Monday, January 14, 2008

Kit Ideas & Coloring Tutorial!!


It seems odd to me to be doing a coloring tutorial with so many talented stampers out there, but in response to my raving public (HA!) I'm going to share the steps I take when coloring an image. I needed to make some sample cards for my January card kit that will be mailing out this week, so I'll use those images to help me.

First off... Here's the kit. I usually choose my coloring colors around the paper I'm going to be using. Sometimes I go the other way around, but that's harder for me. I'm extremely color challenged when it comes to picking out my own colors. There are WAY too many to choose from.
When I know my colors, I pull out the lightest matching base color that I can from my SU markers; one to match each color I might need. For this project I used Celery, Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal, Blush Blossom (for the skin), Going Grey and Creamy Caramel.

The first thing that I do is to color my images with marker only. I color with light strokes and don't worry too much about the streaks. They'll get covered over later. Here is a picture of all of my images in step one... marker only.

I'm going to be using the little girl in the lower left corner to demonstrate how I use watercolor pencils to shade and add depth. Why watercolor pencils? They seem to blend well into the waterbased marker. I don't know if this would work as well with Copics. I seem to think that since they're solvent based, maybe regular Prismacolor would work better.... Don't quote me, though. I really haven't had any experience with them!

My watercolor pencils are a combination of Staedtler and Prismacolor. I don't use the SU ones much anymore, because I've found the Staedtler ones match the SU colors better. Here's a picture of the color pencils I've chosen to use for this project. You'll notice that I usually have two or three of each color in varying degrees of intensity.

After coloring with markers, the next step is to take the lightest color watercolor pencil and shade around the inside edges, darker on the outside and feathering in until you still see marker... See the shadows in her hair?? (That's all I've done just yet... so you can see the steps.)

Now take the next darkest color and do the same thing...

Then take the third color - the dark one and just do the nooks and crannies... the corners... What a difference!! See how her hair is left with areas of all three colors?? She has highlights!! :) OK... here's a picture of her with step one (the light shading) complete (and her hair all done).

It's really hardly noticable, but you can see that I added some grey to her tights and some black to her shoes, along with shading the heart and her dress. Here's step two... the medium color... Not much difference.

And finally, the completed picture, with the dark shadows added. Isn't it amazing how much that final step adds?? I also like to add a light yellow watercolor pencil around the outside to give my subject some... light. I'm really not sure if I do it "right". I just try different things and see what works. For example, sometimes I'll just do a shadow on one side of my subject, and sometimes I'll go all the way around. Oh, I used a tiny watercolor brush on the grey of her tights to soften it, as well.


OK, as a reward for staying with me this long... here are some close ups of the cards that I put together this morning from the card kit. Remember, I've already done one, besides these, and I still have another little boy image and some animals and cardstock and ribbon and brads and cello bags left over to play with. Contact me if you'd like one of the last couple kits!! (Or if you'd like a set of Stampin' Up! markers... I'll even give you free shipping if you place a $40 or more order before Wednesday at midnight!) Thanks for stopping by!!


7 comments:

Delia said...

Awesome job Tricia!! I usually aquapaint and then shade with the marker. I like your tech with the three shades. I am going to have to give it a try. Thanks again, excellent tutorial.

Heather said...

Your coloring is FANTASTIC!! Thanks for the awesome tutorial!

senovia said...

Those are SO CUTE!!

abhall76 said...

maybe I could learn to love my markers now....

Thanks Tricia!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the coloring lesson. You do a great job! I hope to get my blog up this weekend. Chuck has to help me with the downloads. I hope you are keeping warm in WI. I am suppose to come see my sister this weekend (Kiel,WI) but we are suppose to get alot of snow on this side of the lake...Jamie

Rose Ann said...

All of your cards are wonderful, and your coloring is awesome! Super job with your tutorial!!!

Unknown said...

Your coloring is fabulous! Great tutorial!