Have you finished coloring your project and just wish you could amp it up a bit? Coloring looking a little flat? In this article I’ll be talking about how to mix mediums to get depth and shine in your coloring!
I started out by printing off a coloring page I purchased on Etsy from Nikhat Illustration. I printed out one of the coloring sheets onto hot press watercolor paper. This paper was not thick but it was smooth and did go through my printer. I colored the entire page with alcohol markers. I did not do any shading at all. I was using Spectrum Noir Tri-Blends and I used mostly the lightest colors with a few of the mid-tones. Using a different design I printed another one onto X-PressIt Card Stock and cut it down to slimline size. For my first method, this is the panel I chose to work with.
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Note the soft shading in the pink on the outer petals. So soft and pretty! I used my PrismaColor Pencils for this, then blended with Gamsol (odorless mineral spirits). I will finish this at a later time and I feel this method really looked nice.
My next method is another easy one – this time with shine!
Note the blue bits – I did this with a glitter gel pen! Super easy to do with one drawback. I find that these types of pens do not come with a fine point so it’s a bit harder to get into those nooks and grannies of the image. But, overall, the effect is lovely and sparkly! Highlighting more than one color would be really pretty! This design works well for this as there are lots of little bits.
My next example is using metallic/glitter watercolors.
This was a bit hard to capture in a photo, but the effect is lovely. I’ve used very little water and my paint was quite thin, but it still deposits lots of shine! Here I painted the darker pinks, the blues and bits of lighter green. This is the panel I made the card from…so pretty!
My last example for you is using Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.
As you can see on the blue and purple areas, this method deposits lots of color. This is where using the hot press watercolor paper works very nicely. By using the alcohol markers for the base color, none of it is disturbed by the color on top! I think this would work well with Karin markers as well.
I hope you give mixing your mediums a try. You never know when hit on something you love to do and looks gorgeous!
Betsy Birge is from Liberty, US. She has been writing for TPC since 2023. Betsy started paper crafting in 2006 and she mostly makes cards. Her style is a bit of everything and she loves watercoloring both her cards and fine art showing in local galleries.