How to Get Smooth Background in Coloring

Coloringpagesfortoddlers.com – When coloring a large, not very detailed background with colored pencils you can be left with the scratchiness of the pencil strokes unless you use a blending pencil to try and smooth things out but that doesn’t always do the trick. After applying several layers of colored pencil you can achieve a nice softness and smoothness by applying any of the following by paintbrush over your colored pencil layers: Gamsol, Baby Oil, Argan Oil or Turpentine. There are likely others too, let us know in the comments what you use!

To do this, just dab (don’t soak) the paintbrush in the Gamsol, Baby Oil, Argan Oil or Turpentine and apply it on top of the colored pencil. Keep dabbing and brushing until all the tiny white spots are covered and the texture becomes smooth. It’s important to remember that you must first apply several layers of colored pencil so that when you apply the blending agent it has enough colored pencil to blend!.
This technique was used by Jones for the background of the spider above. She used Berkeley Turpentine blended with a paintbrush.