ALL the colors!!!

i've been playing along, when time permits, with kathy racoosin's latest 30 day coloring challenge and i'm really enjoying it. i especially love seeing what everyone else is making (via instagram) even though it has become clear to me that, realistically, i will never come close to being the "epic colorer" that kathy is. apart from the fact that i don't approach her level of talent, i also just do not have the patience. sad but true. on the other hand, i'm finding the practice valuable and fun, which is the main thing, right?

for most of my coloring, i "base coat" the largest part of the image with a tombow dualbrush pen in the lightest/highlight shade of whatever i'm coloring. then i go back in with several darker, coordinating colors of prismacolor pencil to add the shading. finally i blend with either white, or with the colorless blending pencil.

(studio g lotus stamp)

figuring out where the shading should go is probably the hardest part of the coloring process for me; especially on curvy stamps. so it's fun to draw the occasional geometric, straight lined shape, on which it's super-obvious where the shadows and highlights ought to be!

if this one looks a bit familiar, it's because you actually saw it on a completed eyelet outlet easter card earlier this week!

(hero arts oversized "happy" + pink paislee winged heart)

i'm not in love with the way i've colored these uber-cute monstas... tho i think the blue one is not too bad of a first effort at fur?

(monsta stamp set by recollections)

something i realized in the last two weeks is that i don't actually *OWN* all that many stamps which require coloring. so when i was up at paper anthology last weekend, i borrowed some of elisabeth's. this rose + heart number is a fave.

(stupidly, i didn't write down the manufacturer, but it was an older woodmounted stamp)

while i was there, i got to do the lettering on the brand new paper anthology sign. it took me a couple of tries to imitate the style of the logo... 

(which you can see right here)

after a prolonged effort at coloring precisely within the lines of tiny stamped images, i had to go a little crazy and fill a 7x10" sketchbook page with blended gelato crayon shapes... then outline and doodle with a sharpie and some posca paint pens on top. 

and yes, on these occasions, it's obviously entirely necessary to use 

EVERY. 

SINGLE. 

COLOR!!! 

♥♥♥