Mushroom Colored Pencil

Use colored pencils and sketchbook paper to draw a mushroom. Use the photographs and instruction handouts provided or take a walk and look for mushrooms at the Alaska Botanical Garden to sketch. You may also find mushrooms in your garden at home or in your neighborhood to draw from.

1.      Draw the outline of the mushroom. Imagine you are laying a string around the outside of the mushroom, follow that with your eye and draw the outline. Next look for any interior lines you see in the mushroom for example the little white scales on top of the mushroom cap or the annuals on the stem.

2.      Use yellow, red, orange, white, and grey to block in the colors you see on the mushroom cap and stem. At this stage it’s okay to be somewhat general with the shapes and sections as you can blend them later. Keep your pencil pressure light at this stage so you have the option to layer later. Go over the scales on top of the mushroom cap with a white colored pencil, you could also layer a little bit of yellow or cream to make it slightly off white.

3.      Squint your eyes and look at the mushroom’s values. Value means how light or dark the parts of the mushroom are. You may notice some light highlights on the top or side of your mushroom. Also look for shadows under the cap or annuals on the stem. Use tertiary colors like yellow-orange, red-orange, and red-violet to shade in the values on your mushroom. Layer colors on top of one another to mix new color combinations.

4.      Now look for any details on your mushroom, small specks of dirt, gills or spores you may see and draw those details on your mushroom sketch. Use other colors like brown, blue, violet etc. to capture shadows and details. Next it is time to burnish or polish your drawing. This means using layering, blending, and pressure until no white or paper tooth shows through your layers. Using more pressure on the colored pencil you can begin to go over the colors in each section and layer and blend until they are rich in color and smooth.

*Be careful when touching mushrooms and always research ahead of time which mushrooms are safe to handle.