Wednesday's Sketchbook: How to Colour in a Sofa

This term in rendering class, I've learned that colouring for interior design entails a lot more than staying in the lines. It's a whole layered, time consuming, and surprisingly difficult process!
Today I'm going to walk you through the steps to turn this:

 Into this: 

If you would like to follow along and give it a try, I got the outline image of the sofa here.

Step One: Using a dark brown pencil crayon, give the top of the back cushions a slight indent, and soften the outline of the corners.

Step Two: Using the Prismacolor Marker 'French Grey 10", fill in each section of the sofa with a uniform wash of color.

Step 3: Use French Grey 30 to create thick rounded outlines on each of the couch cushions, keeping in mind the direction of your light source (mine is from the right of the image).

Step Four: Use French Greys 50 and 70 in the very edges and darkest point of shadow.

Step Five: Go over the entire couch with a uniform wash using a tan marker. I used Prismacolor's 'Sand'. Repeat the application, pressing harder on the edges and areas of shadow.

Step Six: Use a dark brown pencil crayon to emphasize soft shadows.

Step Seven: Use a blade to shave a small amount of dark brown pastel in your areas of shadow, and then use a tissue to blend it, this will soften your pencil crayon lines.

Step Eght: Repeat the pastel shaving technique with white in the centers of your couch cushions, to create areas of light reflection. Blend with a tissue.

Step Nine: Use a white gel pen to create sharper areas of reflection on edges of the sofa that would catch the light.

And Voila! You've got a beautifully colored sofa!

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial! Let me know if you'd be interested in learning how to color other things, like drapery, hardwood, etc! :)