What I Use To Draw (Coloring, Addendum)

While working on new post I found this picture which I forgot to include in the recent coloring post.

It's just a color chart I made a while back so I have an idea of how the AD markers I use look when applied to Bristol board. I'm not someone who can keep colors in mind so this is a handy guide which I have on hand whenever I'm coloring something.

These are the basic colors I work with, my palette, I guess. Markers get expensive and I always wish I could go outside this work set and pick up some other colors to play with. "Maybe next time", I always say to myself, but I always err on the side of necessary colors when I place an art supply order and get extras of the ones I work with often -- Frost Blue, Lemon Yellow, Goldenrod and Life Red for Milk and Cheese, for example. I go through those fairly quickly, and I'm better off as a freelancer having those on hand than picking up an interesting color that I will probably only use once in a while.

I noticed the other day that some of the colors have faded, you can see where I've added an extra little swatch or squarish block of color below a rectangular example (I'm going to need to do a new and updated palette soon to keep it current and address the aging/fading).

When I'm working on index cards and I'm not sure about how a color will go down I take a blank out and test it. Different paper will yield different results as far how a marker will spread. The thinner or crappier the paper the more of a spread you'll get from a marker.

Even on good paper it's a good idea to use a light tough with markers and get a feel of how the colors will spread or bleed on what you're working on. The bleed can cause headaches, besides just going over the lines a bleeding, spreading color can mix with other colors and create an undesired effect. When I work on something thin like a plain index card, the colors will often bleed over and into the white word balloons. I can fix this with white ink, but some bleeding can lead me to work over the problem area with a marker to blend the entire area into a new shade, or cover it with a darker color, or give up and use black. Sometimes the fixes work. But if the bleed is horrendous, that's a drawing I'll toss.

Sometimes the markers will dull the ink line, or a combination of erasing and coloring will knock down the intensity of the ink line. If it looks unattractive I'll go in with a Tombow or Micron and embellish the lines. I have to try not to get too into it or I'll re-ink the entire thing.

I think that's everything else I could say about my coloring process.

Next up: This and That.