MCC Colouring 101 Wk 4 - Colour Theory, Scales & Negative Space

my sketch book pages

I've been trying to get my MCC Course Work finished before yesterday's deadline for viewing the video tutorials. There has been so much to take in that I'm going to re-take the course the next time it is offered but I wanted to go through all the material so I can allow it to settle in my thinking as there have been further surprising discoveries for me.

Digital Images of Scales (left) & Cobbles (right): Glenda Waterworth

Colouring: Scales - Derwent Inktense pencils; Cobbles - Derwent Coloursoft pencils

Week 4 centred around applying Colour Theory whilst introducing some interesting techniques; I loved the colouring on white in my previous post  & find I am viewing stamps with different eyes in terms of how to colour them. I have used complementary colours for the thistle & mermaid images & a combination of analogous & complementary colours for the dragon image & the treescape.

Digital Image: Glenda Waterworth

Colouring: Derwent Coloursoft pencils

Stamp: Elusive Images UA5SP0326 Underwater Kingdom

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Colouring: Copic Markers

The dragon is coloured using a combination of Derwent Coloursoft pencils, a burnishing pencil & Cotman pan watercolours on Cotman Cold Pressed/NOT Grain Fin 190 gsm watercolour paper. The various ways of using watercolouring media (inks, pencils, Aquatone sticks & pan watercolours) in combination with wax/oil based pencils has been an eye-opener for me & one I particularly enjoy. I have yet to explore using 300 gsm Hot Pressed watercolour paper but intend to do that when I re-take the course if not before.

Stamp: Chocolate Baroque UDLSP0182 Here Be Dragons

 Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black

When I came to the colouring negative space exercise I found I did not really have any stamps suitable - in fact I realise that I have avoided such images. A whole new world of images is opening up & I now have a few with which to experiment.  I was too heavy handed with my initial attempts but was able to solve that by erasing my pencil colouring then lightly reapplying the colour. It was during this process (combined with doing some technical pencil research regarding the various manufacturers via Peter Weatherill's Coloured Pencil Topics website) that I discovered that it is the wax content in the Coloursoft pencils that accounts for both the "bloom" when several layers are applied & the exceptionally friable lead. I shall be experimenting with the Faber Castell Polychromos oil-based pencils in due course.

Stamp: Chocolate Baroque UA4SP0290 Patchwork Butterfly

Inks: Chipped Sapphire, Stormy Sky & Weathered Wood Distress Inks

I'll finish with what arrived for me last Wednesday - it was our tenth Wedding Anniversary & Richard arranged for this to be delivered.