Coloured Pencil Still Life: Draw a Fruit Arrangement Step by Step

By Carol Leather

I picked three fruits for our first coloured pencil still life lesson, as your drawing doesn't need to be spot on. Not all apples, oranges or bananas are the same shape or size, after all.

I wanted to keep to a small number of pencils, so chose pieces of fruit with similar warm colours, but different textures. We can use varying pencil strokes to help create the illusion of how each item would feel if we were to pick it up off the plate.

What you'll learn

• Layering: how coloured pencil builds depth, one thin pass at a time.
• Strokes for texture: small circular strokes (scumbling) for the orange's dimpled skin; curved strokes that follow the form for the smooth apple and banana.
• Colour control: using a complementary colour (a little green sandwiched between two layers of red) to deepen shadows without muddying them.
• Finishing: gentle blending, and burnishing only once you're happy with the colour underneath.

What you will need

To get the best results and enjoy the process, here's what I recommend:

Pencils

There's no need to go out and buy new pencils for this tutorial.

However, because I am showing you the basics of layering and strokes here, try to pick out the more translucent pencils in your collection.

If you're not sure which might fit the bill test some out on scrap paper to see if when you use one over the top of another, while pressing lightly, you can still see a hint of the underneath colour.

Helpful colours for this project:

• Cream or very Pale Yellow
• Mid-toned Yellow (Cadmium Yellow or Lemon Yellow)
• Bright, warm Orange
• Light, cool Red (Rose Pink, leaning more towards purple than orange)
• Deeper Red (Cadmium Red Dark or Permanent Red)
• Light to medium Green
• Sepia or dark warm Brown (Burnt Sienna or Dark Umber)
• Light Grey and a Blue of your choice (optional background)

Paper

Your paper is perhaps more important than the pencils.

I know when I started I was tempted to use whatever paper was around to practise on, but that turned out to be a false economy. Paper that was perfect for running through my printer, for example, was too smooth (and thin) to draw on.

Coloured pencils need the paper to have some surface texture, which can grab the pigment and hold onto it. For this tutorial Stonehenge or Strathmore 400 Series Bristol Vellum will allow you to add enough layers to get the depth of colour, without going all shiny on you.

How this tutorial works

Set up quickly

Take a look at the photo reference image we'll base our lesson on.

Don't panic about the fabric in the background or the pattern on the plate, what is important here is the fruit itself.

Take a few minutes to really look at what you're seeing and try to describe each piece of fruit to yourself.

This is what I see.

The shapes of the apple and orange are similar, both spherical but the dimple at the top of the apple is deeper than that of the orange. The highlights on the apple skin make me think it's a shiny, slick surface. The orange on the other hand has softer highlight areas which are a paler tone of the peel, instead of white.

The banana has a tiny lighter patch along the top right edge, but this tells me of a form change where more light is hitting it, not a change in texture.

Step-by-step walkthrough

Each fruit is here for a reason. The orange is about texture, the apple about smooth, rounded form, and the banana about curved strokes and knowing when to burnish. Notice the decision behind each one, that's what you'll carry to your own subjects later.

1. The Orange: Dimpled Texture

We'll start with the orange. Oranges have a slightly dimpled skin, and we can suggest this with our pencil strokes.

Warm Base: With Cream or Pale Yellow, softly shade the whole orange, leaving highlights as bare paper for now.

Introduce Texture: Use small, light circular strokes (scumbling) to suggest the dimpled skin. Keep your wrist loose.

Build Colour: Layer mid Yellow over the base with the same circular motion. Add a light pass of Orange in the shadow areas (sides and bottom). Add a touch of light Green at the stalk.

First Blend: Take your Cream pencil again. Using light pressure and circular strokes, go back over the fruit (avoiding the highlight and stalk).

This will gently blend the underlying colours, but because you're shading lightly, you'll retain some of the paper's texture, which adds to that dimpled orange-skin effect.

Intensifying Colour: Repeat the Yellow, then Orange. Increase pressure slightly with Orange in deeper shadows to enrich the colour.

2. The Apple: Smooth, Rounded Form

Changing Strokes: This is important. Instead of circles, we'll use strokes that follow the curve of the apple's shape. Think gentle, curved lines that wrap around its form. This simple change is what will convince the viewer's eye that the apple is round and smooth.

Light Side First: Begin with the lighter part of the apple. Apply a soft, even base layer of your Cream or Pale Yellow pencil where the light hits it most directly. For any rosy patches on this lighter side, lightly introduce your cool-toned Red.

Colour Tip: If you're unsure about "cool" versus "warm" colours, it's all about where they sit on the colour wheel. Cool reds lean more towards purple, while warm reds lean towards orange. You can learn more in my guide to colour theory basics.

Sculpting with Colour: Introduce light Orange where the form turns from the light. Go easy, subtlety keeps the surface looking smooth.

Deeper reds, cleaner shadows: You might not have looked at the colour basics page yet, but it introduces complementary colours.

These sit opposite each other on the colour wheel and can be used in an interesting way on our apple.

You will need to use restraint and a very light touch here.

Look for the parts where the light is not hitting the apple directly, on the left hand side. Then take a mid-toned, translucent green pencil, and tickle the surface.

Just a tiny touch of green here will take away some of the brightness of the red, without turning it green or even worse, mud!

Blend and Intensify: Layer reds back over the green, transition into lighter areas, then blend gently with Cream for sheen. Reinforce key colours with slightly firmer pressure. Use Sepia or dark brown for the stem.

3. The Banana: Following the Curve

Follow the form: Use long, curved strokes that echo the banana's shape.

Build Colour: Start with a light, even Cream layer, then add mid Yellow. Touch in light Orange for riper spots and a hint of light Brown for cast shadows from the other fruit. Use Sepia/dark Brown on the ends.

Optional realism: A few delicate brown specks can add believability.

Banana skin is smooth with little texture, and we have a technique that will emphasise that, called burnishing.

To do this you will press more heavily than before, to smooth out the pigment and fill the paper tooth.

First ensure you have built up enough light layers to get the colour you desire. Ensure you have added shadows to give form to the banana, and those cast shadows created by the other fruit being in front and blocking the light.

Ready?

If burnishing is new to you, see The Ultimate Guide to Burnishing Coloured Pencils.

4. The Background: Setting the Scene

Keep it Simple: Remember that as an artist you have artistic licence to make changes to the original photo. This is especially important in this still life, as you can use it to direct your viewer's eye.

The fruit you have painstakingly drawn is the focal point, the plate and cloth beneath and behind stop it from floating. Therefore, you can make these background elements less "in your face".

All you need to do is check the shape of the plate is believable. Then ensure the fabric pattern makes sense. I would also stick with the blue colour scheme as it complements the orangey tones in the drawing nicely.

Crucial Shadows: Add cast shadows where fruit meets plate and plate meets cloth. This grounds the objects so they don't float.

You're done - here's what to notice in your result

• Depth from layering: those first light passes created glow; later layers added believable shadow and form.
• Texture by stroke choice: circular scumbling for the orange; curve-following strokes for apple and banana; burnishing for a polished finish.
• Control through complements: that whisper of green between the reds for clean, deep shadows.

The things you should be able to carry forward include:

• Are the highlights still visible on the apple?
• Can I "feel" the textures with my eyes?
• Do the shadows help the fruit sit on the plate, instead of floating in mid-air?
• Are the shadowed areas of the apple darker, but not muddy?

If so, you succeeded.

Before you put your pencils away, pick one piece of fruit from your kitchen and spend five minutes just looking. Where's the highlight, where's the shadow, how does the surface feel? That noticing is the real skill, and it costs nothing to practise.

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