What You Actually Get When You Follow Lee Hammond's Method
Lee Hammond's approach to crayon drawing isn't magic, it's just a system that works because it stops people from skipping the fundamentals. Most of her books and courses start with something most beginners won't like: she makes you learn to render from graphite first before you even touch a colored pencil. The logic is straightforward. Graphite teaches you value structure without the distraction of color. If you can draw a convincing still life in gray, adding Prismacolor or other soft pencils later just follows the same mechanics. I went through her workbooks several years back, and the one thing that actually stuck with me was her layering advice. She insists on building from very light, thin layers first and slowly increasing pressure over multiple passes. That sounds obvious until you try it on something like fur or a reflective surface, where the difference between a flat dead rendering and a living one is almost entirely about how many layers you're willing to put down. Her method typically demands six to ten light passes on complex areas instead of the two or three most people attempt before giving up.
What the Programs Actually Cover
The Amazing Crayon Drawing With Lee Hammond material spans several formats, mostly available as print books and digital video lessons. Her most popular titles include How to Draw Amazing Animals in Crayon, How to Draw Amazing People in Crayon, and How to DrawAmazing Flowers in Crayon. There is also her comprehensive Crayon Drawing Handbook which covers broader technique rather than a single subject. The core curriculum revolves around a set of repeatable steps: value study, color mixture theory, edge control, and texture replication. Her edge control section is probably the most useful part for anyone who has ever produced drawings that look plastic or over-blended. She emphasizes varying your edges deliberately instead of smoothing everything into the same uniform softness. Hard edges where light catches a surface, soft edges in shadow transitions, and lost edges where forms recede. Getting that variation right changes a drawing in ways most beginners don't expect. I found myself struggling once with rendering a dog's eye using her techniques. The problem wasn't the anatomy, it was the highlight placement. Hammond recommends leaving the brightest highlight completely unpigmented, letting the white of the paper do the work. In my case I had already laid down several layers of dark brown and never thought to reserve that spot. Once I went back with a clean kneaded eraser and lifted just the highlight area, the eye suddenly looked wet instead of painted. That was the moment I understood how much of her method depends on planning those negative spaces before you commit pigment to the page.
How the Technique Actually Works in Practice
Her system uses soft lead pencils, usually Prismacolor Premier or similar brands, applied with deliberate layering. You start by establishing your lightest values with minimal pressure. Then you build midtones across the entire form before committing to your darkest darks. This is different from the way most people approach color drawing, where they tend to go dark immediately and then try to lighten things up later, which usually just muddies the paper. Color mixture is another area where her approach differs from casual practice. She teaches that you should mix colors on the paper itself rather than trying to find the exact pre-mixed pencil to represent a transition. For example, if you're drawing a peach and need to move from yellow to pink to a slightly greenish shadow, she has you overlay thin layers of those colors in sequence. The result is more luminous because the colors interact optically instead of sitting as a flat swatch on top of the paper. One thing people miss when they read about her method is how much she emphasizes sharpness of tools. A dull colored pencil will not lay down clean, controllable pigment. She keeps hers sharpened frequently during a session, often every twenty or thirty minutes on complex work. That's not a minor detail, it affects the quality of your details significantly, especially when you're working on textures like petals, feathers, or human hair.
Where the Method Falls Short
This approach is not universally suitable. If you're looking for quick sketches or loose expressive work, Lee Hammond's method will feel painfully slow. Building six to ten layers on a single drawing can turn a piece that might take an hour into a three or four hour project. Her system rewards patience but it penalizes haste. There is also a cost factor. Soft lead pencils like Prismacolor break more easily, require regular sharpening, and the full sets run expensive. If you're on a tight budget, her method might feel impractical compared to harder lead alternatives or even traditional oil pastel techniques that cover ground faster. I ran into a specific problem once where her layering approach didn't work for a particular subject. I was attempting a night scene with deep indigo and black tones. After about five layers, the paper tooth was completely filled and no additional pigment would adhere. The drawing looked flat and chalky no matter what I tried. The workaround was to switch to a heavier tooth paper, specifically Bristol board with a vellum finish, and start the underpainting with a very dark colored pencil or even a charcoal pencil before moving into the layered color work. That gave the subsequent layers something to grip onto. It's not something she emphasizes heavily in her main books, so I had to figure it out on my own through trial and error.
Practical Steps to Get Started
If you want to follow her system, here is essentially how you proceed. Begin with a graphite sketch. Keep it light and focus on accurate proportions and value blocks. Do not spend more than fifteen to twenty minutes on this stage unless the composition is unusually complex. Establish your lightest value with your lightest color pencil. Apply it with barely any pressure so you can see the paper texture beneath the pigment. This layer is mostly for laying down a foundation, not for defining the final look.
Build your midtones next using the same light pressure approach. Work the entire drawing through this stage before adding any dark values. This prevents the common mistake of locking in darks too early and losing the ability to build luminosity later. Introduce your darkest values last. This is where you add contrast and definition. Use controlled pressure here, but remember that the darkest darks should still come from layered buildup rather than one heavy application. Refine your edges throughout the final stages. Check each form and decide whether it needs a hard edge, a soft edge, or a lost edge. Varying this intentionally is what separates amateur work from more controlled rendering.
Keep your pencil sharp. Replace it when the tip feels blunt or starts depositing uneven pigment. This habit alone will improve your detail work more than almost anything else in the process.
Resources and Where to Find Them
Her books are available through major retailers and bookstores. The How to Draw Amazing Animals in Crayon title is probably the most sought after one since animal fur and eyes are subjects people constantly ask about. The digital courses are occasionally offered through art education platforms and her own website. Pricing and availability shift over time, so checking current listings will give you the most accurate information rather than relying on older references. There is also a community aspect. She has had active forums and social media presence where students share progress shots and ask questions. Those spaces can be useful for troubleshooting specific problems, though the quality of advice varies depending on who is responding. The main takeaway is that her method is structured and repeatable, but it requires discipline. It won't produce results overnight if you're not willing to commit the time and materials. The drawings that come out of it tend to look solid and finished, which is the whole point of the system. If that's what you're after, it's worth the effort. If you want something faster or looser, you'll probably find it frustrating.
