No-line coloring with Prismacolor Pencils+VIDEO!

Good morning! I have been a little silent on the blog over the last few weeks… went out of town, then had some visitors, then my kiddos caught a bug… it’s been so crazy that I haven’t had time to finish editing the colored pencil video that I peeked on Instagram almost two weeks ago! After my company left this weekend, I was determined to get this video finished and uploaded for the beginning of this week. I think they’ve given me a few of their germs (joy), so if I sound a little sniffly and scratchy, I apologize!

Today, I wanted to focus on my favorite technique with Prismacolor colored pencils: coloring on colored card stock. I really adore how beautiful and vibrant the color is on the colored card stock when you have a few tricks up your sleeve. Check it out!

Well, what do you think? I’ll be honest…. This technique is not for the faint of heart or for someone in a rush, especially when you have a fairly large image, as I did here. I had to be very succinct with the amount of time I spent on each petal in the video, as I was trying to keep the time on the video as close to ten minutes as I could, but coloring this image was most certainly a labor of love. If I’ve glossed over something in the video that you’d like explained more fully, please don’t hesitate to ask!

If you can’t watch the video, here’s a brief overview of the project and the technique.

To start, I stamped the image using Papertrey Ink’s white pigment ink, which I find to blend more smoothly with pencils than other white pigment inks. Next, I move petal by petal, first coloring the petal with the white Prismacolor pencil, then going over the top of the white with my colored pencils. (For the anemones, I used Deco Pink 1014, Pink Rose 1018, Pink 929, Process Red 994, Pomegranate 195. For the morning glories, I used Scarlet Lake 923, Pale Vermilion 921, Sunburst Yellow 917, Canary Yellow 916, Lemon Yellow 915, Cream 914. For the leaves, I usedGrass Green 909, Prussian Green 109, Apple Green 912, Spring Green 913, Yellow Chartreuse 1004.) After I had laid down my color over the white layer, I used my blender pencil to blend the colors seamlessly. I find that the white layer really helps keep the color from sinking down into the colored card stock and getting lost. Adding just the slightest touch of black after all of the initial blending helps, as well, to really make the shadows pop.

For the morning glories, I have found that their shading is a bit backwards. Where I would normally have the darkest shading towards the center of the flower and lightening as it reaches the outer petals, with morning glories I start with the lightest shade in the center of the flower and blend outwards towards the darkest shades. I used the same technique of adding a white layer beneath my yellow and orange pencils, then blending with the blender pencil.

After I stamped the greeting from the Kind Soul stamp set and heat embossed it with white embossing powder, I went back with my T-square to add some white lines about 1/2″ from the edge of the penciled panel. When I have a fairly detailed and meticulously colored image, I like to keep the rest of the card fairly simplistic so the focus remains on the coloring! I used my T-square and white Prismacolor pencil to create a frame around the edge of the panel, then added a few sequins to add some texture. Finally, I mounted the card on a black A2 sized panel and mounted it on my card base.

I hope that seeing this technique in action, even if only briefly, has made clearer my technique when using the Prismacolor pencils to color on colored card stock. I know I’ve tried to explain it in blog posts before, but it’s really something that you almost have to see to fully understand. I hope I’ve explained things clearly. 🙂 It’s such a fun technique; I’d love to see what you create if you do try it!

Well, that’s all for me today, friends. Have a marvelous Monday!