Celebrating a new Blog...

There's a new game in town!
Heather Valentin 's
Coloring Without Bounderies 
Coloring Showcase Blog
using 
Lacy Sunshine Images

This new venture for Heather has been top secret until today when her blog comes live - so other than some generalities about the game plan - I can't tell you all the details.  For this reason, when you are done here - go straight to the great reveal at Coloring Without Boundaries and check it out!

What I am privy to at this time is that Coloring Without Boundaries will encourage their fans in their coloring efforts in essentially two ways:

#1  At the first of each month there will be a showcase event by the team and an open invitation to the fans to share their colorings for a chance to receive special prizes!

#2  Through out the rest of the month, the new team of Colorists will be posting their own colorings including how to info, tips & tutorials.  The idea is to share as much technique as they can from different perspectives.  Just coloring by the way - no finished projects required.

The really great news for me is that I have been asked to be one of the Colorists on that team... an amazing honor and I am excited beyond words!

So - here we go!  My first coloring for the new Blog:

I'm using Heather Valentin's Lacy Sunshine image

 "Rory Jitterbug"  

that can be found here:

All About Rory Coloring Set #14.

I use Copics for my coloring  - I love the blending capabilities of these alcohol ink pens.  Here I have noted the colors I used for all the areas of the image.

For this post I wanted to focus on one of the greatest roadblocks for a colorer... fear of "messin' up!"  If you think a perfect colored image rolls off the pen each and everytime... it ain't happenin'!  So many "mistakes" can be corrected - whether it needs re-working or the use of the blender pen.  I want to show you what happened to me this go around.

Version #1

Sometimes there's no fixin' it!
Ok - records are black, right?  I didn't like the lighter grey I started with - it was all too pale with the costume colors I chose for Rory.  So, I went over it with a darker shade - Eck!  Then I could not see the tiny lines in the record that made it look like a record - AND the black notes disappeared into the background - AND it looked like one big blob!  So, I added in white lines with my gel pen, but they were too shaky & too fat & looked awful.  I added a gold aura to put more color in the background - that part I did like.  So, set it aside [I may use it for someone on my birthday list who won't know the difference - *giggle*] and on to...

Version #2

Here I switched to a "Gold" record & reduced the amount of really dark contrast in her hair.  The notes show up, the extra color is good - but, heavy sigh, the costume is just washed out and looks too much like the grey background.   So...

Version #3

To Version #2 I added more color and contrast in her costume and I added BG0000 to the grey of the background.

So, here are my suggestions for your fears:

• It takes time & practice, practice, practice to get to a level of expertise.  Don't get discouraged - just keep coloring!
• Even with experienced colorists, you need to be willing to throw out the failures and start again.  It's only paper after all!
• Bookmark and follow Coloring Without Boundaries because the entire focus is on tips and tutorials, coloring, sharing and having FUN!  Come play with us my friends!

Create wildly and color with abandon! 
 ~ginny