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Good morning,
Last week, we began a series of articles on various coloring techniques for stamped characters. Today, i bring you my very own flatbrush coloring technique, which I developed last year. A complete tutorial will be published in a future article.
Required Materials
Plastic palette, water container, black Versafine or Stazon ink, waterbase ink ( (Distress, Color Box, etc), 90 lbs (300 gr) watercolor paper, pad paper, good quality ½ or #12 flat brush (Synthetic bristles for decorative painting), good quality #4 round brush (Synthetic bristles for decorative painting)
À propos des pinceaux
I strongly suggest using good quality brushes used in decorative painitng. These usually have a shorter handle (18 cm / 7 in) and are clearly identified for use with acrylic paint. Quality is prime if you want good results.
About the inks
To color characters… To color characters, we use water based inks, this will allow us to manipulate color more easily and create tones that will be more vibrant or transparent depending on the way we use them. I like to use mainly Distress ink in bottles. Liquid ink allows for better control the quantity used and they are also more economical as they cost less. In the long run, they are also more practical than ink pads for this technique. However, I did begin with the ink pads and they do produce the same end-result.
À propos du papier aquarelle
Watercolor paper is essential with this technique, as we will be repetitively rubbing in the color with a wet brush. Any other kind of paper will «pill» and make holes when too wet from the brush.
Usually, we’ll use a watercolor paper that is thinner (90 lbs or 300 g) and as smooth as possible. A thicker watercolor paper (140 lbs) will also give good results, providing it’s smooth enough, but if you plan on cutting out the shape to mount it in 3-D, the thicker paper will be more difficult to handle and tear more easily.
Watercolor paper in available in art supply stores, in the Watercolor section. I recommend Canson brand products, which are quite easy to find.
About the palette
If you use mainly bottled ink, I highly recommend the round plastic palette as shown on the picture. It’s a more practical palette as the small “containers” keep the liquid inks secure and separate from one another. I usually use the same few colors, so I have written them down next to the appropriate container. Identifying liquid inks is important, as they all look similar when fresh out of the bottle. Personally, when I am done, I place the palette in am air-tight container and store it into the refrigerator until I am ready to use it again. The coolness prevents evaporation and humidity and the ink drops remain in their liquid form. I rarely wash my palette, I rather add some new drops. If we washed it every time, we would wais precious quantities of paint.
You’ll quickly realize that using liquid inks is quite economical. One single drop goes a long way.
Preparing the paintbrush and applying the technique
My flat brush technique allows us to paint shades that will give our characters and objects shape and perspective. It is a very precise technique that does not allow for much improvisation. There is one way to apply it and that is what we will see here.
Preparing the paintbrush is an essential component is the success of this technique. If you skip that step, the effect won’t be conclusive. Rather than begin gradual, the shading would show bold changes and lines, or you will have a wide stroke that is difficult to touch up. I will explain in detail how to completely color a character. I chose a Tilda stamp from the Magnolia collection, because they are very popular in card-making and scrapbooking, and also because the features are nice and round, perfect to practice this technique.
Préparer le pinceau
Fill the water container with lukewarm water to ¾ of its capacity. Avoid cold water, lukewarm will be absorbed more easily by the bristles.
Begin by immersing the bristles and stirring them in the water to ensure they are well saturated. Remove excess water by touching only one side of the bristles to a dry paper towel during two or three seconds. Make sure the metal rim is not wet to avoid unwanted water droplets on your work.
Préparation du pinceau avec encres liquides (en bouteilles)
Then, dip the corners of the bristles in the edge of the ink drop to pick up a very small amount of ink on about half the width of the bristles. Too much ink will make the color too much and you won’t have control over the intensity.
Prepping the paintbrush using inkpads
To fill up the bristles of a paintbrush using inkpads, you must slide half the width of the bristles on the edge of the pad in a back-and-forth motion to get enough ink. You may need to be firm in your motion in order to pick up enough ink.
The next step is to spread the ink in the bristles to achieve the desired shading. To do so, place the bristles on the paper and apply a firm back-and-forth motion as shown on the below pictures. Keep the paintbrush upright while you do this to ensure that the bristles don’t twist to one side. The pressure applied should make the bristles fan out slightly during this step. The coloring of the image is explained further under “Coloring a character step by step”.
Note that the intensity of the color depends on the quantity of water and ink used. For a lighter effect, use more water and less ink. Ideally, keep a piece of water color paper nearby for testing before applying color directly to the image.
Make sure there is enough water in the bristles, to avoid bold lines. Tip: place the tip of the bristles right to the edge of the water; the bristles will absorb the water and that will usually be enough.
Using the brush to mix two or more colors
This is my favorite technique for mixing colors and it yields a wide array of shades in the chosen colors.
For example: While coloring a face, I want to add subtle depth to the contours where the shadow should be. To achieve this, I will use Tattered Rose as a base + Victorian Velvet + Vintage Photo.
I dip the corner of the bristles in Tattered Rose.
I do the back-and-forth motion on the pad paper.
I dip the same corner in the second color: Victorian Velvet.
I go back on the same spot on my paper pad and do the back-and-forth motion again.
I dip the same corner again in the third color (Vintage Photo) and I do the back-and-forth motion again on the same spot on the pad paper.
If I find that my color is too intense, I go back to Tattered Rose and repeat the back-and-forth motion. I can now apply the shadow to the face.
In summary, this mixing technique is meant to create in-between shades using two or more colors. When using color A and B, you can obtain 4 different colors or tones. You can then create a mix closer to color A or another mix closer to color B.
If you are looking to create a color slightly darker than color A, use color B first and add color A to it. For a color slightly lighter than color B, use color A first, add color B and you will have a mix that is closer to B.
Remember this: the dominant color is the color picked second.
This mixing technique can be applied for a whole range of complementary colors. Don’t hesitate to use two or more colors to achieve exactly the color you are looking for.
Using the round brush
To lightly cover certain surfaces of the image, a round paintbrush can be used. I often use a round brush for the base coloring of the hair, and also to attenuate the colors or shading that I find too intense or “cut”.
First dampen the bristles by dipping it in the water container and stir to saturate completely. Remove excess water by setting the brush a couple of seconds on a paper towel and remove any droplets from the rim.
To lift color directly from n inkpad using a round brush, lightly slide the tip of the bristles on top of the pad. Then, on the pad paper, spread the ink using a small circular motion to ensure the application will be even on the image.
As for the flat brush, the bristles must be damp enough to achieve the desired result. To do this, use the same tip as above, lightly touching the water to let the bristles absorb just enough water.
This tip also works for correcting with the flat brush. Dampen the bristles with a water droplet and, using a light and small circular motion, erase imperfections while the image is still damp. Your brush should be angled at about 45 degrees. It will be more difficult to correct an area that has dried too much. So keep in mind to correct right away when you are coloring.
On the following photo, there are four (4) brush strokes, all made with the same flat brush. As you can see, the four (4) strokes are different. Here is why:
A - The shading was not prepared well enough on the pad paper, which makes an abrupt cut.
B - The shading was done with too much water in the bristles, the ink spread too wide, or a combination of both. The result is somewhere between a washed out color and a messed up shading.
C - The shading is somewhat well prepared, but applied with a hesitant motion, so each little stop makes lines (I call them hesitation marks). They can be corrected using a round brush and a small circular motion, but this must be done quickly, before it gets too dry.
D - A well made shading that clearly shows dark and translucent, with no hesitation or inaesthetic line.
Here are now a few example of shading done on stamped characters.
In the first series of photos, you can see the evolution of the shading on the shonwman's body (Magnolia). On the fourth photo, the shading stops a bit too abruptly, as evident in the top of the stroke.
Now, you can see the coorection appllied to the shading to make it smoother. To achieve this, I used the flat brush with a little bit more water to dampen the surface again and I applied firm a circular motion using the round brush to soften the line.
On this third example, you can see how to shade a rounded corner. This stroke is callsed the C stroke. Shading is applied by sliding the brush without changing its position, leaving the bristles in the same position, allowing a smooth shading stroke with no line or mark. In the end, you can soften the shading using the damp round brush in a small circular motion.
Here, the same corner rounding move on Tilda's coat sleeve.
In these last examples, here is the shading done on Tilda's face, using the colors mentioned earlier.
Now for a few shading strokes on the hem of Tilda's dress.
And, finally, the last touch of more intense colors that bring out the color of the character's clothing.
Now you know how I do it. I hope you will be inspired to try it out for yourself. Who knows, you might just adopt it!
Now, go practice, and happy scrapping!
Clara
