Monotone Colouring

Hi Everyone, it's Faye here today :)

This month, I thought I would talk to you about colouring in monotone.

Monotone colouring can feel a little daunting if you have not done it before. Normally we have a whole range of colours available to us. Colouring in monotone not only restricts us to one colour group, but by default, it then limits the amount of colours we can use on top of that. Eeek, right?

Wrong. It can actually simplify things. Think about where you are going to lay your shading and cast shadows and you can colour an entire image with just four colours. But today we will take it easy!

I'm taking monotone in a literal sense and will colour the image to look black and white. But don't be afraid to try different things. Try the Es for a sepia look. Someone is feeling ill? Give them an image that uses only greens! Play around...

If it's your first time, stick with it. When you start colouring the skin in 'unusual' colours, it looks really odd. But once other areas start filling with the same colour, your eye will soon get used to it.

I have used a fairy from Whimsy Stamps, she's called Fairy Gifts For You. I will colour the skin first, and I'm going dark to light.  Ok, let's go...

C3

C1

C0

Wings next, dark to light...

C3

C1

C0

Now I will move on to the stripes on her top, her tights and her skirt. Again, dark to light...

C3

Because the stripes on the tights are so small, I am going to skip the next colour on those and just colour the top and skirt...

C1

C0.
I've also added some cheeky grounding here, using C0, C1 and C3 and I coloured the star in her hair too. Ssssh, don't tell anyone, it will be our secret ;)

Ok, let's add some contrast. I am going to work on the remaining stripes on her top, her tights and her shoes...

C9
As before, because the stripes on the tights are so small, I am going to skip the next colour on those and only add colour to the stripes on her top...

C7

C5

Now I will start on her hair, but this time I am going light to dark. I don't want to lay dark colour then lose the texture I have added by bleaching it out with lighter colours...

C3

C5

C7

That leaves the gifts. I'm reverting to my lighter colour trio and going dark to light again...

C3

C1

C0

Now for some contrasting gifts...

C9

C7

C5

Nearly done! Let's add some cast shadows...

C5
I've also used some White Gel Pen to add a few details to the gifts and stars.

All finished!

Copics Used...
C0, C1, C3, C5, C7, C9

Thanks for stopping by... Have a great day.