Have you caught the colouring bug? Here are 5 tips for better colouring in!

5 Tips for better colouring.

Last week I was in Sydney at the Museum of Contemporary Art looking at books as I like to do, a couple of ladies were looking at the selection of adult colouring books and one said

"Oh I so want to get one of these but I won't because I can't colour in very well and it all just looks like a mess!"

....I couldn't help but wonder.. "How can you not colour in well?" but then it occurred to me that perhaps there might be others who feel this way so today I thought I would share some of the basic coloured pencil tips that I often start with in my classes but would be useful for those who have caught the colouring bug. 

 Used in this demo is Millie Marotta's - Animal Kingdom book. Pencils, Mepxy Markers and Sharpener, here are the tips.

#1 Pencils - First tip I can give you is to is obviously have some good pencils! Good quality artist pencils are always a must, and if you are creating coloured pencil artworks they are super super important but if your just colouring at home just grab the nearest ones you can find !!! :)

#2 Sharpener You are going to need a good sharpener, you need to have a sharp tip on your pencils if you want the colouring to look nice and smooth. If your leads are breaking alot it can be that either your pencils have been dropped or your blade is blunt on your sharpener and you need a better one. I can't tell you how many different types of sharpeners I have tried. The best i can recommend is a Elipse sharpener for a handheld one... or one like this photo of a battery one which i picked up for about $8- in woolies.

#3 PRESSURE!!! Not pressure on how it turns out.. afterall this is supposed to be enjoyable, but i am talking about the pressure you put on your pencil on the paper. It is better to use a lighter pressure and do more layers to build up colour rather than to push hard. In my classes we spend almost all day talking about pressure. For your colouring books I can just say go lightly like i have in this photo where you can see my so you can see I have applied more layer of pencil in one section than another but its all about pressure.

#4 LAYERS - As i mentioned above ... layers are super important, build your intensity of colour with layers I am talking 5/6 layers rather than pushing hard (in my artworks i do over 25 layers of pencil) so my rule of thumb is keep going until your happy!

#5 Here is my special tip !! BLENDING! Get yourself a Colourless marker, I am using Mepxy colourless blender. It has a really nice brush tip and you can gently blend all the layers of pencil together. You can do this process a few times. The pic here shows before i have used the marker on the pencil.

Here is an example of on the left no marker and then after the marker and more layers are applied on the right.

You can see how much more depth and interest that is created using the blender as it smooths out the colours and you can add more layers on top of that. You don't have to use the marker to blend, like my friend at the art gallery you could just use a light hand and layers you will definitely be on your way to colour better and create a more interesting end result and if your anything like me you will zone out and just enjoy the process.

Hope you enjoyed this one, please leave a comment below if you have caught the colouring bug, I would love to hear all about it!

Keeping a Colour Bible - A swatch haven

We as artists are true collectors of art supplies, in all various forms and shades. I can honestly tell you Ive gone into a supply store picked several new pencils feeling really pleased with myself coming home and finding out that I already have most of these colours already. This has happened more than I want to admit publicly.

With a little inspiration from the lovely Jane Davenport, I decided it was time I created a common place where I had all my supplies with their corresponding colour codes so that when I skipped into an art supply store I knew exactly what I already had at home! and no doubles were bought unless needed.

I decided to pick a book that was easily transportable so that it would fit into most handbags I carry.

I tried my supplies on different papers till I found how they looked best then used that book. I ruled my pages in a grid format and sorted my supplies into a semi rainbow formation. I then started shading each square along with a colour code. Each brand has their own labeling system and I just used their codes to label my squares.

This has been such a useful thing to do, I haven't even really fully filled my book and I have already used it to help me purchase new colours I don't already have.

I have more markers than I know what to do with, from my vibrant and bright Mepxy markers, to my lush watercolour markers, so this book will become a haven for me and will be used for many years to come.

 

So if you are a complete supply junkie like myself, I highly suggest creating one of these hand little books for your supplies, not only as a colour reference but also to know what you have and what you don't have in way of colour palettes and shades.

I'll see you next week with a tutorial!

Courtney Diaz

Mepxy Markers - Fantastic for blocking in Colour

Hi, Its Siann Watts here again with another tutorial, but this time with the, New to Me, Mepxy Markers. And I would have to say that I love using them.  The Brush markers are particularly fun.
One of the ways I am enjoying using these brush markers are for the first stage of a drawing.  It is so quick to block in the colour and the shadows, then to follow with pencil for the detail.  They are Brilliant for getting the depth of colour that usually takes ages with pencil alone.

Here are some of my sketches using the Brush Markers followed by pencil.

Check out How to Block in Colour With Mepxy Markers by Siann Watts on Snapguide.

Using Mepxy Markers and coloured pencils to create depth in your pictures

Earlier this year I experimented using a few different layering methods to colour an image. I had invested heavily in colour pencils for my Christmas gifts and wanted to find ways to use them with the other media I had on hand to create vibrant images with great depth of colour.

Today I'm going to give you some tips on how to combine Mepxy markers with some colour pencils to create a wonderfully vibrant and beautiful image. 

Here's my snap guide below to take you through some steps in the creation of this project. Just a work here. The peacock tail has by far the most work in it and for this particular image that's what took the longest time to create.

Check out How to Use Mepxy Markers & Color Pencils to Create Art by Crafty Crusaders on Snapguide.

Have fun with this project I loved the result I got with the deep colour of the markers and the additional depth I added with the pencils.