Coloring Experiment

Lately I have acquired several stamps that need coloring, not just inking.  I haven't really decided which medium I liked the best.   Since CTMH introduced their new alcohol ink markers I have been intrigued.  I can honestly say that throughout all my artful youth, I had not colored with markers for art.  I have painted, sketched with pencil, and fell in love with colored pencils.   Colored pencils was always my medium of choice.  But now, we have markers.  Because CTMH didn't have their full line of colors in the markers yet, I purchased a few Copics Sketch markers.  They are delightful, but quite pricey.  What I  love about our markers is that you can pretty well match your colors with that of the papers you want to use.  That takes a lot of  time and guesswork out of the color choosing.

I still have not decided which method of coloring I like the best.  But in my efforts to choose, I decided to take the same image and color it three ways, hence the experiment.  I just got my first Magnolia Kids stamp.  I think they are so cute.   Here is Tilda and her bunny.

I first set out to try watercolor pencils.  I think in an earlier post I had said I used Derwent watercolor pencils.  That was incorrect, they are Staedtler Karat watercolor pencils.  They look just like my Derwent colored pencils.  They are inexpensive pencils you can get at the craft store.  Well, you could 20 years ago. I'm assuming you still can. I have had this set since the dawn of time I do believe, maybe not 20 years, but close!  I do like the soft muted colors.  These require way less of a selection of colors to color with.   Most of the coloring was done with a single pencil per color, no more than two.   You just increase the intensity as you wet the page.  That is one plus to the watercolor pencils.  

I was trying to get all the images with as close to the same color as I could.  Hard to do with all different brands.  The next up is done with Berol Prismacolors.  

You have a lot of control with the Prismacolor.  They are and have always been my pencil of choice.  With this image there were several colors used in order to make the right colors, at least three per color.  But the beauty of the Prismacolor is if you don't have the exact color, you can make it.  Layering and shading is awesome with these.  But because of that, it does take longer than the others.  Or for me it does anyway. 

Next up is the one done with markers.  On this one I used a combination of CTMH markers and Copics. 

Her shirt, bow, and jeans were done with CTMH markers.  Everything else was done with Copic Sketch markers.   I still don't have the exact colors I want for brunette hair, so this is the best I could do with the colors I have.  It actually doesn't look this yellow in real life.  The colors in this image are definitely more intense.   Coloring this Tilda probably took the least amount of time, but with a much larger margin of error.  I just feel like I don't have as much control in coloring as I do in the other two.  It may just be a matter of what I'm used to.  I'm still very new to the markers.  But with that being said, I do plan on building my marker collection.  I love this medium it will just take a while to master. 

That was the way I spent my spare moments this afternoon. I do love coloring, always have.  I wanted  to really compare the three mediums.   After it was all said and done, I thought I would share my results.  Now, can I choose a favorite...nope :)  It just all depends on where and what I would be using the image for, as well as the time I have to color it.   The quickest was the markers.  The least amount of colors to achieve a finished image would be the watercolor pencils.  And I feel I am most in control with the Prismacolors, but took the longest to color. 

I am always open to suggestions on new methods and techniques.  I would love to hear your thoughts and feelings on coloring.   Thanks for stopping by.  I'll be having some new cards up this week, as well, so stop back by. 

Happy Scrapping!