Colouring fantasy

Today I’ve finished colouring another pattern. When my kids saw it, they were looking at me as if I was from another planet. Too bright, too colourful, mom, you’ve definitely got overboard with this… Well, you can have the same impression but I will be brave enough to say I don’t care. I love that brightness, I love those colours, and I love the combinations. This is exactly what I love about colouring. I follow my instincts, make my choices and can go as crazy as I like and dare.

My older sister used to colour images as an adult too, until she bought a laptop and started playing facebook games, but that’s another story. What I want to say is that I thought she behaved in a childish way. Colouring images?? Oh, come on… Then, two years ago I got inspired and started colouring myself. A different kind of images though, I like the ones that you can bend and change with your fantasy. There are no right and wrong results and you can colour the same image in many different ways.

I use felt tips for colouring and usually colour one image for several days as it can take a few hours before it’s finished.

It’s not easy to get the colours accurate when scanning the images but I’ve found out two improvements that are helpful.

Firstly, it’s useful to tell your scanner that it shall preserve your image from showing the other side of the paper through, even if the other side is blank. This option should be in the scanner’s settings. I don’t know why but without choosing this option, the scanned paper is greyish and the colours are a bit weird, with this option ticked off, the paper is white and the colours are bright.

Secondly, it’s useful to correct potential colour discrepancies in Photoshop or Lightroom or any other similar software where you can change hues and adjust lights. I have most problems with violet which often becomes blue when scanned, it’s easy to move the hue slider and bring it back to what she should look like.

I wish I could draw but I’m not good at it and this is another wonderful way to get creative. There are many sorts of images available that you can either download or buy and you might be surprised how much the choice of colours and combinations and the way of colouring would tell you about yourself. I’m not laughing at the adult colouring any more.