Saturday, November 19, 2016

Adult Coloring: 5 Tips to Enhance Your Pages

Adult coloring books are all the rage right now. No longer an activity just for kids—coloring can be relaxing, meditative and a great way to get in touch with your creative side, especially for those who don’t have advanced artistic skills or a lot of free time on their hands. But what if you want to mix things up and experiment with something other than flat color? Artist Doreen Kassel offers the following tips to improve and enhance your coloring pages with some simple yet gorgeous effects…

Create a Mottled Background

Before you begin coloring, spray acrylic ink onto the page in various colors until you achieve the palette you want. Stand back to get a finer mist, and closer to get a thicker cover. Be sure to cover your workspace to protect it from the spray. Give the page time to thoroughly dry before you move on to coloring.

mottled background

Spray acrylic ink directly onto the page to create a mottled background.

Add Texture and Patterns with PanPastels

Create various textures and patterns by using a PanPastel tool to apply dashes of PanPastel across the page. White space can be left exposed or the whole page can be enveloped in color—it’s up to you.

PanPastel patterns

Apply PanPastels across the page to create patterns and texture.

Add Details with Liquid Frisket

Create spiral designs, or any fun design you wish using Liquid Frisket and a Frisket Nib Tool. Be careful not to make it too intricate though, because the Frisket can be hard to control when painting finer lines.

Liquid Frisket details

Add fine details with Liquid Frisket.

Embellish with Highlights

Create select highlights on your coloring pages with white opaque paint and a fine-tipped brush.

White highlights

Apply highlights with white paint and a fine-tipped brush.

Splatter It

Splatter liquid eraser or white acrylic paint across your coloring page using a palette knife and toothbrush. If you choose to use paint, it should be a loose consistency. It’s a good idea to experiment a bit with the splatter technique first to avoid any unwanted blobs.

Splatter technique

Create a splatter effect with white paint and a toothbrush.

 

About Doreen Kassel
Doreen Kassel’s career as an artist has spanned many creative incarnations, from designing and illustrating children’s books and puzzles for National Geographic, UNICEF and Scholastic, to textile designer to whimsical sculptor and workshop instructor. Her artwork and articles have appeared in various artistic publications, and her workshops that have brought her to many locations across the United States and Europe. Doreen’s first adult coloring book, Lush Life Creative Coloring, will be released in May of 2017 (North Light Books). Visit her website at doreenkassel.com to learn more.

The post Adult Coloring: 5 Tips to Enhance Your Pages appeared first on Artist's Network.

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