MY FIRST TUTORIAL IN A WHILE!

Hello everyone!  Today is my first tutorial, in what I hope to be a long series of tutorials over at CARD CRAFTER'S CIRCLE.  

I just want to do a little coloring tutorial for you today.  Mind you, it's very basic and would have been much better if I knew how to record it, but alas, I do not, so hopefully my pictures will provide a good enough description of what I am trying to demonstrate.

Have you ever colored an image and what you see looking back at you on the page appears incredibly flat, lifeless and dull?  This can happen no matter how cute or detailed the image is because in order to give a realistic looking appearance, the image needs more than one dimension.

Here you see my image, the adorable "Babysaurus" from DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS.  I have added one layer of color - I have listed my colors to the side.


I love this image, but notice how it is so 1 dimensional and just looks flat.  So, my next step is to come in and add a darker color is certain areas, to give some dimension.  I am not really worrying about where my light is coming at this point, but you will notice, especially on the face, I will do one side darker than the other.



I haven't done much blending here because I want to show a little bit where the 2nd color is coming in.  I try and keep the colors relatively close in terms of color family, value and saturation, leaving the face as the area with the most dramatic contrast at the moment.  Colors added were E11, E57, YG63, Y38, BO4 and a bit of E21.



Finally, I'm going to come in and blend the unblended areas and then I'm going to add some darker colors, shadows, etc.  I realize I should have take more pictures for this last step, so I will try and give a bit more explaination here.  I blended the colors on the face and then added a bit of E13 and BV00
so you can see the roundness of the face.  I added YG67 to the outer edges of the dinosaur and then went back over with YG61 to create more contrast through the middle.  .  I also added a third color to the very bottom of the hair E59, some R21 for the cheeks and inside of ears.  I added a darker color at the bottom of the dinosaurs spots and then made them stand out more by using YG67 on the tops of each spot, again, adding dimension.

Don't be afraid to experiemnt with different color families or jumping up 10 or more numbers.  For example, I added YR04 to the outer edge and parts of ring on the pacifier.  I used B06 and B16 for some more dimension on the baby's onesie and then I did remove some color with my Copic blender pen.  Last, I added some color underneath so that the baby looks to be sitting somewhere and not suspended in mid air - I believe it's BV04 and BV02.  I also added some grey highlights using N2, again just to show more of the additional dimension of the image.  I hope I have provided some helpful hints today and that you have enjoyed my tutorial.  Hugs!!