Alyona is a very talented artist. Her book shows step by step of achieving these unbelievable colored pencil painting portraits.

There is absolutely no denying Alyona Nickelsen's talent and skill. The drawings – or colored pencil paintings – shown in this book are gorgeous in their photo–realism… my only complaint, I think, is a bit of spot–blindness in some facial expressions. I used to draw, all the time, and always found it both fascinating and frustrating how hugely a single line could affect an expression; I remember spending a very long time on one drawing, and found it amazing how, without ever touching the mouth, I could create the impression of a smile by darkening a line of the eye. Erase that back a bit, and the smile faded. There's a reason most of the portraits you're going to see in museums or art books are of solemn sitters, or Mona Lisa smiles: a big toothy grin is very hard to pull off without straying into goofy territory. Teeth are hard.

I'm not sure it's entirely fair for someone as talented as Ms. Nickelsen to put out a how-to book. The odds against reaching anything remotely close to her level is so remote that it's almost a book full of fail. But if you go into this with the expectation of learning tips and tricks and tools and techniques (phew, didn't think I'd get the full alliteration out of that), and of being better than you were before you read it – then you can't fail. And of course there's the option of just paging through the incredible artwork on every page and admiring its evolution. Either way, this is highly recommended.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.

Colored Pencil Painting Portraits by Alyona Nickelsen is broken into seven chapters describing and exploring the use of colored pencils, alone and with other mediums. The increased quality of colored pencils has improved drastically and the last twenty years have shown tremendous strides in improved performance and the range of abilities of colored pencils. Descriptions of types of mediums clarifies usage and the examples of colored pencil creations are astounding and look realistic; 5 stars for an impressive artist and her instructional book that helps others aspire to her standards! I am planning on purchasing this book for the school library.

What a great book! there is so much useful information and novelty about colored pencil drawing. It is very easy to understand the concepts with all the images and illustrations provided. Even if the focus of the book is portrait drawing, I find it equally useful for all kinds of colored pencil illustrations. Added to my wishlist!

absolutely brilliant, gorgeous portraits and paintings. A lovely addition to an artists collection

Live post on Blue Cat Review on May 4, 2017

Disclaimer: The eARC of this book was provided to me by Watson-Guptill and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, for which I am not being compensated in any way. All opinions are fully my own.
~ Judi E. Easley for Blue Cat Review

My Review:
I found this to be a rather amazing book. Ms. Nickelsen has done all the work and is now sharing all her secrets. I didn't get to the point of trying a whole portrait but worked out a fair number of the exercises and smaller body part. Her information about surfaces to use and why they work this way was wonderfully informative. The information about fixatives was invaluable, too. I had read quite a bit about the content of colored pencils but found there was more to know.

The language of the book is easy enough to understand and follow. The pictures are very helpful. And it is broken into sections that made sense to me, at least. The appendix in the back is chockful of even more wonderful information that you'll want to have around for reference.

This is nothing like the techniques I learned in art classes, but what Ms. Nickelsen shared was great. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who works in colored pencil for portraits or any other type of drawing that you want to enrich. I definitely will continue to browse through this book and refer to it. Release date June 4, 2017.

The most informative book on colored pencil out there. The author goes as far as to get the exact ingredients of the pencils and pigments and binders used. She not only gives great instruction but goes into detail on the best type of papers to use and what products to use for fixing the medium. She gives detail on what is the best products for highlighting and blending through her experimentation and knowledge of the medium. The information on colors and glazing techniques are in easy to follow instruction along with her beautiful colored pencil paintings A must have for any colored pencil artist and artists of any medium. Highly recommended.

I love art, love dabbling in it, but the only medium I feel I ever truly enjoy my results is in photography. Still, I own paintings my maternal grandmother painted, and one of my mother’s paintings, and I have several of my daughter-in-law’s art, which never ceases to amaze me. Her talent truly astounds me, and when I saw this book on creating art like hers, but using coloured pencils, I knew I wanted to read it, maybe even get some insights. If nothing else, maybe it would inspire me in no other way than to buy this and gift copies to some of the budding artists in my life. I've already pre-ordered a few copies.

With a career as a professional portrait artist, Alyona Nickelsen has learned some things along the way, how to use lighting the way she prefers, and products - the papers she uses, tools, blending techniques, fixatives, and in this book she shares what she’s learned along the way, all of her many years of experience. If you’re a professional portrait painter, there is an abundance of advice shared.

Even if you have no desire to try your hand at painting with coloured pencils, this is worth it for the stunning pictures included, alone. Nickelsen is an inspiration, and we all need a little inspiration sometimes.


Pub Date: 20 Jun 2017

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Ten Speed Press / Watson-Guptill Publications

I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
It is very informative and resourceful. Easy on the mind in terms of being able to articulate and comprehend the content within. The nature of this book is to aid in creativity and producing art of exceptional quality whilst utilising coloured pencils. In some of the images the quality and skill goes above and beyond with exceptional results . In the most sincerest sense , this book truly over exceeded my expectations and I was pleasantly impressed with the whole book as a whole. I certainly would suggest this book to any budding upcoming artists looking to gain some perspective on techniques which could be beneficial to their art form or even as beginners of pencil art.
Explore , challenge yourself and the talent within you. This book is the perfect guide to set you on your way to success.

I would just like to take the time to openly thank the publisher for affording me this amazing opportunity to read and review this book.
Certainly a must read for artists or new beginning artists in the industry.

Colored Pencil Painting Portraits is great for art fans!
One of my goals this year is to learn how to draw, I suck. I seen the book and thought maybe this will help inspire me or overall give me tips on the art world. And it did just that! There's a lot of photos that balance nicely with all the words telling me how my workplace should be to art history and the different styles. I've enjoyed this book

Colored Pencil Painting Portraits, Master a Revolutionary Method for Rendering Depth and Imitating Life.  Alyona Nickelsen

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: non fiction

Like many artists I’ve accumulated a mass of materials. Some artists stick to one medium, I like to try anything and everything so my summerhouse/studio is crammed with materials.
Not so expensive as it seems, I paint for fun, sell a few, and from the start any sales I made support new materials. Throw in birthdays and xmas and it soon adds up. In among them I’ve some watercolour pencils, some like traditional ones, some very waxy. I hadn’t really considered soft and oil pastels as pencils either, but in a way they fit the description. I do like the immediacy of these, the way my hand is on the canvas without the brush barrier in the way.

In this book Alyona tells us about different types of pencil and ways of making them last. The traditional sharpening method is incredibly wasteful, something I hadn’t realised. Also I’ve used sandpaper and gesso treated board with soft pastels, but never thought of using coloured pencils on them.
As with all materials the quality varies considerably, and my ethos is to always buy the best you can afford.
I’ve seen people very dispirited with their paintings, when they’re trying to use cheap, thin paper, grainy poster paints, pound shop brushes etc. Nan always used to say “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear,” and that’s really true with art materials. Better to buy a dozen top quality basic colours and learn how to blend them, than a fifty pack of cheap pencils. Those will fade, won’t blend easily and the colours will be bland as they’ve little real pigment. Another of Nan’s adages – “cheap always comes dear in the end”, where money is wasted if you can’t use what you’ve bought, and end up spending more on getting what you balked against buying because of cost.

I’m certainly going to get my pencils out again and play. One of the issues I found was that once I’d added a layer of colour its difficult to get a second one on, unless I used it very lightly, and almost impossible to add a third as the tooth of the paper was covered. Alyona mentions a fixative that gives another sort of coating over the colours, without spoiling them, but allowing more colour to be applied on top. That’s really useful, and great for whites and other pale highlights. I’m a bit of a spontaneous artist, add the pencil, paint, whatever, and work along making the painting up as I work. That means so often I’ve already coloured over where I later decide I want a highlight, but now with some fixative I can add it.

There is lots of advice on portraits of course, from how to pose the sitter, to how best to flatter them without losing the identity of the sitter.
Techniques too are covered with some wonderful step by step illustrations, and lots of completed paintings with tips.
I’d never thought of using a medium or physical shaper for blending either, as I do with paint, only ever used fingers, and that gives yet another different effect.
Pencils are such a great medium for taking out and painting outdoors, easy to transport, very little needed except pencils, support and maybe some fix and blenders. I’ve done a little of that using my sketches for further paintings in other mediums, but of course now I see how I can use them to create artworks in their own right.

I think one of the issues facing those promoting their use is that they are still seen as very much a child’s toy, very limited in application for artists, when in fact after reading this book I can see they are incredibly versatile.
Its a mindset thing, something that takes time to change but with fabulous portraits like the ones in this book we can see just how versatile pencils can be.

Stars: Five, a fabulous addition to the artists library 

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers

I own the previous book of the author, this new one is yet more complete. it treats every aspects of colored pencil technique in detail and includes also generic artistic knowledge. The selected subject is the portraiture so the related issues are also treated. Old masters' artworks are anayzed and the author own projects are shown in step-by-step tutorials The artwork is wonderful and the explanations are very clear. Why not 5 stars then? When treating the problems that a coloured pencil artist may encounter (blending, highlights, etc.) the author offers "miraculous" products that resolve these issues, sold only on her own site. She also provides articles and color comparison tools on the same website. It's all OK, but the content is visible only to subscribers, not even an article is offered freely to visitors.

Excellent core material for beginner artists. Clear examples of traditional techniques and materials are used to illustrate and educate drawing basics.

Thought colored pencils were only good for middle-school drawings of ponies and rainbows? Take a look at one of Alyona Nickelsen's portraits and think again. Who knew what wonders could be performed with colored pencils? In Colored Pencil Painting Portraits, Nickelsen seeks to explain how she elevates colored pencils from a child's activity to a true art medium. Perhaps the most surprising thing to me-- although in retrospect, I suppose it shouldn't be-- is her explanation of the other tools she requires to turn pencil into paintbrush. She describes the types of papers to employ as well as blending tools, solvents, and sealants to overcome the natural limits of the medium. Her techniques are fascinating, but I will admit I found her constant advertising of her own products rather tiresome. She never mentions blender or fixative when "ACP Textured Fixative" or "Colored Pencil Touch-Up Texture" can be wedged in instead. ("ACP Textured Fixative" literally turns up 81 times in the short book!)

Another unexpected aspect I found interesting was Nickelsen's pragmatic advice for professional portrait painters. She has made a career out of a role I thought had died out with the invention of the camera, and I was somewhat amused by the very practical advice she shares about the profession. As in very traditional portraits, Nickelsen favors single light sources, static poses, and strongly suggests avoiding "perspective distortion"-- in fact, it's the opposite advice you'll see in guides for gesture or animation. There's an entire chapter on how to pose the subject to make them appear to be slimmer, as well as a long digression into the delicate art of flattering the sitter without making them look unrealistic. It's the sort of thing that Bernini or Sargent must have struggled with constantly.

I was intrigued to discover that reading the book clarified something about my own feelings for art. With pencil and charcoal and paint, I like to see the strokes, the layers, the careless mastery of the tool. Nickelsen's portraits demonstrate tremendous care, but the techniques she supports-- careful posing, tracing photographs-- and the medium itself have inherent limits in the artistic spontaneity I love to trace in an artist's work. Both portrait painting on commission and colored pencils are very specialized forms of the art, while I don't think the book stretches past these very specialized fields, I found it an entertaining and fascinating read.

Thank you to Net Galley, who gave me an opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who has been trying to improve her colored pencil portraits, I was excited to read this book. It ended up being very informative. The techniques the author uses are clearly explained. Not just how to employ it, but why it works. I will try out a few for myself.

The last bit of the book has a few tutorials with a tool list and full instructions. You are encouraged to follow along to help you learn the techniques. I'm thinking however that most beginner and intermediate level learners (who I think would benefit most) will not already have pencils both wax and oil and differing brands. Which would make it a bit expensive for in that case. So, not really sure about the practicality of that bit.

I would recommend this to beginning and intermediate portrait artists and artists who want to try out a new medium.

I couldn't wait to read this book. I love to use colored pencils, they are my favorite medium. I know I will use this book time and time again for reference and I plan on purchasing Colored Pencil Painting Bible.
I give this book a solid five star rating for the instructional vaule, the historical information, and the illustrated techniques. The links and information on each product used is perfection.

Thank you for allowing me to review for a fair review.