see. Presenting this to us so that we may learn is both brave and generous. It speaks to a well adjusted ego and confidence in your ability. I am happy to have found your channel. Be well.

Thank you for this. As a beginner, I'm feeling a lot better about getting my toes wet in the medium. I'm impressed by the hard hints that you give. I'm impressed by the fact that you keep examples of where you went wrong so that you could learn from them as well as see the progress you are making today. But most of all: I'm impressed by your humanity in looking at your foibles with a sense of humor and then sharing them so the rest of us can learn through your experiences. Thank you so much!

What you consider your poor art....just WOW! This is the first video of yours I've seen while researching colored pencils. Consider me addicted. You are more qualified than you give yourself credit, and quite talented! Thank you for sharing.

Great tips!! I've been guilty of every one you mentioned...I guess it's the learning process for many of us. I hope all those beginner colored pencil artists take heed and avoid some of them..

Cassandra, thank you for sharing your advice and showing your mistakes. It takes a lot of openness to share mistakes, but we can learn from them. So, thank you.

I love how honest and forthright you are. Thank you.

Thank you for sharing your experience with colored pencils and explaining your difficulties by showing where you went awry. I just picked up colored pencils and found this video helpful in pointing out mistakes I am currently making. Thank you again and congratulations on your progress and honestly when it comes to your own work.

Great video! Nothing more valuable than making mistakes in your chosen medium to learn, and having another artist willingly expose their own mistakes is, as the saying goes, priceless. This is a new medium for me - I'm a metalsmith and want to expand the use of various means of applying color to metal - Prismacolor pencils on a layer of gesso applied to copper is what I'm researching at the moment. This one's a keeper - thank you!

I really enjoyed the earlier works that she shared. How can we learn without mistakes along the way? Cassandra seems very supportive of artists. Even though she doesn't have decades of experience with colored pencils, she is still willing to share her experiences with us. Nicely done!

Thank you Cassandra. I found this very helpful. I am a newbie to coloring with colored pencils, so I appreciate all the help I can get!! LOl!

Thank you! Thank you! For showing the mistakes - I feel like I personally learn better by seeing what NOT to do in addition to what I am to do. I am guilty of some of these mistakes and I didn;t even know what I had done wrong - just that it didn't look correct. I feel encouraged to try again.

The tiger made me giggle. He looks like me before I have my coffee in the morning.

Thanks for your video and advice. I am a long time pencil and pen & ink drawer...but have only used color to fill in a bit of "life". So now, I am starting to learn about using colored pencils as an effective medium. Your tips are very useful and I am thankful for them as I start out on this new practice!

Thanks so much for your video! You've hit the nail on the head with most of these problems, and they can be so very frustrating... Fortunately, and I haven't seen anything in the comments section about this, there are ways to cope with some of the troubles you've described! I know that we're specifically discussing 'colored pencil' drawing, but if you absolutely love pencil art AND watercolor paper texture all is not lost; try using watercolor pencils. You can color in the usual way, and then just use plain water and a brush to spread the pigments over the texture in the cold pressed paper. This does give a painterly quality to your work when it's finished, and some people just love the look! A friend of mine gave me a handful of lessons using watercolor pencils and his work actually looked like photographs when he was finished-- astounding! As to your trouble with pastel paper (or any other smooth-ish paper that lacks tooth), you can use textured/workable fixative spray to add the tooth back to the surface in between layers of pencil. There are lots of brands available, and they're all very good; Brush & Pencil makes two kinds of fixatives that are suitable for working and finalizing/preserving your finished pieces. You might also like their powdered blender, which makes blending and layering an absolute breeze (but ONLY on sanded paper). Your so-called 'failures' are not as bad as you think they are, and as many people have said beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so the cross-eyed nature of your tiger is actually very endearing. Keep on creating!

Thanks so much for the student sketch book shout-out 😆 I literally started again some color pencil pratice and when I tried blending the colors in it's paper, it was so difficult to reach something good towards blending. So glad I found someone else to point this out

Thank you...great tips. The one where I felt especially guilty is ruining the project by failing to give the background and secondary objects their due. Thanks again for sharing.

I absolutely love the sunglasses one if that was in the store I'd buy it 😍 they were all beautiful

I surely appreciate your advice about posture. I'm a beginner, but already have had a few neck pains before realizing I'm slouching over. It helps me to straighten up and look around every so often, or even do a few neck stretches in place. Thanks for interesting advice.

Thanks for making me feel like I won't be this bad forever , in your short 3 yrs, you have grown leaps and bounds. Your cross eyed tiger is awesome for demo of what I have really needed to get better at... Making my drawing the best It can be, before working the color pencils .You are my new favorite on You Tube Thanks So Much.

Enjoyed you sharing your art and experiences..you are a gifted artist. While I'm not I do sew and enjoy crafting. I've always loved coloring...pencils, crayons, markers...and now have a bit more pencil coloring know how. Thank you.

Great advice and very clearly spoken - thankyou! I practically rest my head on the page when colouring so I'm going to work on that

Thanks for this.I have made all these mistakes- now to begin to rectify them with these tips.Thanks!

All of your tips are quite helpful to a beginner. Thank you for taking the time to share.

The one with the sunglasses is nice! - The background "gives it away" in a good way - saying look, this realism was done with pencils. Cool.

couldnt agree more, this was really helpful! im trying to figure out the best paper for me at the moment... i like blending by burnishing but ive used stonehenge paper which has quite a bit of texture so I think my colored pencil drawings are taking way too long. I might try some more smoother paper instead :)

I just LOVE that cross-eyed tiger, so cute! :D (I'm definitely not being sarcastic! It's a lovely drawing!) Excellent advice, btw!

Thank you for the tips and thanks for showing examples! It’s nice to see how the “mistakes” look. (And figure out that I’m guilty of them. 😳)

So much lovely information and awesome tips. I'm handicapped and struggle to control most of my right side. This makes me heavy handed like you speak of. I also sit in horrible positions when drawing and coloring. I've started to use my riding vest. It's actually for someone like me who slump over and can't sit straight. I tend to lean to my right (my bad side) and ice discovered that this vest actually helps me both when riding a dog when drawing and coloring. It makes me sit up straighter and then help my muscles to work properly so I don't get more cramps and pain.

That was really informative, thank you. I am guilty of adopting poor posture and really need to get it fixed if I am to carry on enjoying my colouring.

Really helpful, thank you! Sadly, I´m stucked in the first mistakes stage since... forever! But I have faith that some day my work would be worthy of showing ;) Thanks again for share your experiences ;) Love the birds!

Hi Cassandra. I'm preparing to teach a class using colour pencils and found your tips useful prompts for me to pass along. In some cases they were things I already knew but good to be reminded. Also thanks for showing unsatisfying past work especially how certain papers behave. It took me years to appreciate the importance of using quality art materials and stop blaming myself for unhappy endings. Now I always tell my students a bad piece may not be simply due to their talent or lack of it. Nice to hear the Aussie accent as well.

NO NO NO..THERE ARE NO BAD EXAMPLES HERE..You are a cool artist and don't forget it. Keep Calm and Paint On!....you're great.

Awesome tips for a newbie, such as myself! Thank you for sharing your trials and errors instead of just saying what not to do. It helps to see a visual!! Much appreciated! p.s. Love your accent, too =)

Who ever you are madam , you are a TEACHER FOREVER, you are a divine instrument of our human community taking on your responsibility or not !!!!!!!

Thank you so much for sharing your 'mistakes', I'm certainly guilty of a few of them and have learned a lot by watching your video.

Thanks for sharing your lessons-learned, I found them helpful.

OH MY GOSH THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!I have been using the paper from that student sketch book and been wondering and searching what im doing wrong and it is my paper!!!!im so happy ik rn

Thanks for the tip about working at an easel, I suffer from neck pain sometimes and I have an easel, so I'm trying that out!!

Thanks. The tip I appreciated most was the one about posture whie drawing. So little said on this. I would like to find out more about posture for the hand, wrist, back and so on....thanks again this is helpful for an older budding artist like myself

Thank you for this. I do appreciate it. I'm about to start drawing and using colored pencils is goal. I don't expect great work right from the start, but it's funny how the mind can deceive you otherwise! Lol. The tips you gave will certainly help a newbie like me.

Lovely works! Don't be too hard on yourself! It's beautiful work! Thanks for sharing!

very helpful Cassandra, guilty of just about all of them. I like your work.

Thank you so much for your helpful advice. Your art looks very nice!

I absolutely LOVE the peacock piece!!! It's beautiful even if you didn't use the paper you should have and thanks for showing us these snafus in able to teach us.

Thank you so much for this video. I am just "getting into" colored pencils. I did a too detailed drawing of a person and had a terrible time getting the face to look right. I used a paper with too much tooth. Had I seen this video first, I would never have started it on that paper. My intention was to do a watercolor base and finish the details with colored pencils so I used a multimedia paper. The result was passable but not what I had envisioned. I had been working mostly in graphite and wanted to branch out to color. Huge learning curve!

Just started with colored pencil recently. This was super helpful thank you so much!!!

Yeh this is a good video. Learning from mistakes is always best thanks for showing us your old stuff. New birds are great where is your other new art..I sometimes get a burst of energy to draw when I see drawings that need fixing and I go and redraw them. Always learn so much more from doing that than from how to draw books that show perfect construction steps etc.It's amazing how our eye will pick out the mistakes. I've also learned to put a drawing down and not do the whole thing at once coz I always want to either finish it quick or saturate the colour. I try do a few at once now. The best thing about putting a drawing down too is sometimes when you wake up next morning you go... Oh it's already finished. Nothing worse than an overworked drawing

I think most of the tipps are useful advice for art and drawing in general :) Great video!

Much needed video; I have struggled so much with all you have mentioned…..great info!

Thank you so much for this video ..you ROCK!!

thanks for the helpful advice!and it's nice to hear an 'aussie' voice too! Your advice very encouraging for beginners like me!

That is probably the best video I have seen on you tube, thank you..

Learning from mistakes is wonderful!

Thanks for the advice on getting too close to your work too avoid pain. Im now using a drafting table so good for pencil then adjust to flat for watercolour waaaaaayyyy less pain

I Love, love, love this video!!! It has helped so much!!!!😁😁

Excellent video, as everyone is saying, is hard to find someone who can show their own mistakes, I can see how you are being evolving in your drawing and painting, you are very good, “ practice make the master”

This is a very beneficial tutorial. Thanks so much for sharing these great tips.

Thank you for the tips! I am just starting out and sometimes feel really discouraged (I suck at cp...) but your work is very inspiring! :)

Thanks for sharing! Will save a lot of heart ache and shoulders! Keep up the good work

I'm just starting with colored pencils so your tips are much appreciated! Thanks, Donna from NJ. USA

Absolutely enjoyed your video. Your art work is amazing, and yes even your hall of shame 🐅. I love the tips and pointers on the "donts". I would love to watch you color another's rose with the dew drops. I love it. Thank you 😊

Thank you for sharing your learning experiences and tips. FYI if you haven't tried Stonehendge legion paper it takes colored pencil quite well.

This was so awesome! Thank you!

Great tips! I'm new to the medium and did experience a hurt neck after 2 hrs of slouching lol. Also, something I had to learn the hard way was not to grip my pencils so hard. It's crazy because you don't even notice that you are until after you're finished and your fingertips are hella sore!!

THANKS so MUCH .... very helpful!

Very good video with good advice. Your work is really a joy to see. Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦

Very good advice! I definitely need to work on my posture as I'm starting to have bad back and shoulder pain. The exercise ball is a great idea so I'll have to try that! I also need my work station back. I have an artist table that can be raised and lowered but sadly it has my giant scanner on it as it was the only surface big enough for it to sit on XD I got my work cut out for me!

I’ve been going over recently of famous artists, who have 200 - over 800 paintings, , what you said is so true,, when you rush over one area of picture to do another part that is more exciting,, I’ve seen that done on about every great work they have done, good advice you gave, I’ve done this myself many times.

These mistakes. Are Gorgeous though! I'm finally trying my Prismacolors.. Oh and this does take patience! I also practicing controlling. My hand pressure and whether. To hold the pencil. Closer to the base or further back?! Thank you! For this wonderful help!

Great points Cassanda!

Great video and as a relative beginner and an artist that is new to coloured pencils I totally agree and can relate to your points. You have a new follower and I look forward to seeing more of your videos :o)

Great info. I feel your pain regarding the paper. And as I discovered, the "wax bloom" from wax based colored pencils is SO very annoying.

Excellent advice, Cassandra. My fave was posture. Thanks for sharing.

Great vid, tks. Good info and examples (ur so talented!) and well put together. I'm just at this 3 mos and trying to learn as much as I can. Tks to u I'm going to get the proper paper next!

Good points and beautiful artwork!

I like this video. Interesting to see your two tigers who show two years of learning and practice. I want to see that more on KZfaq! (Any suggestions for where I should look?) And then at nr 5 when I saw and heard 'bad posture' I did not immediately understood that you were talking about our own posture 😆. I was like: those birds look okay, they can bend like that... Haha. Interesting that you talk about the importance of taking care of our own posture. I like the idea of sitting on a ball. Might try that. Yesterday I bought a Julian table easel, I'm curious how this will change my way of working. What helps me (but which I still find hard to consistently practice) is not putting all the tools I need on my table so I have to get up to take it and get moving a bit... I will certainly check more of your videos.

I'm guilty of being very lazy with every aspect of my art X3 I do it mainly for fun and people consider me somewhat good for my age. Most of the people that tell me I'm good though don't notice how lazily I colour and how I don't bother to fix mistakes most of the time even if I can fix them very easily.

thank.you for sharing your experience. I love to use color pencils. I am.a.beginning artist and what I have at the moment are color pencila

Thanks so MUCH! Have a nice set of F-C Polychromos...LOVE colored Pencil Art! It's not a very forgiving Medium like you stated, but I love the results! Pretty Much a beginner, but still love it!

Thanks for the information. It is very helpful.

Thanks for the tips, moving to colored pencil has been challenging so your tips are very help. Lack of patience is my Achilles heel. Thanks again

I loved your drawings, they were beautiful. And the cross eyed tiger is adorable. Loved your lessons.

Very great info! Colored pencil seems straight forward, but sometimes can be very frustrating!

This is really helpful - thank you.

I remember many years back I got a pad of canvas paper to do sketching on. I can't remember if I had planned to paint on it with acrylics or not, but there are just a few pages of shaded sketches. Not a good paper by a longshot for pencil. Currently getting into coloured pencils. I tried just pencil/ graphite and greyscale drawing last year and got bored quickly. I wanted to get good with values first but I needed colour to keep me interested. One mistake I have recently made is over saturation with the colour. I was aiming for blue highlighting on black feathers. (They have that blue shade when the sun hits them) But ended up with bright blue feathers. I should have blended more with greys, than blended with different blues I thought matched the reference colours. I just kept layering until I couldn't anymore and I wasn't satisfied. Now I have a blue toucan. To anyone who sees it, I wanted it to look that way. But I'm seeing it as a learning experience. I'm new to coloured pencils, I'm more familiar with water colour, gouache and digital art where it's much easier to correct mistakes.

so you call those bad habits I call them fantastic thank you so much Cassandra

Thanks Jane, Your tips on what not to do are very helpful. Thanks for sharing. Christine