This is not the video I thought I was making today.
Things definitely didn't go to plan, but let's start at the beginning anyway.
So I bought the Disney Thomas Kinkade
coloring book, and after so many requests, I decided it was time to color a page in.
These pictures are gorgeous.
There are so many different scenes,
but wow, there is a lot of detail here to color.
I can see why people find these a bit
intimidating at first, but I think it also presents a fun
challenge and would be enjoyable to color if you just trust yourself to start.
One thing I'll point out right away is
that I've seen a lot of comments from people asking why their final
pictures don't look anything like the reference photos on the left.
So let's just talk about that for a moment.
These are original paintings
by Thomas Kinkade, a famous artist, and they are amazing.
These coloring pages on the right have
been created from these paintings, not the other way around.
So these paintings don't have these black lines, and it's not expected.
But the average person would even come
close to coloring something as detailed as this.
If you own this book and haven't colored
a single page because you are scared to do so.
I'm telling you today, it's time to start.
Just choose a page, any page, and give it a go.
It doesn't have to be perfect,
and it definitely doesn't have to look like this.
This acts as a great reference picture and as inspiration.
But don't let this be the thing that scares you off from coloring this book.
If you want to start easy, don't start with your favorite page.
Use one of the many other pages as practice and just start somewhere.
That's my challenge to you today.
But for me, I'm giving myself a bigger
challenge because I know so many people have scared off by these paintings.
I want to see if it's actually possible
to recreate one of these coloring pages to this level of detail.
I've chosen this picture from Beauty and the Beast.
The biggest obstacle I'm going to face
in recreating something like this painting is the black lines.
So I'm gonna try out some white ink,
which I've seen a few people recommend to lighten the lines.
Now, I've never used this before, and as always, I haven't thought to test
this out before doing this on camera in front of the world.
So let's hope this works.
Okay,
so the ink is warping the paper a little bit, so I'm guessing it's also not going
to hold up well to wet mediums, which limits what we can do within this
book, but we'll still see what we can achieve here.
Disney has also released a poster version of this book, and I think the paper
in this might be slightly heavier, although it is hard to tell.
It is one sided, which is a bonus.
And the lines are smaller.
In fact, this seems to be the full painting, whereas the coloring book has
taken smaller sections of these paintings into separate pictures.
So both are great options, and the post book is probably better if
you're using alcohol markers or something that will bleed through the page.
But I'm using this smaller coloring book
today because I know that's what most people have bought.
The only way I could be sure of what I'm
working with was to test my supplies on the same paper I'll be coloring on,
but there aren't any blank pages in this book that I can use as a sample page.
So this is it.
I tried to find a page I'm less likely
to color, and there are plenty of pages still in this book.
So I'm sorry if you really like
The Lion King, and I'm here defaming your favorite movie scene.
Ow, Jeez, what was that for?
The results of my tests have been that the white ink is effective
at reducing the black lines, but it warps the paper and changes how it feels.
The Tombow markers I'm planning to use don't bleed through this paper like what
alcohol markers would, but they aren't ideal on the white ink,
so I'll need the pencils to help me cover up any areas where this is noticeable.
The final problem being, that there's not
really much texture for the pencils to grip, especially on the white ink.
I think we can work with this,
and at least I know the challenges now, so there shouldn't be any surprises later.
No. Okay, this is even worse.
So let's start by applying the white ink.
This is a long process, and I'm not sure if this is worth
the effort if I'm being completely honest, but it's what I need to do if I really
want to recreate the paint like look of our reference images from Thomas Kinkade.
I'm trying not to cover everything in white ink because some of these lines
will be in areas that are dark enough that they won't be visible anyway.
And with that, let's start coloring with our base layer of markers.
If you've watched some of my past videos,
I often choose all my colors at the start, but because I'm copying a reference image
with so much variety, I will choose my colors as I go.
The markers are just a base layer, so they don't have to be a perfect match
because I can make adjustments with my pencils on top later.
As I'm filling in the top garden,
I'm noticing the line details are actually different to the painting.
Some have been adjusted to make this
easier to color in instead of being a perfect match to the original painting.
Okay, I'm pretty happy with how this is turning out so far.
Now for the ground.
You can really see the white ink now.
Welcome to the ugly faze.
It's okay,
we did anticipate this and the pencils
should be able to cover this up.
Right now I'm just going for the overall color.
I find it can help to stand back and squint until the images look blurry or
take a photo and look at it from a distance.
This can help to see if your image has
similar colors overall to the image you are trying to copy.
This looks like a bit of a mess right now, but I think I'm happy with the colors so far,
given that I can still make some adjustments with my pencils.
Okay, I may be regretting the white ink.
I wonder if a workable fixative spray, or something similar
would help to add more tooth to the page because my pencils just
don't seem to be able to find anything to grip, to add any pigment.
Alright, this isn't working.
I honestly didn't expect this to be so hard.
This white is so resistant my pencils aren't even doing anything now.
It feels like I'm trying to color a shiny magazine page or like I've
burnished everything and there's nothing more I can add.
I've put so much white ink on my main
characters, so I'm a bit scared to even attempt those at this point.
I need to start thinking about what else I can do here.
I mean from a distance, this doesn't look so bad, but close up,
it's a mess and I don't know how to fix this,
but I also don't want to just give up on this.
After telling everyone not to be scared of this coloring book.
Let's do these characters, but I'm skipping the markers.
There is too much ink, so I'm going straight to the pencil.
They are not doing well.
It feels like I'm using a cheap
dollar store pencil where it's all filler and no pigment.
Okay, I need a break.
I am not enjoying this right now at all.
This is really disheartening and
I know this is a beautiful book and right now I feel like I've destroyed it.
I don't want this video to become another
excuse for someone not to attempt to color this book and leave it sitting empty
on their bookshelves because an empty coloring book is a far bigger waste than
a book full of trial and error and new experiments.
And while this is not going well,
I'm not going to let this experience be my only experience of coloring this book.
So let's find another page to color
and come back to this page in a few minutes.
Hello Dumbo!
So here's what I suggest in actually coloring this book.
Forget trying to recreate the painting.
Don't stress over the black lines.
Embrace them.
Your picture doesn't have to be perfect.
And comparing yourself to a professional
artist like Thomas Kinkade is not the goal here.
This paper is not ideal for markers, so I recommend using pencils
and prismacolors or other wax based pencils are great because you won't need
many layers to the lack of tooth in this paper isn't an issue.
The paper itself is thicker than normal paper, so it is nice to color on.
Personally, I love color, and I find mixing the colors fascinating.
So I'm still going to use all the colors I
can see in this image, but that's a personal decision.
You don't have to go as intricate as this.
Just grab a medium gray, a dark gray,
and a light gray and use this picture to show you where the basic shadows go.
If you're feeling brave,
grab a warm yellow and add some of the lining as well.
Or work in light layers and see what other colors you can see.
The lighter that you draw your layers,
the more subtle color changes you'll be able to include.
I'm glad I've stopped doing this for a little
while, and I'll come back to finish this page later.
But for now, I am feeling refreshed enough
to tackle that first project again and see if we have any hope in recovering it.
So I don't have fixative spray, but I do have hairspray.
I know a lot of people use hairspray instead of fixative to seal the work.
So my theory is that it might work to add extra texture to our page as well.
Right?
It's a risk, and it might ruin everything.
Or it might work.
And I've spent hours on this already, but I'm not happy with the current result
anyway, so I feel like I've kind of got nothing to lose here.
So on our test page, it does seem to make the black lines
bleed, but only when there's nothing on them.
So if our page is already colored, I guess this shouldn't be a problem.
Maybe let's try some Copic markers first.
Okay, well,
there's so much built up on this page that these aren't even bleeding through.
Did I just discover a new hack to make a bleed proof page?
Actually, no, I don't recommend this.
This is doing weird things. These markers aren't absorbing at all.
It's like drawing on photo paper, and it's a bit unpredictable,
but at least our colors aren't totally washed out anymore.
Okay, there's nothing left to try.
Let's go to the hairspray.
But first, I'm going to take some photos
in case this is the last time it's even somewhat resembles a nice coloring page.
So the worst thing that could happen, happened.
The hairspray reacted with all the alcohol ink that hadn't absorbed into the page.
So let's hope there's enough texture now
that I can fix this with a layer of pencils when it dries.
Has it worked?
No.
It's like trying to color a magazine page. Where's the grit?
Is this hairspray too high quality?
Protecting your hair from damage or drying out.
Maybe I need some cheaper stuff?
Hey, I'm in quarantine right now,
can I ask a favor?
Let's try some cheap stuff.
Surely this will have some grit.
Oh this smell takes me back to my childhood calisthenics competitions.
No.
Okay, this is even worse.
I think this page is done.
Is this a good or bad time to remind you to subscribe for more coloring tutorials?
I often do things for the first time on camera, and I often make mistakes,
but I think today trumps them all,
and it's kind of embarrassing that it's in
an adult coloring book, which is like the main thing that my channel is about.
But it doesn't better for you for me
to just delete this and pretend that I'm perfect and I never make mistakes because
my job isn't just to teach you how to draw and to color,
it's also to be your guinea pig.
And I make these mistakes so that you don't have to, but also so that you learn
it's okay to try new things and to get it wrong sometimes,
even with your nice supplies and with your new coloring books.
I am disappointed I wasn't able to recover this page and
I'm disappointed I couldn't showcase this book better because this is a beautiful book,
but I'm not disappointed that I gave this a go.
It's not a waste to make mistakes.
It's a waste to leave your supplies unused and your coloring books empty.
Every time you choose to take a risk
and try something, your creativity grows and you learn something new.
I'm going to enjoy coloring some of the other pages in this book,
and I'm going to embrace the black lines and just enjoy using my pencils.
I think that's the best way to enjoy this book;
start simple and use the reference photo as inspiration.
Challenge yourself to use more colors and lighting as you build your skills.
In fact, this book could be an amazing way
to develop your eye for color mixing and learn light and shade.
There definitely are ways to reduce the black lines.
I obviously need to try some different methods and even give this another go.
But I think if you're really wanting
to create that painted look, the best method is actually to transfer
this to some other paper so that you can really use the the best paper with some
mixed media tools and even lighten the lines in that process.
If you've bought this book,
I'd love to see your pages in my Facebook coloring group and keep an eye out
for my final Dumbo coloring page that I'll be sharing when I'm done.