What makes backgrounds hard?
Large backgrounds expose every habit. Heavy pressure creates stripes. Short strokes create patchy blocks. Too many unrelated colors can make a sky look muddy. Thin paper may show pressure marks on the reverse side.
The fix is not a special secret pencil. The fix is a slower sequence: swatch, choose a simple palette, start pale, overlap the edges, and only smooth heavily at the end.
This tutorial is written for colored pencils. Brush pens and markers can fill backgrounds faster, but they need separate bleed-through and paper testing.
Step 1: choose a small color family
For a simple daytime sky, choose three pencils:
- Pale blue.
- Medium blue.
- Blue-violet, cool gray, or a slightly darker blue.
For a sunset, choose:
- Pale yellow or cream.
- Peach or coral.
- Soft pink, lavender, or muted violet.
For an ocean or storm background, choose:
- Light blue or aqua.
- Teal or blue-green.
- Blue-gray, indigo, or muted violet.
Prismacolor's official guidance emphasizes testing color schemes and blending techniques before starting the final piece. In coloring books, that can be a small swatch strip on scrap paper or a low-stakes margin.
Step 2: test the order before coloring the page
Make a quick three-band swatch:
- Pale color at the bottom or brightest area.
- Middle color overlapping the pale area.
- Darkest color at the top, edge, corner, or behind the focal object.
Then reverse the order and compare. Skies often work from darker top to lighter horizon, but fantasy backgrounds, windows, underwater scenes, and cozy rooms may need light in the center and shadow at the edges.
Do not skip the swatch. It prevents the most common mistake: discovering too late that two colors do not transition well.
Step 3: use light pressure first
Use light pressure for the first layer. Move in long overlapping strokes or small loose ovals, depending on the space. Keep the pencil point reasonably rounded so it does not carve grooves into the paper.
Crayola's colored-pencil technique sheet explains that pressure changes intensity and that burnishing uses heavy pressure for a smooth surface. For coloring books, treat that as a warning as much as a technique: heavy pressure too early can flatten the paper tooth and make later layers harder to add.
Step 4: overlap colors instead of meeting edge to edge
A smooth background does not have hard borders between colors. Let the pale blue extend into the medium blue area. Let the medium blue extend into the darker edge. The overlap is where the gradient happens.
For a sky:
- Put pale blue near the horizon or open light area.
- Add medium blue above it, overlapping the top third of the pale layer.
- Add the darker color at the top corners or behind objects.
- Return with the pale color to soften the middle transition.
For a room wall:
- Keep the center lighter.
- Add shadow near furniture, windows, shelves, or corners.
- Use the same background color family throughout the page so the room feels unified.
Step 5: protect important line art
When coloring around clouds, leaves, animals, buildings, or lettering, slow down before the edge. Large backgrounds often fail because the colorist rushes into a focal object and leaves a dark accidental outline.
Use the side of the pencil for broad open areas and a sharper point near the line art. If the book has tiny details, color the background first with light pressure, then sharpen the pencil for edges.
Step 6: decide whether to burnish
Burnishing can make a background look smoother, but it is not always necessary. Prismacolor describes burnishing as layering with heavy pressure, often using a lighter color over darker color. Crayola also describes burnishing as heavy pressure that creates a smooth surface.
In coloring books, burnish only when:
- The paper has tolerated several light layers.
- You are happy with the color placement.
- You do not need many more layers afterward.
- The reverse side is not important, or pressure marks are acceptable.
Skip burnishing if the paper feels thin, the image is double-sided, or the color still needs major correction.
Step 7: fix streaks gently
If the background is streaky, do not immediately press harder. First add another light layer in a different direction. If the first layer ran left to right, add the second layer diagonally or in soft circles. Then use the lightest pencil to unify the transition.
If one streak is too dark, make the surrounding area slightly darker instead of trying to erase the streak completely. Colored-pencil erasing is limited, and over-erasing can roughen paper.
Easy background recipes
| Page type | Simple palette | Placement |
|---|---|---|
| Day sky | pale blue, sky blue, blue-violet | Darker at top, pale near horizon. |
| Cozy room wall | cream, warm gray, muted peach | Light center, shadow near shelves or corners. |
| Ocean water | aqua, teal, blue-gray | Teal around waves, blue-gray under objects. |
| Night sky | lavender, indigo, navy | Leave pale gaps for stars before darkening. |
| Garden background | pale green, olive, warm gray | Green around leaves, gray behind focal flowers. |
Who this tutorial is for
This tutorial is for colorists who use colored pencils in books with skies, walls, water, large decorative fields, or blank background spaces.
Who should skip it
Skip this tutorial if you want alcohol-marker background blending, watercolor washes, digital coloring, or a professional fine-art sky lesson. This is a coloring-book technique for ordinary pages.
Sources
- Prismacolor, "Super Tips for Blending Colored Pencils," checked July 24, 2026: prismacolor.com
- Crayola, "Colored Pencil Tips & Techniques by Claudia Nice," checked July 24, 2026: crayola.com
- Faber-Castell, "Colored Pencil Techniques with Goldfaber Color Pencils," checked July 24, 2026: fabercastell.com
- Coloring Book Hub, Product Evaluation Scorecard, checked July 24, 2026.