Do you want to know what monochromatic red looks like using Polychromos pencils? You can view the short video below, or follow the steps provided in this post.
We have used our product PPP1010-11 ‘Number 12 and Polychromos pencils – Workbook’ in this exercise.
Let’s see what it looks like.
You can see a snapshot of the outlined steps below by viewing the following short video.
If you can’t see the video, you can find it here.
Step 1
If you are using the pdf workbook, print the pencil details pages. Gather your red and neutral Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencils. Lightly draw on the colour swatches so you know the colours you are working with in your drawing.
Next, draw a simple design on a small piece of paper. This is so you can see how the pencils perform without wasting time, or too much pencil or paper.
Step 2
Start your first layer. Place down your neutral pencils, and red pencils as you choose on your design. For a tip, you can write initials of the colours you want to use in the places you would like to draw the colour.
Step 3
Keep laying your colour as you choose until all your image has been covered with a first layer of pencil. You will find that the Polychromos pencils are transluscent, and you will see a stained glass effect as you layer colour.
Step 4
Start your second layer of colour. You can place colour over neutrals, or neutrals over colour. Or colour over colour. It is your choice. Experiment and see how it turns out. You are wanting to see what monochromatic red using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils looks like.
Step 5
When the second layer of colour is completed, you can start your third layer. In this layer, you can apply more pressure to your pencil and achieve a burnished look.
You can also choose to add a background to your image.
Step 6
Once the third layer is completed, make final touchups to the image. You can then keep this image together with your pencil details and colour swatches for future use.
If you’d like to save time, we have created a workbook you can purchase that separates Faber Castell’s 120 range of Polychromos pencils into neutral and colour family groups. You can find more more information about this workbook ‘PPP1548 Colour Harmony and Polychromos’ here.

This post was published on 9 February 2022. It was updated on 4 January 2023.