Lauren Ashbury

A Cozy Christmas Coloring Adventure ~ The Bells

I was asked recently for some tips on how to color. I won’t claim to be an authority, I personally was never very good at coloring in the lines, but I think there are some basic tips that are easy to implement that will really help step up your color game.

This is a simple coloring tutorial using ink, colored pencils and acrylic based paint markers on a page from A Cozy Christmas Coloring Adventure.

Use a black colored pencil to add shading.

Use a white colored pencil to blend colors.

Use acrylic paint markers to add dimension, or details.

FIND THE JOY ~ The very first thing to remember is that coloring should be FUN. If it’s not fun, run. Coloring is supposed to be relaxing, calming and creative. So often we forget that we have this incredibly playful imagination that just wants to have fun. So play!
PICK A TOOL ~ I personally love to use a combination of ink, colored pencils and paint markers.
SCRATCH PAPER ~ I design my coloring books so that each image is printed on it’s own page. I do this because I find it optimal for coloring with ink - or pulling out a page that you are really proud of and framing it. The best way to protect the image underneath is to place a piece of scratch paper behind the image you are coloring. This can also be used to test your color before applying it to the image itself.
INK ~ If you want something to be opaque, start with an ink base. For this bell tower, I used a grey sharpie as a base coat.
SHADE WITH COLORED PENCILS ~ Once you have a light ink base coat, use colored pencils to add shading. In this case, I just made the edges a little darker to emphasize the bricks. If you want to get really fancy, decide where the sun (or light source) is coming from. Shade on the side furthest away.
WHITE + BLACK ~ White and black colored pencils are your best friends when it comes to stepping up your color game. Black can be used to add shadow to just about anything. While white will be used for blending.
BLENDING ~ I don’t think I fully appreciated white colored pencils until I understood how to use them correctly. Blending your colors with white makes a HUGE difference. In this case, you can see where the white was used to create dimension in the bricks, by blending the black pencil into shades of grey. Pro Tip: Save the blending for the end. Then go over the edges with your shadow color one last time.
PLAY WITH OTHER TOOLS ~ In this case, I used a gold paint marker for the bell itself, and the edge of the clock. I also used a white paint marker to add little stars at the end. Don’t limit yourself to one medium. You can use water colors, crayons, paint, markers, highlighters, whatever you want! You can even scan (or digitally download) the images and color them on your computer or tablet.
LIGHT vs. HEAVY ~ I wanted the bell tower to look opaque, so I underlined with grey ink. Using colored pencils, I added depth, dimension and shadow. For the mountains and sky, I only used colored pencils. This allowed me to have a lot more freedom in terms of what colors I could play with, and use for blending and shading.
USE AS MANY COLORS AS YOU WANT! ~ One of the most fun things about coloring, and specifically using colored pencils, is that you can color forever - kind of like oil paint. For example, I probably used about 7 different colors for each of the mountains and the sky. Utilizing various shades of pink, purple and blue, I was able to give it the cotton-candy look I was going for, and used my white pencil to blend the more stark transitions.
MAKE IT YOUR OWN ~ I see a lot of colorists take a coloring page, and do something so creative and cool with it that it is almost unrecognizable from the original. If you want to add lines, or shadows, or birds, go for it! Coloring is a form of self-expression, so make it yours.

I hope these tips help you on your own coloring journey!

A Cozy Coloring + Coffee Kind of Morning