Colored pencil can be applied to many surfaces. My favorites are sanded paper, dark-toned papers and illustration boards, and printmaking papers. I often times combine colored pencil with an under painting of acrylic, watercolor, or pastels. Sometimes its just "naked" color pencil.

I have a series of colored pencil paintings that are done in a technique called circulism. Several colored pencil artists have created paintings using this technique, but it is similar to handwriting in that each artist's work has a different signature to it.

Circulism is a way of applying the pencil to paper in small circles so small specks of the color of the paper show through. They are not individual circles but continuous circles sometimes applied clockwise and then if you get tired of that, counterclockwise.

Color selection is very important, and easy, with circulism. It is more the value of the color that is important than the selecting the "right" color. Color is applied in many overlapping layers of circles and might be visually similar to impressionism, where the colors are distinct but stepping away from the painting the colors blend together.