This easy and simple tutorial will help you create a majestic phoenix with pastels or, if you prefer, colored pencils. Keep in mind you will need about 10 to 12 pencils or pastels ranging in shades of red to orange to yellow in order to create this piece.
You will need
- Kneaded eraser
- Hair spray to seal in your creation
- Pastel kit, I recommend a kit with a lot of variety or a big set of colored pencils
- Sketchbook
- Pencil
Step one, Optional: Draw your Base
For this project, I started by just drawing some swirls and attaching the body and wings. However, if you do not feel you have the confidence to jump right in with your pigments, use your pencil to sketch out a basic outline. I recommend drawing the body, the tail feathers, and the top part of the wings attaching to the body. If you choose not to do a base like I did, disregard this first paragraph.
Step two: Start From the Bottom of your Phoenix Art Drawing and Work up
After you have a base -or decide you don’t need one- proceed to start with the phoenix tail. Feel free to get creative in designing your tail. I tried to make my tail as flowy and graceful as possible, but you could also make your tail shorter, longer, or less curled. You may use a maroon or black pastel so as to weave little ribbons around your tail.
Step three: Torso of your Phoenix Art and Where the Wings go
The torso of the phoenix is a line down the back that goes from the back of the tail to the head, curving up like the spine that it is, and the head shape. Do not worry about connecting the belly to the tail just yet, because we have a wing to draw that covers a lot of the belly. For the wings, draw a line that goes out as far as you want on the side facing you, and goes down at a slight angle, like a dragon wing. On the other side, do the same but make the longer line a little shorter and the angle more sharp.
Step four: Coloring the Wings of the Phoenix Art
You need three shades of orange and two shades of red, so start with your lightest orange at tip of the wings to about a third of the way in. Make your feathers curve outward and up, using long strokes. The next third do the same with your next lightest pastel, so use long strokes going outward and blending with the other orange. At the arch of the wing goes darkest orange, fill in the wing the same way and blend. You now have an orange gradient. Start with the darker red at the arch and just do a very small area, going from the top of the wing to the bottom darkest layer of orange. The lighter shade of red will be used to help blend the dark red into the orange. Color the body a cheesy yellow-orange and the beak a golden color and you are done.
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