From the Secret Garden book.
From the Animal Wonders book.
This evening I started to colour in a pineapple design as have got a bit stuck with what colours to add in to a wheat sheaf one I was doing a couple of nights ago.
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Adult coloring books
- Thread starter Winchester
- Start Date
:lol3:
mservant
- "Very psychedelic" were the exact words my dad used when he say my finished cat head! He still can't get his head around the whole adult colouring thing :roll eyes:
I love your pictures - and that shading on the birds is amazing
I have zero technique - I just use blocks of colour. I've mostly used watercolour pencils so far - I keep meaning to experiment with wetting them, but I have no clue about the techniques involved. If anyone wants to enlighten me, feel free 
I'm seriously thinking about getting some decent alcohol markers, but I'm not sure which ones. Between reynauds, fibromyalgia and RSI my body REALLY isn't liking the pencil work - half my hand actually turned blue today :slant: and I'm getting tons of pins and needles that just aren't going away
It never occurred to me that I'd get colouring 'injuries' :lol3:
mservant
- "Very psychedelic" were the exact words my dad used when he say my finished cat head! He still can't get his head around the whole adult colouring thing :roll eyes:I love your pictures - and that shading on the birds is amazing
I have zero technique - I just use blocks of colour. I've mostly used watercolour pencils so far - I keep meaning to experiment with wetting them, but I have no clue about the techniques involved. If anyone wants to enlighten me, feel free I'm seriously thinking about getting some decent alcohol markers, but I'm not sure which ones. Between reynauds, fibromyalgia and RSI my body REALLY isn't liking the pencil work - half my hand actually turned blue today :slant: and I'm getting tons of pins and needles that just aren't going away
It never occurred to me that I'd get colouring 'injuries' :lol3:
Colouring injuries!
It is so annoying though, when you are getting right in to something and then some pain or other means you have to stop. There's days when I get numb hands and forearms and pins and needles almost as soon as I grip anything small or hold my arms up, then other days I'm fine. The foam or plastic pen/pencil grips help me a little but they don't really work for colouring as you'd have to have one on every pencil. The softer pencils help some because at least it doesn't take as much pressure to achieve more intense pigment. What I like with the pencils is that if my control isn't so good on days my hands go numb and I get the pins and needles I can at least rub out any really bad points where I've gone over a line.
@Columbine If your dad thought your cat face colours were psychadelic I hate to think what he would make of mine if he saw it! Must take a photo, it is not what anyone would call tasteful.
The birds design was my first attempt at using shading rather than solid colouring and it felt fairly easy with the prismacolor pencils. Much easier than Derwent watercolour ones I'd had a few years back - I never really figured out how to use them.
@Columbine If your dad thought your cat face colours were psychadelic I hate to think what he would make of mine if he saw it! Must take a photo, it is not what anyone would call tasteful.
The birds design was my first attempt at using shading rather than solid colouring and it felt fairly easy with the prismacolor pencils. Much easier than Derwent watercolour ones I'd had a few years back - I never really figured out how to use them.
I've got some Derwent Artist's ones too, but they're only a 12 set where the watercolour ones are a 24 set. I have a ton of Staedtler artists pencils too, a set each of WHSmiths artists and watercolour pencils and some Polish artists ones :slant: ...I literally have about three boxes full leftover from childhood (mum never throws out ANYTHING that might be useful!). However, they're all loose and not already beautifully colour graded and set out neatly so I've started with the watercolour ones because they look so pretty and neat in their tin! Its dangerously tempting to get some Prismacolor or Caran D'Ache ones just so they can be neat, pristine and pretty :anon: NOT an acceptable reason....bad Laura, bad 
I REALLY want to see your cat face now, MServant!
I REALLY want to see your cat face now, MServant!
This was the coral reef one once finished
and this one is the wheat sheef one I'm stuck on.... if anyone has some colour suggestions for completing it I'd love to see hear them.
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I LOVE that cat head - bight is definitely good sometimes :nod:With the wheat sheaf - it depends whether you want to keep it subtle or go for a contrast. I might go for earth colours (though not browns) - maybe olive greens, sands, even darker oranges - that kind of thing. For contrasts - purples are opposite yellows on the spectrum, and opposites can look really good together. It depends what takes your fancy! It's a lovely mandala type design - it'll look great when its all finished.
That coral reef looks lovely too. You have a really good eye for colour
OK...I really MUST go to bed now...I'm keeping Asha up!
Thank you. Bright is one way of putting it.I LOVE that cat head - bight is definitely good sometimes
With the wheat sheaf - it depends whether you want to keep it subtle or go for a contrast. I might go for earth colours (though not browns) - maybe olive greens, sands, even darker oranges - that kind of thing. For contrasts - purples are opposite yellows on the spectrum, and opposites can look really good together. It depends what takes your fancy! It's a lovely mandala type design - it'll look great when its all finished.
That coral reef looks lovely too. You have a really good eye for colour
OK...I really MUST go to bed now...I'm keeping Asha up!
Hmm, I was thinking the olives or oranges but could be drawn to those purlpes. I do love purples and hadn't thought of that.
Mouse is currently meowing persistently at his other 2 house servants so I think I'll go to bed soon to make the most of his just having been pampered and fed.
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That sounds really nice @LTS3So thoughtful to make each 'book' different for each member. I bet they love them
That is a great idea! I hope everyone appreciates their gift and how long it will have taken you to put together each one.
I'm almost done with putting the books together. The only things I have left to do are to run all the finished pages through the copier and put them on heavy weight paper in case anyone wants to use markers (right now the images are on typical thin copy/print paper), print covers on cardstock paper, and print "certificates of participation" and stick a gold embossed "Outstanding" sticker on each certificate. Then wrap each book up somehow with the set of generic pencils I got at the dollar store. And the pictures on the thin copy/print paper is more for me to color in later
Thanks! The first link has another image in progress, this one of Chinatown: https://illustratemypoint.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/coloring-books-for-adults-yes-please/
I think it's great that you take your pictures to show your Dad even if he doesn't quite understand it
I kind of prefer images with details than something really simple. I'm a detail-oriented person. Here's an image I'm going to print out and (eventually) do: https://novelnibble.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/coloring-books-for-adults-johanna-basford-9__880.jpg Print preview shows that it's kind of on the small side so I'll need to enlarge it on a copier.
@MServant, I love your pictures
I'd love that picture on a nice tee shirt.
stewball , @Draco,
LTS3 , @MoochNNoodles, @Artiemom (hope I didn't miss anyone :cross: ) for the lovely words and praise! Here is the finished piece
MServant - the book is 'Cats - Colouring for mindfulness' http://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/c...tress-colouring-for-mindfulness/9780600633006 I got it at my local branch, so I'm sure you'll be able to find it fairly easily.
You're very bad. You put yourself down regarding your colouring and it's lovely what you do. You really do not have to worry. You are quite arty. Please remember that MServant.That is a great idea! I hope everyone appreciates their gift and how long it will have taken you to put together each one.
So I finally got to taking photos of some more of my coloured designs and uploading them, then looking back at @Columbine
's lovely (and tasteful) cat I realised I had 'forgotten' to photograph a cat face I had coloured last week. I think the only thing anyone has said about it so far is it looks 'very pshychadelic'. :lol3: I must remember and photograph it next time I'm about to upload stuff. I'm really not sure what was in my head that day but it is certainly bright!
Here are some rather more tastefully coloured designs (I hope). The first one is the bird design I did a week or so ago and posted how I was really happy with how it turned out.
From the Secret Garden book.
From the Animal Wonders book.
This evening I started to colour in a pineapple design as have got a bit stuck with what colours to add in to a wheat sheaf one I was doing a couple of nights ago.
The one of the 2 birds is gorgeous! I really love that. And the coral reef finished up well nicely too.
Has anyone heard of, used or tried Spectrum Noir pencils? Apparently the company even posts color charts so you know which 2 pencils to blend to get what color!
http://www.spectrumnoir.com/new-color-charts/
Has anyone heard of, used or tried Spectrum Noir pencils? Apparently the company even posts color charts so you know which 2 pencils to blend to get what color!
http://www.spectrumnoir.com/new-color-charts/
I've heard of them but never tried them. The reviews on Amazon aren't great and that put me off a little. They look very good though, and they might be just fine...I guess it depends on what you're comparing them to and how fussy you are.
I love that forrest scene @LTS3 , I wonder if that's from her Enchanted Forrest book? The two birds design I coloured is one of Joanna Bansford's, I think she does some really beautiful bird outlines - including her owls which she uses a lot.
The earthy tones are starting to win out for me on the wheat sheef design I think, maybe similar to the ones you used in your cat's face @Columbine . Working up to a little break from my computer, a cup of tea and then perhaps some colouring now. I was meant to be going to a friend's house for my evening meal but she isn't feeling too well and it's been postponed.
The earthy tones are starting to win out for me on the wheat sheef design I think, maybe similar to the ones you used in your cat's face @Columbine . Working up to a little break from my computer, a cup of tea and then perhaps some colouring now. I was meant to be going to a friend's house for my evening meal but she isn't feeling too well and it's been postponed.
Oh I hadn't thought to look at them on Amazon and check reviews, so thanks for this! Got them suggested by someone on another forum (dog forum).
Interesting they are oil based, not wax based like Prismacolor. Read a few reviews, mostly to understand the difference in the types of pencils. So thanks for directing me that way!
One review said the SN were similar to Faber Castell Polychromos. Which I found interesting, as I have loads of empty tins from Faber Castell; my Dad used those when he did construction, for his electrical drawings / drafting, apparently. Not found any of the pencils left, how ever. So I went to read up on their Poly chromos, as well. Who knew coloring could be so complicated?!
I'll stay with my Prismacolors, thanks much.
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I'm storing my pictures in a folder with blank sheets between each. After coloring for many many years I found that sometimes the color II put in transfers to the page in front of it regardless of if the page in front is colored or not. It was not a happy thing to find that my color had "watermarked" the page in front.
I had this happen with crayons and colors. My room usually gets pretty hot due to my city weather and that my room faces the sun during the day, so heat very likely played a big part in that.
I also blame my stacks of books, folders, notebooks and such I stacked and stacked over them.
I'm glad you got through the surgery well! Rest well and I hope for a speedy recovery!
I have not used the Spectrum Noir but I went to check them out anyway. I may have misread the page, but this chart seems to be for the markers. People are having such mixed reviews. Below you can find a very good honest review on them
http://www.bestcoloredpencils.com/spectrum-noir-colored-pencils-review/
Everyone, I found a really useful comparison of Derwent, Spectrum Noir, Prismacolor and others in this link. I hope it helps people envision better what the color actually do!
https://thefrugalcrafter.wordpress.com/2014/08/13/are-spectrum-noir-pencils-worth-the-money/
I decided to start on one of my discarded walk challenge prize pictures:
It's a pretty simple image. I didn't feel like doing anything too detailed today.
My pencils need to be sharpened soon. I did buy a Prismacolor sharpener that was on a "Recommended list" on Amazon but it's the Scholar one which is for the Scholar (student) pencils
I guess it would still work for the Premier pencils but Premier sharpener has two slots for more prescise sharpening. I'll pick one up from the art supply store or Staples.
It's a pretty simple image. I didn't feel like doing anything too detailed today.
My pencils need to be sharpened soon. I did buy a Prismacolor sharpener that was on a "Recommended list" on Amazon but it's the Scholar one which is for the Scholar (student) pencils
I will look at that comparison, thanks.
I think working with wax based vs oil based is like changing media. I am just now getting used to these pencils! LOL
I think working with wax based vs oil based is like changing media. I am just now getting used to these pencils! LOL
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I picked one up at KMart, 47 cents, has the 2 different sized holes. I find using the large hole works best for these! Surprised me. You know when you open the new box, the pencils are sharpened, with just a short bit of wood scraped away? That is what you get when you use the large hole. The small hole - the one which is the size of the pencil - gives a LONG point, then a LONG piece of the scraped wood, and I found the pigment would break. Not enough wood to support it.
Just an fyi!
I was using a regular sharpener and got the long point too - same problem with core breaking. Very costly.
Invested in a Prismacolor sharpener: it took me a few minutes to figure out what the difference was between the two sharpener holes as both the same size! If I wore my glasses it would have helped - it has a little picture of the pencil point shape beside each one - one for the long point and one for the short point which doesn't break. Both give a really sharp point to the pencil. Depite the sharpener being more expensive than regular ones it's worth it for not wasting the pencils: It shaves off very finely so takes off hardly any of the pencil as waste each time.
Oh, and thanks to everyone who suggested sticking with the earthy tones yesterday for my wheat sheef design. I finished it last night, sticking with ochres, muted greens and soft browns. I'll try to take a photo later. Pleased with the result other than the outer ring which I might work on a little more.
