Coloring Scenery

Welcome back, hope you all had a great holiday! Last week's blog focused on coloring feathers in honor of Turkey Day.  This week's poster features another great brown bird... An eagle :)  However, our focus of today will be coloring the background of this scenic poster, specifically the trees.

Generally, when I think of trees I automatically reach for that green marker. But sometimes you have to mix it up by bringing in some gorgeous autumn colors. Take inspiration from nature around you (assuming the trees in your area haven't already shed all their glory). So check out our poster "Soaring Bald Eagle" and "Chinese Bridge", and don't be afraid to throw in those oranges, yellows, bright reds, and maroons. Or maybe even pink to represent a cherry blossom tree :)  The colors will pop out and add a little warmth to your poster (just be careful if you don't want to take attention away from your subject matter). Have fun, be creative! And tell me some of your own coloring strategies for scenery in the comment section below!

Color on,

Erin

A Celebration of the Turkey - Coloring Feathers

Seeing how Thanksgiving is this Thursday, this week's blog is in celebration of this great holiday! And how better to honor the history of Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, and Native Americans than with a great symbol of the Native American culture, the Dream Catcher! Today's blog will focus more specifically on tips to coloring feathers (which you'll be able to use in many more Stuff2Color posters as well). 

Here's a colored example of our Dream Catcher poster. One way I like to color feathers is to have the color taper to a darker color as I reach the tip. I start with a lighter color near the base to represent the downy part of the feather, then choose darker and darker shades that flow well with each other. Be creative, there are no set rules here. I then leave the quill or shaft of the feather white, tan, etc. 

Another realistic way to color feathers is to alternate your colors. Check out Dream Catcher again, this time with alternating blocks of color. 

Do you have any other tips for coloring feathers? I would love to hear from you below in the comment section, I am always eager to hear your thoughts. Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Hope you have a heartwarming and mouth watering holiday!



Erin

Layering and Shading With Markers

Welcome back, hope everyone has had a great Veteran's Day and great weekend! Today's blog is about how to build up colors and shading using markers. This can be tricky depending on your markers, how many colors you have to choose from, and the type of paper you're coloring on. So we'll just go over the basics and then have you experiment and play around with it.

• First of all, I always keep a scratch piece of paper next to my poster to test out any layering ideas I have before committing to my poster.
• Secondly, I start with my light colors and then work darker. Can't go back once you color too dark.
• I have 3 options when choosing which color to shade with. If I have a darker version of the same color, I'll use that (e.g. dark brown when shading a light brown object). If not, I'll layer and shade by using analogous colors (these are similar colors next to each other on the color wheel). So if I'm shading a yellow object, I'd shade by adding a layer of orange. Red object-purple shading. You get the idea right? Another option is to shade by layering with a gray marker. 

Like I said before, feel free to experiment with how to layer each color on that piece of scratch paper. Play around with adding layers of color while the marker is still wet on the page (for more blending between the light and dark color, you can go back over with the lighter marker) or see if you like it better dry. Just be careful to not scrub at the paper while its still wet if it looks like its ruining the paper.

Good luck with your layering, let me know how it's going or ask me a question in the comment section below. Have a great week!

Erin

Q&A: More about shading!

Hi again, thanks for joining me on another lovely Monday :)  Today's blog is in response to a question posed by Amber the other day. So here we go!

Question: "At the end of the video [Santa timelapse] you went over some spots (like the blue bag) with a darker shade to add shading. I read the post on how you did shading on the bridge, but I'd like to hear more about how you add more organic looking shading like you did on Santa's bag"

Answer: First, always pick where the light is coming from. Imagine where the light would hit, and what would be cast in shadow. This gets easier with practice. I'll go over some poster examples, but first lets just look at the basic shading of a rounded object. You'll notice three different basic shades on this ball: a whitish highlight, red, and black shading. Following this idea, you can add shading to any objects in your posters, understanding that you'll have a lighter spot where the light directly hits, midtones, and then a darker area where the curvature of your object (in this case, the roundness of the ball) puts the rest of the item in shadow.

Check out my shading for Carnival Unicorn.

• I chose to have my light source shining from the top right.
• I highlighted all along the top lines of the unicorn (light pink or left it white) as this was closest to my light source.
• I assume that its body is rounded, so like the ball mentioned before, everything underneath would be cast in shadow. I shade the lower lines of the unicorn with a darker purple along the belly and underside of each leg. The body of the horse also casts shadows on the legs as well.

Then we have the poster Pup. 

• The light is shining from the top right.
• I add shadows to his belly, under his paws, ears, and side of the face where his nose would block out the light.
• I also add a slightly darker brown to the lines in his fur, just to give the poster a little more depth. The more shades of one color you have (brown in this case), the more realistic and deeper the poster.

To directly answer Amber's question in regards to Santa's bag, I first pictured that the bottom of the bag would be cast in shadow as it was a rounded object. I then shaded along the lines of the bag as each fold or bulge would cast a shadow on the fabric directly below it. For even more depth, I could have added a lighter blue for a highlight wherever the fabric bulged out, as well as the top of the bag (closest to my light source).

Finally, I want to mention one more trick to shading... Don't forget that some objects will cast shadows on the objects around them. In this case of Turtle, the light shining from above would create a shadow on the sand below him. 

Hopefully I answered the question clearly enough, please let me know if further information is needed in the comments below or if any new questions arise. Thanks for tuning in!

Erin