Traditional and Digital Art Coloring Tips

 Traditional and Digital Art Coloring Tips

This is mostly excerpts from a basics in drawing PDF I created a couple of years ago and updated last September, it's not a full excerpt, though; I added some more information and took some out since I have gained more knowledge in coloring and such since then. 

Traditional Art Tips:

1. If you are drawing on paper, if possible scan or take a reasonably good quality picture (even if it's just a cellphone picture) of your line-art or sketch first ;The reason is, if you mess up your drawing with your coloring process your drawing could be ruined forever, and we don't want that to happen.

2. When coloring with Markers always try to color in uniform (going the same way or pattern), though I as well fail in this area at times this is very important that you use discipline to go the same way, it isn't like pencils that you can somewhat hide that you were everywhere once the area is full of color, markers are tattle tails they will tell on you if you don't color properly.

3. When using markers and pencils together, use colored pencils to make layers of wax to clog up the paper pores; the reason is if you have a lower quality paper like me the makers once you layer enough will bleed through the paper, the pencil fills the pours of the paper thus making it easier to color with less worry, it also adds a nice under texture. If you have a Colorless Blender Pencil (I use Prismacolor) then use that over the pencil layers to blend the colored pencils and also to add an extra later of wax.

Note: Using a Blender Pencil (at least when I use it) makes it almost impossible to add more pencil over it, it's a little easier once you put the marker over it.

Note 2: The pencil will make the surface of the paper smoother and making the marker easier to smudge be careful wile you color that you don't ruin it by smudging.

4. When you color in a sketch book, not matter how good the paper I'd put a piece of printer paper

in between your drawing and the next page, just in case the colors bleed they won't put a mark

on your next page.

5. If you use watercolors to paint but your paper bubbles up way too fast try doing the same technique as was stated in tip #3 and also try and reduce how much water you use when you are wetting your paints.

Computer Art Tips:

My Knowledge is in GIMP but some of these might work in other applications like Sai or Adobe Photoshop.

1. When you color on the computer with any program that has layers, always make your line art on

transparent layers, and make a new layer from visible with no BG of it once you are finished,

then color from underneath. When you color from underneath you don't cover any of the black

lines (or what ever color your outline is) and it looks much cleaner.

2. If you want to color BIG spaces with the paint bucket use the fuzzy select tool and select the

areas that you wish to fill on the layer with the line art, next grow your selection by 1 pixel, then

make another layer underneath and use the paint bucket.

Note: The reason for making it one pixel bigger is to not have the white dots around the color.

3. When coloring a line art that has a white BG in GIMP, use the multiply layer-mode and use the

base color to shade on the new layers using multiply, if you wish to use a darker color use

overlay instead and move the opacity bar over if needed, and for lighting the best layer-mode to

use would be overlay with white.

4. When a picture is totally colored in GIMP get a black in to white gradient and make a new layer over your drawing/picture and make the gradient fade in to the lighting (White being where the light is coming from, black being where it's fading away from) then make the layer-mode overlay and adjust the transparency to how you like it.

Wells that's all for now, I hope this helped you or at least it was an enjoyable read!

May God Bless You, Your Family, Friends, Along With The Health Of Yourself, Family, And All Who Know You. ~ Amen

 ~ Firefly

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Crayons: Childish Trinkets or Artistic Wonders?

Nearly all of us have colored in a coloring book sometime in our lives, most likely the first 10 years of childhood when we first explore that wonderland of a world called color, it's so big and beautiful; It's a time when we in our childhood minds dance on tree tops, slide on rainbows and sleep on clouds, color Rapunzel as she has her happily ever after, and maybe even drawing on daddy's big project that is for his job causing him to have to redo it. Yes, we have enjoyed crayons as children, it's normally introduced before pencils and markers probably because they are bigger and don't stain the carpet and the heirloom tablecloth from great grandma as much, but when did we start giving these little waxy wonders the cold shoulder? And why? This should not be so!

I proclaim as princess of this castle a decree! Crayons aren't simply for the 2^nd grade!

Main Idea:

Crayons are good! We shouldn't diss them, I'm not talking about the special art crayons that you can buy at Micheals ™ , or Hobby Lobby ™ , I'm talking about Crayola or RoseArt type crayons (of course there are plenty of brands, that's just naming two.), the ones you buy for you two year old niece for her birthday because you have no clue what she wants, one week it's princesses, the next it's Pablo Picasso, then the next she likes ladybugs, so you throw your hands up in the air and buy her crayons and a few random coloring books,think to yourself  "she's bound to like something here!" and you work is done...But what happens to those crayons when she uses them 5 times then get bored and doesn't touch them again for years? Probably thrown in a drawer, the toy box, or on a shelf someplace, but again I say this should not be!

Crayons are good for texture and for a sheen on your image, as well as backgrounds, it adds an innocence since they are paired with youth and childhood whereas markers or colored pencils can be but aren't as much. I say to all crayons: Crayons unite because you're busting out of the box! - 

Usage: 

 

When using them in a big image, plan it out carefully!

After coloring an image that has been layered with colored pencils of different textures and markers galore putting a bit of crayon over the top make a lovely sheen when you move the art work in the light. Of course if you use a color that is closest to the color you are going over is best, not many things are worse than ruining an artwork because of one small mistake! (Trust me I learned that the hard way!)

Before jumping right in to using crayons they with everything else take practice, please don't think you're pro just because you used them 15 years ago in the 3^rd grade you can well ruin a lot of work if you use the wrong color or aren't one with them (yes we must be zen ninjas and be one with the art materials). Before using them on a large piece experiment on paper (remember also the texture of your paper does matter), if you can't see the color that is fine depending on your goal. When I use crayons I don't normally use them for the color, I use for the sheen in the light when I move the drawing/artwork around, I think it's a nice touch. However if you are using for the color just remember that if you go over it with markers to rub the markers tip with your finger (NOT TISSUE YOU WILL DRY OUT THE MARKER!! - and don't push the wax, kind of flick it off) to make sure no wax is clogging the pours of your markers, although crayons are the waxy wonders it's more expensive to buy markers than crayons! Just play with it, coloring with crayons can be messy not as in staining grandma's formerly mentioned tablecloth but messy in the fact that their waxy build up can mess your art work up but I won't say they will! Brand does matter and so does color, the lighter the color (as far as I have noticed) the smoother the crayon, because they aren't as dense from the pigments used to make them super dark. I've seen darker crayons as well as colored pencils break up because of the heavy pigmentation they use to make them. It's almost criminal! I protest also the abuse of over-pigmentation! Crayons have rights!

Conclusion:

Take your old crayons that have been either in your desk drawer, art cubby for years, or in the closet of your child's old room that had been empty since they went to peruse their dreams 5 years back and use them! These poor little fat friends of ours haven't gotten enough love. If all else fails use them at least for a background to an image you have drawn, remember: Great for texture and innocence!

I will look in to seeing if the Prismacolor Colorless Blender Pencil works with crayons as well as their pencils, so indeed, to be continued!

May God bless you, your family, your friends and your health and all that know you! - Amen

~ Firefly