One of the most exciting and original colored pencil books to come out in a long time, Painting Light with Colored Pencil is inspired by Cecile Baird’s incredibly rich, realistic, light-filled paintings. Her work captures the drama, beauty and simplicity of everyday objects — the color of a piece of fruit, the juicy texture of a melon slice, the texture of a basket, or the shape of a tea kettle. Every painting features the wondrous play of light, whether bouncing off an apple, shining through the petals of a rose, or dancing across ceramic surfaces.

Page by page and painting by painting, Baird shares her secrets to creating the sophisticated, painterly look of oils with the ease (and affordability!) of colored pencils. In twenty step-by-step demonstrations, she shares her straightforward techniques for drawing viewers in with dramatic composition. Baird shows how to add depth and sparkle with an intriguing sense of light, making paintings practically jump right off the paper! Any look can be achieved, from soft like the Impressionists to detailed and realistic like the Old Masters.

While Baird’s methods are not speedy, achieving a painterly look is not difficult, and is no more time-consuming than oil painting. And there is, in the end, something magical about achieving this level of artistry from the humblest of subject and medium.

Author — Cecile Baird.

Paperback. 128 pages. 8½" × 11" (22 cm × 28 cm).