One of my coloring team members, Lora King, had an itch to color something really detailed, and since I had spent a little time working on a card-sized piece from the Mini Box collection, I thought it might be fun to redraw one of my original rabbit designs from 2017 with lots more detail. Below is my (unfinished) coloring of the original 2017 design using a mix of watercolor pencils and colored pencils. I did this when I first started playing around with coloring.
The rabbit design I included in the Mini Box collection had been resized to fit a 5.5 x 7.5″ card, so a portion of the artwork was cut off. I did this intentionally so the line art details would not be too reduced and too hard to color in this smaller physical format. Here is my colored version of the card (which is now in a sleeve in my planner) next to the original which was printed on 8.5 x 11″ card stock:
This smaller piece was a lot of fun to color and I used mostly Derwent Drawing and Lightfast pencils, plus Caran d’Ache Luminance and Irojiten pencils for all the details that I added in. And then I used a Luminance Titanium Buff pencil to blend all the patterns I created. For the sky background, I used Karen Spencer’s fab mica paints with a touch of watercolor pencil, and the colors were inspired by Paula Stone Leach’s coloring of my Kanga + Roo design.
After I finished this mini piece, I shared it with my coloring team, and that’s when Lora mentioned I should create a version with all of my little extra patterns already drawn in so she could color all the details. So I did (it took forever) and then sent her and the team the new line art PDF. A little time passed (a day or two?) and here is what Lora shared with me:
To say I was giddy when I saw her colored version is putting it mildly⏤how gorgeous! Lora’s colors are clear and bright, and I love that she incorporated what we call her signature turquoise and reds. Lora told me she used a mix of Holbein, Derwent Lightfast, and Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils along with Posca for the dots Cretacolor pastels, and also Caran d’Ache pastels for the background.
It is a challenging design to tackle, but one that will let you really become absorbed in color and pattern⏤and right now, in the time of the Rona and everything else that’s happening⏤is a very good thing. You can find this Fancy Rabbit design on Etsy!
Happy coloring and stay safe and healthy, my friends!
I adore all those tiny details!
Thank you, Ceri! I know that not everyone likes a ton of detail, but it can be an enjoyable creative challenge! 😉
Susan, I am so glad that you did it and have already bought it. Please consider doing more and adding them to a bundle image. 2 plain (grey and black) and 2 detailed.
Thank you, Michele, and I love that idea! I have been talking to the coloring team about doing that very thing so great minds think alike? 😉
GOSH…this is so gorgeous and I love Susan’s and Lora’s versions. This might really be challenging for me as I tend to stick to larger areas of color but I think it is truly worth downloading. Think it is just beautiful. Thanks Susan for sharing.
Thank you, Diane! I know what you mean about larger areas of color, though sometimes I really love the cathartic process of filling in all those little spaces. It’s easy to put it down for a while and go back to it later. All good fun! 🙂
Hi Susan, I was wondering if you’ll be offering the mini box collection again? Thanks, hope all is well.
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Hi Linda! I have a few Preorder sets on Etsy now that will be ready for shipping on Tuesday Feb.9th. They are selling like crazy so I plan to make even more once this little batch sells out. I am just waiting for the boxes themselves to arrive in the mail. Hope this helps, and thanks for asking! Hope all is well with you, my friend! 🙂