This summer and fall, I’ve been putting all of my energy into creating new drawings and paintings. I’ve let a lot of things go (including my hair and my badly neglected garden) to pursue my art, but I have no regrets. We only live once. But we still have to make a living, and this is partly why I decided to dip my toes into the product design arena. That, and I have to be honest–it’s really exciting to hold something you have created in your hands, drink from it, see it on your couch or a wall, or even carry your groceries in it.
I had completed a series of six paintings of vegetables and fruits for a delicatessen in the Traverse City area and, based on positive reactions to them, thought “why not put these images on tote bags?” And prints. And why not coffee mugs and notebooks, too? Of course, I didn’t plan far enough ahead to take advantage of the 2017 Christmas shopping season (I am very new at this and though I have plenty of cheerleaders, I have no helpers), but that’s okay. I needed time to pull all the pieces together, research “print on demand” companies, and then photograph and digitize my work to fit a variety of product shapes sizes. And begin the arduous process of uploading big files to websites that don’t always work as well as you want them to. This all proved to be excruciatingly time consuming. I am still tinkering with not only the products I plan to carry, but also with several companies trying to find the best fit for me, and for my current and future customers.
April 23, 2019 UPDATE: My Garden Goods Collection can now be found exclusively through the GardenZeal website!
I’ve had a number of people ask about my coloring process, and now that my RubyCharmColors Etsy shop is up and running, I have a little time to devote to a new post.
I basically follow a two-step process. First I use watercolor pencils (and blending with a water brush)–and then step two–light layers of regular colored pencils on top of the watercolors. It is a technique that works well for me though I am still experimenting and playing around with it. Not everyone will want to devote a substantial chunk of time to a coloring page, and not everyone will like the same technique I use, but in the spirit of turning adult coloring pages into an art form, here’s how I do it …
Some of my favorite tools I keep handy when coloring
TOOLS
Before we jump into process, I thought it might be useful to talk about a few of the tools I rely on. First, I like to work on a decent illustration board. I have two (one large, one small) from my art school days and am glad I never got rid of them. The surface of a good illustration board is very hard, smooth and shouldn’t scratch. Coloring on a surface that is scratched or dented can make your pencils skip and it’s hard to get a nice even layer of color.
Another thing I appreciate about a good illustration board is that I can write notes on it with a pencil (if I need to remember which colors I am using) and I can test color combos on it, too. The board can be easily cleaned with a damp cloth and a little soap between projects. Sometimes I tape my work to the board, but since I like to move my paper around to work on different areas, I only tape it if I want to set it aside for another time. My smaller board (pictured above) has a few eye screws on one side so I can hang it up and out of the way when I’m not working on it.
I also can’t live without my pencil books. I have 4 of them (two for watercolor pencils and two for regular colored pencils) so I don’t have to use the tin and cardboard boxes some of my pencils came in. Aside from keeping everything organized, they don’t clang around and there’s less of chance I’ll knock the boxes off my desk and risk cracking the leads inside the pencils. The tin boxes are attractive, but they make a horrendous clatter when they hit the wood floor. There are a few nice cases out there, but I settled on the zip-up “books” made by BTSKY and Soucolor (and ordered them through Amazon). No issues yet, and I use them a lot. Grey for my watercolor pencils and black for my regular colored pencils.
A good pencil sharpener is a must. I have an electric X-ACTO (great for new un-sharpened pencils) and a small brass sharpener. I’ve had it forever and have no idea where it came from. I use the brass sharpener the most because it gives me a fine point without chewing up too much of the pencil.
I also keep a small brush handy for keeping my page free from little chunks of junk that accumulate while I work. I don’t like to brush the paper off with my hands because oil and sweat can make the paper less receptive to the pencils. I also use (at least when the weather is bloody hot) one of those funny-looking artist gloves so the side of my hand doesn’t stick to the paper and smudge things up. I originally got one for working on the glass surface of my iPad. Cooler months aren’t bad, but when it’s hot, I can’t drag my hand across any drawing surface without it sticking. No fun. And not good for smooth lines.
Because I use watercolor pencils for the first layer of color on my drawings, I also use a few different water brushes. They have a reservoir that holds water and slowly releases it as needed. If too much comes out, use a tissue to mop up the excess–and if not enough comes out, give the reservoir a little squeeze. These brushes allow me to control how much water I use, and since the bristles are fairly stiff, they work really well for blending the watercolor pencils in a very controlled manner. I have two Pentel Aquash water-brushes and a few from Derwent and Kuretake. I honestly don’t have a favorite brand at this point but choose based on tip size in relation to the area I am working on. Okay, well maybe the Kuretake has the best fine point for really tight areas.
STEP ONE: WATERCOLOR PENCILS
Below is a close up of the coyote I’ve been working on recently (a grey-line version of my Coyote and Fox illustration) printed on grey card stock) with the first rough layer of watercolor pencil. It looks a little sloppy, but that’s okay. It will all come together.
I used French Grey (my go-to color for nearly all of my work) and Night by Caran d’Ache (Museum Aquarell‘s which are dreamy to work with); Faber-Castell’s Albrecht Dürer watercolor pencils (Warm Grey, Nougat and Bistre); and Blue Grey 68 by Derwent. As mentioned, I don’t have full sets of any of these pencils. Instead, I order individual pencils as needed through Blick or pick them up in stores. Blick usually has decent prices and it is a reliable company, and buying specific pencils instead of full sets helps me avoid collecting colors I may never use.
Once I have filled in areas with the dry watercolor pencils, I use a water-brush to blend my first layer. The wet brown stripe in the middle of the photo above was worked with a fine point Pentel Aquash water-brush. Instead of “painting,” I think of it as gently “scrubbing” the color around … but not so hard the paper loses it’s integrity and falls apart. There’s nothing worse than creating a big ugly hole in the paper–especially if you have a good portion of a piece completed. I’ve done it enough to learn my lesson. Be gentle with purpose.
If you want to try this technique, practice a few times on scrap paper so you get a feel for your brand of watercolor pencils, your brush, and how they all behave (or misbehave) on the paper you will be using for your final piece.
I work in fairly small, controlled areas. Above, you can see where I started blending the brown swirl shapes. Working on small areas at a time allows the water to dry faster and keeps colors I don’t want blended together separated. As one area dries, I tackle a new one until I have finished with the watercolors.
Below, you can see where I’ve moved into the blues and added some Derwent Inktense Sea Blue and Deep Indigo. Watercolor pencils play nicely with one another, so if after blending an area you want more color, just sketch a little more on top and get it wet again. I prefer to add layers after the paper is dry, but a watercolor pencil on wet paper can produce lovely effects, too.
Things still looks a little sloppy at this point, and that’s fine. Before I started using colored pencils over watercolor, I was a lot more precise applying the color before blending with water. On their own, watercolor pencils produce a beautiful look. But since I will be adding a few layers of colored pencil over the top, I think of this as a simple under-body or base layer of color to build upon.
Why go through the trouble of laying down this watercolor base layer?
I have found that it gives the paper a really nice, faintly “gritty” texture or “tooth” that my colored pencils really seem to love–especially on smoother types of paper and card stock. The key is to make sure the paper has dried before grabbing your colored pencils.
Small, self-contained areas are pretty easy to work on because they have a definitive start and end point (such as the brown lines on the coyote’s rear and neck). Where it gets tricky is where there are larger areas that move from one color to another (behind the ears all the way to the back, tail, and part of the legs). I’ve had to learn to work fast. I typically “scrub” quickly in small circles, but sometimes I pull the brush along the edge of a border to get a larger area damp. Then my circular strokes are used to scrub those colors around and blend them together. If some of the areas look a little splotchy, don’t worry. The colors usually even out as they dry, and if they don’t, the colored pencil layer will eventually blend it all together.
My best advice? Play. Experiment! One of the great things about having digital copies of an illustration is that you can print out a few on different types of paper and play around with techniques and different color pallets before committing to a final piece. And … if you royally screw something up (I’ve done it plenty) you can print and try, try again.
While all of the areas I have water-colored are drying (it should not take long at all), I put my watercolor pencils away and pull out my regular colored pencils. I try not to mix them up because it really stinks when you color a whole area and hit it with water only to realize you hadn’t used a watercolor pencil. And watercolor pencils don’t work very well over regular colored pencils because of the waxes and oils in the colored pencil leads. They can, if thick enough, repel water. So I try to keep my pencils types separate.
COLORED PENCILS
The pic above shows the coyote with all the watercolors blended and a start (on the belly) with regular colored pencil layers. Adding light layers can give your work a lot more depth, vibrancy and definition.
I like to use the softer colored pencils (Prismacolor, Faber-Castell, Caran d’Ache Luminance and Pablo, and Bruynzeel) for the larger areas and I work with a light touch and try to avoid coloring in the same direction. Light circles or tight cross-hatching works well. Sometimes the layers can get a little too thick and an annoying “chunky” build-up can occur. It happened with some of the sepia (see pic below) I was using to the left of the big white star. Too much build-up from being a little heavy-handed in that area, whoops.
Some of the sheen in my photos are a reflection of the wax in the pencil leads and appears when you apply a lot of pressure, or go over the same area quickly back and forth. Burnishing, as it is often called, can be a great way to deepen colors and set them, but you can overdo it so be careful. Once I have my softer layers of pencil down, I then use my harder pencils (like Tombow’s Irojiten pencils, the Verithins by Prismacolor, and Derwent’s Studio pencils) to carefully carve in sharper details. I used black, Tuscan red and indigo Verithins to define parts of the coloring below.
I also like to use the Caran d’Ache white Luminance pencil for all of my brighter highlights. It seems to give me the best coverage of all the white pencils I have. A little pricey compared to other brands, but for a responsive, reliable white pencil, I think it’s worth the price. Most of my white pencils barely show up when applied over other colors.
One tip about whites … if you want a bright white to appear over another color, always color that area with your white pencil first. Next, work your other colors around it and right up to the white. And then, hit the white area with your white pencil again being conscious of pushing from the white center toward the other color(s). If you pull from the other color(s) into the white, you’ll get more blending (and not a brighter white).
I find that I can blend and burnish colors together pretty well with the Derwent and Irojiten pencils as a final top layer. I usually use a shade or few lighter than the color I am working over. For instance, on the brown and taupe colored areas of the coyote, I used Irojiten’s Pigeon Grey, Chesnut and Eggshell to “set” the final layer over the Prismacolor and Polychromos French Grey and Bistre. I’ll do the same with the blues. Irojiten Indigo over Polychromos and Prismacolor Indigo for the darker areas, and maybe Irojiten Midnight Blue or Kingfisher for the medium blues.
As a side note, I have found that the Irojiten Eggshell pencil has become a favorite go-to for blending many different colors–it’s light enough to pick up the color of the layer underneath without muddying things up and it’s hard enough to push the colors together.
And there is a push and pull when it comes to working with colored pencils …
Below: slowly working more colors. I think I had about 2 or 3 hours into the coyote at this point. I realize not everyone wants to spend this much time on a coloring project, but I really enjoy the process. While I love to see the final product, it’s the act of choosing the colors, working the water and the pencils, and having time to focus on something tangible and tactile. An escape from all the screens virtual everythings.
The bottom photo shows the final layers of colored pencils, plus a few details that make the image pop. I like using the Sakura Pen-Touch paint pens to add small dots (be careful you don’t smudge if you try this – paint pens take a little time to dry). I also go in with a black waterproof Faber-Castell PITT pen to add dots and lines, or sometimes just to darken areas that got a little covered by pencil marks (like the coyote’s eye). Gel, metallic and glitter pens are fun, but I don’t use them much anymore because they don’t photograph or scan well.
I also try not to feel restricted when it comes to following the original design of any page (including my own illustrations for coloring) and often add in new details like the oblong white and grey shapes on the tail.
Here is the same coyote I tested out with color after my original black line drawing was complete and converted into a vector for printing. It was printed on white card stock (instead of the grey-scale lines on grey card stock for my current coyote). Not sure which one I like best, but they were both enjoyable to work on.
I hope some of the information about my process and techniques can be useful to you. Again, my approach isn’t for everyone, but hopefully it inspires you to try something new. Don’t be afraid to take your time and push your creativity to the next level. I am always trying to learn–always thinking about ways to improve. And while my own relationship to art (and now coloring) certainly provides relief from stress, art is also my passion (and can surely cause stress at times).
Isn’t that the Yinyang of life? 😉
I’d love to hear from you if you have questions, comments, or techniques you would like to share!
UPDATE: I now have six pencils cases – seems my pencil collection has grown a little. I am sure some of you can relate to this! 😉
Scenario: I am sitting at my desk covered with pencils and pens coloring one of my illustrations. Someone walks past my open door and suddenly I feel like a little kid. Guilty that I am “playing” and not doing more important things. But I am working. Really.
Over the past few months, I have found that it is absolutely necessary to color each of the designs I am illustrating for a coloring book and coloring pages. First, because it allows me to uncover flaws in the design itself. Perhaps there is a line missing that throws off the parameters of a space. Or a line that causes uneven spacing. Or maybe it’s just a messy line. Minutia for sure, but it is important for me to think about audience and how an audience might approach a design.
If someone is filling a space with color and he or she realizes there’s a flaw, it could be frustrating, yes? And people who love to color seem to enjoy the relaxation the act of coloring provides … so I test out my designs.
In the design below, the bottom curl on the right side of the rod puppet needed another line to complete the overlap of hair over the the blue “cloud” curve in the background. A very small detail, but without actually coloring the design I may have never found it. And it bugs me. The solution? I pull up the line drawing in Procreate on my iPad and correct the issue before making it available for others to use.
Sometimes we can fudge an illustration and make it look okay (I used this flawed version in some of my social media), but for final designs ready to be sold, I like to be sure they are right.
Another reason I color my illustrations is so that I can use them in my social media accounts, for parts of my website and other marketing materials. And, I can’t lie: I do find laying down some color very enjoyable – especially on a wet, grey afternoon when it’s too crummy for yard work or a walk with the dogs.
A black and white illustration and a colorized version for testing. The process of coloring allows met to catch potential issues before someone else does.
While testing this illustration, I discovered a missing line at the bottom of the lion’s leg. I added into my master drawing on the iPad, and also added small dots along the bottom of the leg to make that space more clear, and to imply a little dimension.
Part of the reason I have struggled to “find time” to work on my art projects is simply because I have given it that title: find time. Well, that’s a big, steamy pile of poo. It’s a crappy human construct we continually allow ourselves to be tricked by.
If you want to get serious about something, you have to make time. Intentionally schedule it. Rope it off. Learn to say no. Say no a lot.
It’s not easy. Everyone wants a piece of your day. Kids, dogs, co-workers, spouses, friends. And they all need (and deserve) a little of your time, but not at such a cost it leaves you depleted. Exhausted. Resentful. No time to do much else but feel mad and sorry for yourself during that brief period of time between your head hitting the pillow and falling asleep.
And then there are distractions. Phone calls. The constant ding or buzz of texts and email. The mail lady honking her horn in your yard because she doesn’t want to walk all the way to the door to leave your dumb package. You hear something crash in the kitchen. The wood stove needs another chunk of wood. That flipping woodpecker won’t stop banging on the side of the house no matter how many times you pound the window or run outside in your socks to scare it away.
Mom!
Woof!
There are days I feel like Pavlov’s dog.
But I think that when you start demanding your own time, things fall into place. It gets easier to ignore the distractions. People figure out you are serious and they start respecting your time. Especially if you close the door.
A few things will pile up (dishes, laundry, etc.) but in the big scheme of things, does that really matter? If someone needs food, they’ll clean a pan to cook it.
Back in the 90s, I spent a little over a year in the Kalahari in Southern Africa. I met many wonderful people and was able to camp in a number of parks in Botswana and Zimbabwe when I had time to wander. While teaching English in a small school in the village of Kang, I started an art club with my students. I also adopted a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy–the runt of a litter of dogs born in Kanye–and spent many days walking around the village with him on my heels.
When it was time to head back to the States, I was fully prepared to bring my little dog with me. His crate was ready and I had all the necessary fees paid and paperwork filled out and that included a period of quarantine in England. Days before our flight, a veterinarian in Gaborone informed me that Baka had cancer in his hip and would not live very long at all. His hip was quickly and painfully deteriorating. Because he was accustomed to a life that most dogs in Botswana were not–he lived in my house and slept on my couch–and because I had no one who could guarantee his care once I was gone, I made the gut-wrenching decision to have him euthanized. It still bothers me to this day.
I did manage to bring home a few treasures, though–reminders of my time in Africa: a set of gazelle horns found in the sand a mile or so from Kang; an empty ostrich egg and turtle shell amulet given to me by Setsane, an old Bushman, and his tiny grandson who used to come by for tea and fatcakes now and then; a handful of Devil’s Claws; several journals detailing my experiences; photos; a well-used tin of Staedtler Aquarell watercolor pencils; and a folder of illustrations.
The bigger illustrations, done on 12 x 17 inch sheets of paper, were inspired by the wildlife I saw, but also by the bizarre dreams I had as a result of taking Mefloquine which is a drug used to prevent malaria. Over the years, even though the illustrations have been stored in a large ITOYA portfolio for much of the time, the colors have faded. The pencils were purchased from a small art store in the central mall of Gaborone, but I can’t recall where I found the paper. It wasn’t the best quality and has yellowed significantly over the past 20 or so years. A good reminder that if you want your art to last, use the best acid-free paper you can find.
elephants
horse and flying cats
butterflies
gazelle and fox
I have only 8 of those Staedtler watercolor pencils left, but it feels good seeing them nestled in with my newer art supplies. Comforting, somehow, that they made it far and long enough to see me get back to my arty roots and finally launch this new project.
Ruby Charm is a character from a children’s book I started writing and illustrating years ago. I have yet to finish the book, but different versions of Ruby are taped to my wall (and sometimes fall out of folders) in my office/studio.
Ruby was inspired by an eerily beautiful, old Javanese Wayang Golek rod puppet that my husband gave me for Christmas back in 2000. We found her in an antique store in the Eastern Market in Detroit, but I could not afford to spend what little money I had at the time on a puppet. Months later, when we got up Christmas morning, she was propped up under our Christmas tree. I am still touched by my husband’s thoughtfulness.
The puppet has been perched high on a shelf overlooking my room ever since. She is quite old. Her clothing is fragile and faded and the paint on her face is chipped, but I think she is stunning. Almost magical. So it seems fitting for Ruby Charm to be my mascot–a pseudonym for creative projects moving forward.
The original Wayang Golek puppet that inspired Ruby Charm and a recent rendition of her.
Once I have an illustration completed, I print out a few copies including one on card stock so that I can test out its “colorability” and have a little fun. I try to image people with different skill levels and how they may (or may not) struggle with some of the tiny spaces, the daunting larger spaces, and whether or not the lines are too think or thin. I also want to see how the illustration will look once it is colored.
I found that I really enjoy working with watercolor pencils. My daughter has a gorgeous set of Copic markers, and though I am temped to use them, I always grab my watercolor pencils. My favorites are those made by Caran D’Ache (the Museum Aquarelle series), Faber-Castell’s Albrecht Durer pencils, Prismacolor, Derwent (including the Inktense line), and last but certainly not least, what’s left of the old set of Staedtler Aquarelle watercolor pencils I picked up in South Africa back in the 80s. The Staedtler’s chronicled my time in the Kalahari (but that’s a story for another time).
Insect illustration with watercolor pencils, swatches, and a water brush
What I like about watercolor pencils is their versatility and ability to blend and layer color. I recently started using Pentel Aquash and Kurtake water brushes and plan to order a few others (including the new Derwent water brushes) to see which work best for me. It seems that many brands (like Jim Holtz, Mudder, Ohuhu, etc.) seem to be made by the same manufacturer (then branded out from there) but I am not sure.
At any rate, the water brushes work well for me and there is a high level of control when using water to blend colors. The paper I print my illustrations on (currently Georgia-Pacific Image Plus premium 110 lb card stock) does not become too saturated, and I can work in some pretty tight spaces. Blending larger spaces is a little more challenging, but if I saturate my brush with a little pigment and use that to blend what I’ve already colored, I can achieve decent coverage over larger areas.
I also find that going over areas I have used watercolor pigments with colored pencils helps me add more depth and more refined detail. I use a variety of brands when it comes to colored pencils. Prismacolor Premiers are a solid go-to, and I really love Faber-Castell’s Polychromos pencils. Bruynseel pencils lay down a nice rich coat of colors as do the Caran d’Ache Pablo and Luminance pencils. They are divine! For final layers (and sharper detail work) I rely on the Tombow Irojiten, Prismacolor Verithin, and Derwent Studio colored pencils. They are a little harder but help set my final layers. I do not own full sets of any of these pencils but instead, pick them up in stores when a certain color catches my eye, or I order them through Blick as needed.
Is anyone else in love with the Caran d’Ache white Luminance pencil? I don’t think I could live without it when it comes to highlights. Does anyone have a white pencil that works better? I’d love to know, and am always interested in trying new brands.
A few other favorite tools? I can’t be without my set of Isograph technical pens and pencils, and my small ring binder jammed full of color swatches in various groupings. I keep adding to the swatch mayhem. Vellum and Bristol paper, watercolor paper, Faber-Castell PITT pens and Sakura Micron pens (they seem to be all over the house), tape (any and all kinds–and that goes for erasures, too) and a few Ott-Lite lamps. And I have become attached to the pencil case I ordered to replace all the tin boxes my pencils originally came in. Love the tin boxes, but I’m more organized now and there is less clanging around and spillage. If you have kids, pets, and are prone to clumsiness, you know what I am talking about.
When I started illustrating again, I sketched out my ideas in pencil–usually on vellum–then transferred them onto heavier paper (Strathmore’s 300 Series Bristol). I used a Huion light board to ink my designs with Rotring Isograph and Sakura micron pens and hoped for no shaky hands, big mistakes or ink malfunctions. My goal was to keep my lines crisp and fluid.
Iterations of a horse: pencil sketch on vellum, India ink illustration, then watercolor pencil
Once I completed an illustration with black ink, I would scan it into my Mac with an Epson Stylus NX625. I spent a lot of time reading articles about how to get the cleanest scan possible and a lot of time fiddling with my scanner settings. Sometimes I got lucky. But more often than not, I had to pull an illustration into Photoshop to further clean it up. In addition to futzing with brightness and contrast adjustments, it also meant using my old Wacom Bamboo tablet and stylus to edit out mysterious shadows and the lines that were botched or strayed off course.
When I bought the Bamboo (a damn long time ago) it was pretty cool. A huge leap from zooming in and cleaning up individual pixels via incessantly clicking my mouse to being able to hold a pen and “draw” on the screen. But it was still awkward and I felt really detached–like I wasn’t really drawing. I could never seem to find a comfortable position for my hand, the pen, the orientation of the tablet to my screen . . . and there was all this space between me and the monitor. And a cord that always seemed to be in the way. It did not feel natural. At all.
Knowing full well I could ever afford one, I researched my dream tablet: the Wacom Cintiq line of “creative pen displays.” These tablets looked amazing and I loved everything they had to offer–except the price. And then someone told me about the iPad Pro and its capabilities with the Apple Pencil. I was skeptical, but it was a far less expensive option than the Cintiq. I eventually had a chance to play around with an iPad Pro at a store, and an hour later I caved and bought the big one. When I got home, I downloaded the Procreate app and charged up my newfangled pencil.
It took very little time to switch from using Photoshop on my Mac (which I have used for over fifteen years) to Procreate, and within a few days, I was flying.
Drawing on the glass screen with the Apple pencil is direct, immediate–so fluid and forgiving. And so much fun! I can use as many layers as I need to sketch out my ideas, resize and move individual pieces around, and use a top layer to complete my final black line illustrations. It is super easy to export illustrations to the cloud so I can pick them up on my Mac in Photoshop, Illustrator or Fireworks for final sizing, printing, creating digital pieces for social media, and backup storage.
My work process has become so much more organized and streamlined, and I can carry my digital sketchbook wherever I go. Moving to the iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil has truly been a game-changer, and now I can spend more time focusing on my designs and less time coaxing antiquated technology to do what I need it to do.
While I have been using Procreate exclusively, I know there are other great art apps to explore and would love to hear about your experiences. Always curious–feel free to comment!
