Fab Friday over at Tiddly Inks means some really awesome inspiration from the design team.
Hop over to the blog and check it out. Also, don't forget we have the challenge too.
I colored up Poppylicious for today's inspiration.
I've received a few emails recently asking me how I color. Do I start with my darkest color first? No, I do not. I start by coloring the area with the lightest color leaving white where I want hightlights. I then color dark, medium and back to my lightest color. I of course blend as I go. I do go back and and repeat some of the shadows to get a smoother/deeper look.
Sometimes I will finish the areas I left white by coloring in with the lightest color. Like I did in the green dress. This keeps the color the lightest. Remember each color gets darker each time you add another coat of ink. Other times, I will leave the white, as shown in the flowers for a higher contrast. I did add a little bit of white opaque pen to this area because I wanted it to pop for the photo. Turns out, I really like how it looked agains the already white area :)
A couple more important tips:
- Grounding your image - this keeps the image from looking as if it is floating and adds depth.
- Shadows and halos - These should only be on the shades side of the image depending on your light source. Adding a color "halo" around the image is nice. But, make the color the entire background, such as the sky, not surrounding just the image. In this project she does have a color background and a slight halo effect. However one side is slightly darker and has a cast shadow. Same with the ground.
Don't be afraid to play around. For example, I added a little V20 to the sky and adding white opaque pen to the white areas of the flowers. I hadn't done either of these before and I liked how it turned out.
Here is the color palette....I color light, dark, medium then back to light :)
Comments
Hugz,
Gramma