Whew. The more I paint, the worse my computer skills get. After doing computer design since the dial-up days, I sure hate to lose that edge. But not enough to give up painting and talking about painting and teaching about painting!
I average 3-4 hours a day in my studio, including this kind of work so I can use my desktop computer. Couple hours a day on mobile with social media, and that still leaves a few hours with the TV on as evening dwindles down to bedtime. I sure hated losing those hours playing Angry Bird! When Shannon Green LINK HERE posted a YouTube video about her doodling practice, I immediately jumped on the bandwagon. I could sit and doodle in a 5x7" spiral bound mixed media journal with just a pencil, kneaded eraser, and a black pen. WhooHOOO! Log down another couple hours creating art.
This was just because. I wasn't trying to make a product AT ALL, but when my online friends said they would make great coloring pages, it still took me a month or so to figure it out. By creating digital files 8x10"-ish, I could print one at 100%, 50% and 25%. Enlarged just a bit created larger white spaces for coloring. Printing in 25% allowed coloring on top of the black design. The 50% version works great with gel pens over the black design.
Printed on cardstock at home, or at a Staples, I designed it to leave plenty of room for binding (also at home or Staples). Do a version in as many colors or ways you can think of: color on top of the black lines with colored pencil or gel pens, color only the white areas, or do both. Hours of entertainment. I also want you to use these as practice for your own free-form doodling.
The first one above is printed on a specialty paper called Wide Wale. It has a suede-like finish and took colored pencils beautifully, coloring in the white areas. A life-long friend of mine did the colorwork on this one. The second is colored pencils on the black design, and the third is using gel pens. Those aren't finished.
Both these versions are on plain cardstock, with colored pencils and a gold gel pen. I used a Purple and a Blue pencil on the main black areas, combining them to obtain the third purple color. The heart was layers of red, orange, yellow and purple pencils. The second one is mainly a Blue and Green pencil, and the heart is Purple, Red, Blue. Both have accents in gold gel pen.
I could come up with more versions of these two for fun! Yellow and Red, Green and Yellow, color the white areas…possibilities are endless! I used a selection of 12 Crayola pencils and generic gel pens on these so it would be easily achievable on any budget.
Have fun, and I'd love to see your results!
xxoo
