Do you enjoy colouring...

...I do!

I love to sit and just colour stamped or digi images - it is so satisfying seeing them come to life.

My medium of choice is alcohol pens but I know a lot of folk shy away from these as they feel the colours are too intense - they don't have to be.

Earlier this week, Ignacio very kindly gave away a freebie over on the Nicecrane Design blog...

...which is perfect for trying out colouring techniques. One of the plus points of digi images is that you can print them onto most paper types and you can also chose a size to suit the technique you wish to try.

When using alcohol pens I tend to use a smooth white CS and depending on the detail of the image I will print at a size that will fit either 2 or 4 onto a sheet of A4.

If you have pens but are not confident in their use it is a good idea to take some time to colour a blank colour chart printed onto the CS of your choice...

...this gives you a good idea of how the colours will look. This is a Spectrum Noir colour chart that I completed and looking at it you would think that those are some very bold colours - not the sort of shades to give you more of a 'watercolour look'...don't be fooled.
Starting with the printed image...

...I usually start with any characters that are shown...

 ...I have some favourite 'go to' colours for hair - TN1, TN2 & EB3. Now as I said, I usually complete the character first but I thought I would show you that you don't have to do it in that order so...

 ...I started to fill in the background. As I was aiming for a softer look, I didn't reach for the browns to shade the tree with - I used the warm greys BG1 & BG2 and then added a touch of EB2 to give a touch of stronger colour. The blues were a mix of BT1, IB1 and some of the paler Blue Greys & Ice greys. The greens were limited to the first 3 shades of the Dull greens...

...at this point I decided to go back to the character and colour the skin using TN1, TN2, FS1 & FS7.
This is the finished image...

...all the pinks in the Spectrum Noir range are quite strong but by blending in some flesh tones and ice grey then using the Blender pen to take out some of the colour it is still easy to achieve that softer hue. The HB1 used on the dress was also softened by using the blender pen.

So there you go, it is possible to use alcohol pens to create a slightly vintage watercolour effect. Why not give it a go.........................................................................................