Monday, September 20, 2010

Experiments with Colour - Day Five

Posted by Micah at 7:00 AM
I've learned several valuable lessons this evening (last night by the time you read this).


1. I've managed to post five days of this experiment series and have a different title for each day.
2. Chalks are not my favorite way to colour... at all.
3. The dragon image is not a good chalk subject.


So first up, thank you to my Stampin' Up supplier, Colleen Hilchie, for lending me the "Stampin' Pastels. This experiment isn't a wash because I still learned something... I mean other than I suck at colouring with chalk.


A few tips before I continue. I didn't have an "embossing buddy" (basically a tiny bean bag with chalk instead of beans) to go over the paper with before stamping. That means if I go outside the lines, the chalk sticks.

Also, it's much easier to work with a solid image than a line image like this dragon. The technique is suppose to be... use embossing buddy on paper, stamp image in versa mark, "paint" chalk onto versa mark where it then sticks. I'm going about it all wrong and that put me behind a bit.


I did give a go of using a versa marker and then colouring. It didn't look so great to me. There was simply too much contrast between where the versa marker was and was not... so I might as well be colouring with markers.


Still I stuck with it, trying again to get my earth tone dragon (maybe that's my problem? I just can't work with brown??). I used Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, More Mustard and So Saffron before I gave up!

But I did want to make sure to show an example of the "right" way (or at least the way I was told) to use chalks, so I dug out some generic random stamps I had and used those.


Remember that an embossing buddy would keep the area surrounding my image "clean", giving a nice soft look but not as messy as shown in my images. I used Garden Green, Bravo Burgundy and So Saffron.


Bottom line? I don't like chalks, at least not for colouring line images. I'll just chalk it up to preference. *snerk* See what I did there??



Stamp image from Paper Pretties.

7 comments:

Kathy and Lucky said...

You did fine with them, I am not a lover of chalk as well, only to fill in a big area, like the "Lucky" image, the grass around him. Another thing I have used when using my Stampin' Pastels is the blender pen, dip it in the chalk then color and that works. I still like your tutorials, keep it up :)

Anne Marie Hile said...

Ruth, your post today made me smile! Chalks are not my favorite coloring method either, but I think you did a great job. I like visiting every day, I learn something new every time! I never knew about the embossing buddy tip, I do now. Thanks! :)

Elizabeth said...

You did a great job with this technique. I MUST go and find my pastels! :)

Elisabeth said...

Oh my, thanks for the smile, I so enjoyed your post!

Laura said...

I not great with my chalks so I just use mine for distressing the edges.But I think you did a great job!

C.Hilchie said...

I think you did great! I easily lent you my chalks because ( as it seems the majority) I don't like them either. Not for lack of trying however. One other tip for everyone, don't bother using the little applicators provided, they are insulting to the art of craft. Use either q-tips for higher detail coloring, or sponge daubers for filling in the larger areas. You can blend better, and have more control.

HappyCrafter said...

I only use chalks for things like getting a dab of blue in the sky or other vague things like that, or when I want very faint vague bits of colour, where staying in tight lines is not the goal :-)

 

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