Hi everyone, today I’m going to show you step by step how you can create this art journal page, but of course you can also use this colouring technique to create for example a card project. Let’s get started!
Step 1:
You can create this project in any art journal you have, I prefer working in a spiral bound one that I can adhere my finished pages into (this way I don’t damage any previous pages when it gets messy). For today’s project I also use a piece of craft coloured paper that I like to use coloured pencils on (size 29 cm x 20.5 cm, eventually this will be cut in half). As well as some white card stock or watercolour paper (whatever you have that is of a little thicker quality).
From the white card stock you die cut any shape you like, I used the one in the picture, it’s 9,7 cm x 9,7 cm. On this white panel I penciled my quote using a graphite pencil, using a light hand so that I can erase the lines later on.
Step 2:
On a separate sheet of the craft coloured paper stamp the flower and leaf images you want to use on your page (mine are from the Altenew “Flower Garden” stamp set) using black ink (either Spectrum Noir Water-Proof ink or Alcohol-Proof ink in “Noir Black”).
After stamping fussy cut the images leaving a small border. You can of course first colour the images and then fussy cut them but I wanted to make sure that on all the images the light was hitting from the same angle and that is why I first created my lay out and then started colouring.
I also traced the quote using a Spectrum Noir Art Liner in black (03).
Step 3:
The colouring of each flower image will proceed in the same way, just with different coloured pencils. I always start with a white drawing pencil to create my highlight area’s. Because I have created my lay out first I know, if I pretend that my light source is in the top left hand corner, what part of the petals will receive more light and which parts will be in the shadow and therefore will be darker.
Of course there are several ways to colour an image. When you use a light hand in the beginning you can add many layers, you can start out by colouring the shadow parts with your darkest colour, or first colour around the highlights using the next lightest colour, whatever you prefer. In this case I first coloured with the next lightest coloured around the highlights so that the whole flower has at least one layer of pencil on it (for this I used the Spectrum Noir ColourBlend pencil in “Pink Violet”).
For my darkest shadow colour I then choose the Spectrum Noir ColourBlend pencil in “Boysenberry”. And as my middle colour I used the colour “Maroon”.
Work on each petal separately. Adding layer after layer mixing the four colours previously used and adding a little more pressure in each layer, in the last layer use a burnishing technique to create the polished look you can see in the picture.
If you feel this seems way to difficult, just try, it all comes down to practice!
Step 4:
For all the green parts I used the white drawing pencil as well as Spectrum Noir ColourBlend pencils in “Holly”, “Amazon Green” and “Boysenberry” (for the deepest shadow colour). The area’s are fairly small. Start with the darkest green (“Holly”), mix in some off the lighter green (“Amazon Green”), add some white drawing pencil again, and deepen the shadows with the “Boysenberry” colour.
I love to use dark purples for creating shadows, don’t go straight to black for this, it will look unnatural!
Step 5:
This is what the project looks like now.
Step 6:
Next colour the orange flowers using the same technique as before: add white first for your highlights, use “Pumpkin” for you lightest colour, “Nectarine” for your middle colour, “Redcurrant” for the shadows and when necessary add some “Boysenberry” to create even more depth.
For the hearts of the flowers I used the white drawing pencil, “Gold Finch” and “Yellow Ochre”. Only for the yellow flowers, that I will colour next, I added in some of the orange pencil to the hearts of the flowers to separate the hearts from the petal colour.
Add as many layers as you need, but don’t press to hard on your pencil in the beginning because then the paper will no longer take on colour. Colouring with coloured pencil is a time consuming business, this page took me about two days to create, most of it consumed by colouring the images.
Step 7:
For the yellow flowers I used “Daffodil” as my lightest colour, “Bumblebee” for my middle colour and “Maple” for my darkest colour. Later on I decided that I even needed a darker colour and for that I choose “Maroon” (because the Boysenberry was a bit to dark for my liking).
I love to see how my project comes to life with each added coloured image.
Step 8:
For the purple flowers I than choose “Blackberry” for my darkest colour and “Indigo” for my lightest colour. These flowers are small so I don’t need a middle colour. Now all of the images are coloured!
All the pencils used on today’s project are from the following Spectrum Noir ColourBlend sets: Primaries, Essentials, Florals, Naturals and Bold Brights.
Step 9:
The background panel is still empty and I wanted to add something interesting but not too much so it wasn’t distracting from the flowers and the quote. I used a small text stamp by Finnabair (you can use any stamp you have with text that you like) and stamped several times using Spectrum Noir Alcohol-Proof ink in “Pebble” (because I liked this colour, it’s the darker version of the craft colour from the paper). I didn’t adhere the stamp to a block but just used my fingers to stamp the stamp onto the paper, not wanting to create the perfect stamped image.
Step 10:
Time to adhere the quote and all the flowers and leaves tot he page. For the quote I used one millimetre thick foam tape so that I can tuck the flowers underneath easily. The flowers are adhered using liquid glue. Make sure that where the page is cut in two later on all the small parts are adhered as well.
Then cover up the quote and create splatters using the Spectrum Noir Metallic Ink in “Antique Bronze” using a brush.
Step 11:
When dry cut the background in two and edge each half using the “Pebble” colour I used before using a foam applicator tool.
To finish this page adhere the two halves into the actual art journal using gel medium or any other strong glue.
Detail pictures:
And that’s it for today’s fun art journal project! I totally love how this project turned out!
