Daily ColoringOpen

Open Card

This is another in the series of  "Wet Stencil" cards. These are card blanks that are covered with wet stencils (stencils used after a previous project). While the stencils are still wet, I place them over card blanks. I then wipe the ink off of the stencil onto the card. I then add additional color as needed (and have another wet stencil to use on a different card).

Four different colors of alcohol inks were used on this card.

Finish card (closed)

Daily Coloring

Open card

Today's coloring is a little different because I am coloring with alcohol inks and stencils. I realized that I need a couple of quick note cards for a meeting this weekend. I was using these stencils and I had thought that I could use some blank cards and add a design to the cards using stencils that were already wet with ink.

Closed card

The cards are simple but effective in that all of them are one of a kind examples.

Daily Coloring

Coloring Page--Left Side

Today's coloring assignment is a little different. My sister-in-law is a big fan of turtles. Since I was sending her a care package of items she requested, I decided to decorate some blank paper to use as wrapping paper for the books I was sending her.

To design the paper, I pre-wrapped the items so I would know where the creases would be. I then used stencils to place the central figures on the page so once the paper was used I would know where they would appear on the final product. The top image is the left side of the paper which will be the top side of the "box".

Below is the right side of the paper which will be the bottom side of the "box".

Coloring Page--Right side

I layered color with my Copic Markers. This is a favorite stencil of mine and I have discussed layering colors for this image here. Below is the finished page with just the images colored in.

Coloring Page--Filled in

The paper seemed a little plain so I decided to use alcohol spray inks to add color to the background and to add depth to the two central figures. That empty space to the left of the sheet is that part that is the overlap once the "box" is wrapped.

Coloring Page--background color

 All that was left to do was wrapped the items. Here is the bottom of the stack of books.

Package wrapped--one side

 Here is the top side or featured side of the books highlighting the turtle.

Packaged wrapped--second side

Daily Coloring

Cut an colored envelope

For today's coloring assignment, I wanted to try again with the Sharpie and Copic markers. I wanted to try a different technique in hopes that the Sharpie ink wouldn't feather when confronted with the alcohol inks.

One of the other alterations that I made was that I cut out the envelope first and then used the cutout for the stencil design. This allowed me to be sure to get the image/location that I wanted on the face of the envelope. When I stenciled and colored the entire sheet, I couldn't control how the images appeared on the actual envelope. By cutting the envelope first, I was able to guarantee the placement of certain parts of the stencil.

The trick for this envelope is that I sprayed the envelope with fixative after drawing the outlines and the coloring lines. I then let it dry overnight to set. When I colored with the Copic markers, there was much less feathering of the outlines. I think that I am getting pretty close to perfecting these techniques.

Envelope Face

Envelope Flap

Now all I have to do is find out how to send these envelopes in the mail.

Daily Coloring

Today's little assignment included some color choices that were unexpected. I started coloring yesterday's page when I realized that I had not separated day 22 from day 23. Some of the green from yesterday's leaves leaked onto this page. To try and hide some of the ink, I decided to make my version of Shrek. In order to hide so of the darker leakage, I created a grey shadow all the way around the creature to dissipate some of the green leaked color. Overall, I am very pleased with the way it turned out.

Daily Coloring

Today's coloring assignment--my little blue grey kitty. I always try and use these daily exercises for a greater purpose. Granted, sometime these types of commitments are tedious. Sometimes the commitment can be overwhelming. And sometimes, they can be mindless and dedicate fun. I try to use them as stepping blocks to further goals.

Today's assignment was an experiment in layering color. I am not a big fan of the color grey and of course, the Copic markers come with about 50 different shades of grey. I wanted to try and replicate the blue grey colorings of the "blues" shade of cat (and dogs) that is very popular today. I also wanted to experiment with "seal points" as found in my favorite breed of cat--the Siamese. The seal points were done in a darker shade of grey. The blue accents on the face were done with the same blue as the swirls on the bottom flower and then covered with a light grey shade.

The ears, nose and heart eyes were done differently-- the grey was layered first and then the pink was layered on top of the grey. The unlayered pink is shown on the tongue.

In closing, all daily creating can be useful. Use the time wisely if  you need but don't feel compelled to have meaning in these every day challenges.

Daily Coloring

I have already spoken of my love for the book above. In the post here I discussed how the pages worked with Copic markers and I mentioned that I wanted to see how the pages did with Prismacolor pencils and my Gamsol blending solution. I am really happy with the way the page turned out.

I liked the outer flowers better in that I used a different coloring/blending technique. For the solid red, solid orange and solid blue flowers, I blending the colors on the page and then added the blending solution. The color variations are slighter and less pronounced until you view them up close.

For the other four flowers (upper left and right, lower left and right) I didn't blend the color on the page. I colored concentric circles of color but only overlapped the colors a little. All of the blending occurred when I blended with the solution. The color variation is much more noticeable.

Now the question is do I color the background or not? I am thinking about doing an ombré effect.

Daily Coloring

For today, I wanted to share something a little different. This is a coloring page I designed using the Americana stencil called Oopsy Daisy. The page is smaller than the actual 12 by 12 stencil. I outlined the flowers using a Sharpie fine tip black marker. I used an extra fine tip Sharpie to fill in the the positive space with coloring guidelines. I call them coloring guidelines because the same motif is used for all of the petals of the same flower. If you look at the yellow flower on the center right of the coloring page, you will see that all of the coloring lines are vertical in orientation. With busy designs, this helps a person to identify which element goes with each other.

The page was filled with color using TomBow Dual Tip Markers. This page will be the basis of a separate project. I outlined the page on one day and then let it dry completely overnight. I added color on the second day.

I would have preferred to use my Copic markers but the alcohol in the markers makes the Sharpie outlines feather.

Daily Coloring

I realize that there are gaps in the coloring of some of these calendar pages. If you embiggen the image above, you will see there are some white spaces in the castle. The main reason this happens is that there is very low lighting at my current work station. I am in a temporary work station without good overhead lighting. So I never really know the real colors that have been used or if there are any missed areas until I get home and photograph the page. The situation should change in a week.

When you see pages without these little areas, it means that I colored the image at home with my full complement of markers.

Daily Coloring

 

Here is today's coloring assignment. It isn't something that I would normally color. Plus, I was limited by the markers that I had at work so it came out differently than I would have expected. Not that I'm not happy with it, but it is different.

Day 30--30 Day Coloring Challenge

Well, this is the last day of the 30 Day Coloring Challenge. I decided to share with you the beginnings of my holiday card this year. For the past 10 years, I have been sending out a variation of the 12 Days of Christmas. It begins with coloring the image, scanning it, and then printing it on vellum. I prepare a trifold card and place the vellum within the fold. These are called stained glass cards because they are meant to be displayed with a battery operated candle within. The below images were from the card sent in 2011.

Four calling birds

Four calling birds with light

The Nine Ladies Dancing image will get the same treatment. The glossy paper is filled in with colored pencils and then blended with Gamsol.

And with that I leave the 30 Days of Coloring Challenge completed. I will take Sunday off and will return to regular blogging next week.

Day 29--30 Day Coloring Challenge

Today's coloring challenge is another extra large postcard from the postcard watercolor block discussed here.  I also wanted to discuss some new handmade watercolors that I ordered from Rachel Beth at her etsy store. Disclaimer here: I have purchased these watercolors on my own and I am not receiving any compensation for this review. To get straight to the review of the product just skip to the end of this blog post.

I have started collecting the watercolors and I am working with the ones that I have on hand. I purchased the half-pans which will be plenty for my use. This is the first time that I have used pan watercolors. Normally, I use Dr Martin's concentrate.

As you can see, 14 half pans can fit in a regular sized Altoid tin. Each pan is labeled with the color and has a small sheet magnet on the bottom of each tin. Using a small tin is the perfect way to carry your watercolors when traveling (which was one of the primary reasons I chose Rachel's shop).

When I work on a project and decide on a palette, I get a scrap of paper similar to the paper that I will be using. I then make a color sample to reference the colors used.

Today's color palette

Here is the sample color palette.

Sample palette

Rachel provides you a reference color dot of each color on the outside of each pan. She also provides you a color sheet for each set. In another post next week, I will share with you my storage system for the unused pans and why these color dots are so important.

Water color tray

When I get started, I mix colors in my tray. To get these colors, I add water to the tray and then lift color from the half-pan. If I want an undiluted color, I work directly from the half-pan with water on my brush.

The first step of any painting for me is a color sample on the actual paper that I will be using. Here, I mist the paper to remove any sizing and to get the paper to relax. I also mist the back of the paper so it is easier to manipulate. Usually I will tape down the project but today's project had no margins so I had to work on a loose piece of paper.

Paper and watercolor sample

When I work on the sample, I try to work wet on wet and let the colors blend themselves to see how saturated the diluted color is. I am a big fan of diluted colors. If I had know how well the above sample would have turned out, I would have masked out a monogram or something. Once I know how the materials work with each other, I set up my station.

Today's project

Here is my setup. The tin of half-pans are just to the left of the color tray. To begin, I outlined a stencil onto the watercolor paper with a Micron .05 black marker.

All color added

The above image are the shapes with all of the colors from this particular palette. Each color was used in some way or another.  The image below shows the differences in colors from the half-pan (undiluted), those from the color tray (diluted), and those colors that were blended (two diluted colors layered on top of each other, wet on wet). If there is no designation, then the colors fall into the third category. See below for the designations.

Pure vs Diluted vs Layered Colors

Once the colors were dried with a heat gun, I decided to add color to the background with water soluble crayons from Caran d'Ache.

Finished Project

PRODUCT REVIEW
I can't explain how pleasant of an experience that I have had when dealing with Rachel. The dedication and presentation of her product cannot be overemphasized. The colors are amazing and a dream to use. Usually when product lines are in this amount (I think she has nearly 100 color choices), many times there are so many similarities in colors that it is hard to distinguish one shade/color from another. This isn't the case here. The blues aren't interchangeable. The greens aren't either. The colors have a creamy consistency that make them easy to remove them with your brush from the pans. The colors are colorfast and blend beautifully together. More importantly, for me, is that I tend to layer colors rather than blend them. This product is perfect for that and then when they are are the page they are easy to feather into one another. Because they are so easy to layer, this product is perfect for creating shadows similar to those available with blended colored pencils. Several of the arcs above where done with this procedure: base color (often diluted), layer of shadow color (vanilla frosting), third color. Once excess moisture was removed, I feathered the colors into each other with a dry brush. In closing, I can't recommend this product any more highly. Great product, great shop, great seller/owner.

N.B. Please disregard any fault with my watercolor technique. My lack of technique should cause no adverse critique of the product.

Day 28--30 Day Coloring Challenge

For today's coloring challenge, I wanted to complete the Women in Orange series and my experimentation with masking fluid. This is similar to yesterday's masking technique in that the same areas were masked. You can see the original color wash in the open areas (the areas under the crosshatched areas). In today's postcard, the red box wasn't added until after the top color wash was added. Different today was the application of the masking fluid. Yesterday's masking fluid was painted in the open areas. Today, the masking fluid was applied with a credit card over the stencil. Because some of the fluid gets under the stencil you can see a more distressed effect when the dried masked areas are removed.

Also, yesterday, the top color wash was only added within the red box. Today, I applied the second color wash over the entire card. I added the crosshatching and the red box after the card had dried.

Similarly, I wanted to do something different on the reverse of the card.

As you can see, I was a little heavy handed with the Sharpie marker when making the box and the marker bled through to the back side. I decided to glue a second piece of scrap paper to cover the bleed through and to give the card an extra heft.

I have been trying to come up with alternatives to alcohol inks for use of the reverse side. For today, I used a stencil and used pastel colors to fill the card. Although a strong dark pen would work, I was afraid that any writing would be hard to read.

Pastel Copic markers

I needed to make the card a little more translucent so I used my Zyron machine to apply a piece of vellum to the card. This would provide a smooth surface for writing and would mute the design/colors underneath. I have to say that this turned out better than I expected.

BTW, the mottled look of the markers was intentional. I wanted a watercolor effect with some of the white base paper showing through. I thought the mottled effect would be amplified by the vellum.

Markers with vellum overlay

Tomorrow is a different project and product.

Day 27--30 Day Coloring Challenge

Today's coloring challenge is the third in the series of Women in Orange. I am still experimenting with masking fluid and watercolors. Today's session including masking all of the negative space and then adding a water color wash to just the lines in the stencil.

The first step was to apply the general color wash to the post card. The second step was to outline the image with a red extra fine tip Sharpie. The third step was to apply the border with an extra wide chisel tip red Sharpie. The next step was to apply the masking fluid to the open areas of the stencil thereby leaving the thick border lines available for the second color wash. The final step was to apply the top color wash only to the area within the boxed area. If you look closely you will see that the thick lines within the red Sharpie marker lines are a reddish solid color to contrast with the reds, yellows and orange colors of the background.

I also wanted to do something different on the reverse of the card. I wanted to play with stencils and shadows. I didn't want to do another alcohol ink treatment but I needed something that was translucent enough so that writing can be read on the card. I found a fun geometric stencil that I outlined in a black Micron .01 pen. I then used shades of grey to color in the arrows. I designated the address area by a zigzag line in grey.

Day 26--30 Day Coloring Challenge

Today's coloring challenge is dedicated to masking fluid. I have never used the product before and I wanted to see what I could do with it. This is a continuation of the Women in Orange series that I started here. This is the second stencil in this four series set. For this card, I applied a water color wash to the card in oranges, yellows and reds. Second, I outlined the image with a red extra fine tip Sharpie. The third step was to apply masking fluid to the area that I wanted to maintain the original color of the postcard. In this case, I masked off the face area. Once dried. I applied another watercolor wash to deepen the color saturation. After this step was dry, I removed the masking with an eraser. In the above image you can see the lighter color of the face in contrast to the darker colors elsewhere. To complete this side of the card, I drew a box around the image in red wide tipped Sharpie

For the reverse of the postcard, I wanted to see how the masking fluid would interact with my alcohol inks.

Step one--basic color.

Step two--apply masking fluid to the image that I want to highlight

Step three--supply the second and third wash of color.

I wasn't totally happy with the contrast in color. I took the original stencil and placed it over the butterfly image and used color to darken the image for a higher contrast. As you can see, the background in step one should have been the color of the butterfly. I added a saturated blue to make it stand out more in the final step.

Day 25--30 Day Coloring Challenge

As we close out the coloring challenge this week, I am deciding to so some smaller projects and maybe one last full size coloring page from one of my coloring book collections. Today, I wanted to test a new product that I found at a local art store. It is Canson watercolor cold press paper in a 6 inch by 9 inch block.

Watercolor blocks are usually sheets of paper that are glued together. You paint on them and they warp less because they are attached to all of the other sheets. When you are done, you separate the top sheet from the rest by slipping a sharp edge directly between the top sheet and the rest of the block. I usually buy Arches cold pressed 140 lb 20 sheet blocks in larger sizes, either 14 in by 20 in or 18 in by 24 in. I like coloring the full sheet with one color palette and then cutting it in smaller pieces and adjust/augment a smaller piece.

I decided to use Copic markers to see how the color worked on the paper. I used a stencil and an extra fine tip Sharpie to outline basic figures.

Basic figures

The Sharpie didn't feather and stayed color fast on the paper. I will have to say that both sides of this paper are fairly smooth or without tooth. Most watercolor blocks usually have one side that is smoother than the other.

I will have so say that the color feathers a little bit on this this paper so it is easier to color to the line rather than one the line. Also, the alcohol in the Copic markers darkens and saturates the permanent Sharpie outlines. So, while the markers are steadfast, the Sharpies in combination with the paper and alcohol of the Copics will feather.

I still haven't decided what to do with the reverse side. I will probably just make this an over sized postcard. I might use alcohol inks on the reverse or do a collage or image transfer.

Day 24--30 Day Coloring Challenge

Finished Postcard Front

I am sure that you were tired of seeing my Art Journal, so I decided to do a different project for today's coloring challenge. I decided to do a simple postcard.

It all started when I mistakenly purchased a book of postcards at a Japanese bookstore. I thought they were coloring postcards--ones with images that you applied color. But no, they were blank postcards that were printed on the back with address lines and a postage box.

Blank postcards

Back of postcard

I took one of my smaller stencils and got busy applying a design. I used a extra fine Sharpie in black to outline the design. Since they flowers looked like cherry blossoms to me, I decided to use a pink palette. I used Copic markers for coloring and since these cards had a smooth surface, the color flowed nicely. Each petal was colored with three colors (RV23, RV04, and R32), The diamond shapes were filled in with a contrasting blue color (B29).

One of my favorite color combinations is chartreuse and pink. So, I decided to color in the background with FYG2.

Postcard before coloring

I wanted to do something on the back of the postcard because the white background is so shockingly white. I got one of my favorite butterfly stencils and used my alcohol inks in the same color palette as the front of the card (pink, chartreuse and blue). I love the pointillist effect of using alcohol inks and stencils.