Have you ever looked up free coloring pages?
Not free digis but coloring pages on Pinterest?
If you have not, you are seriously missing out! There’s tons of them and yes a lot of them are super intimidating, I even hesitated at coloring this scene I’m showing you today.
But — I was like what the hey.. let’s DO THIS!
I have pinned so many free coloring pages in my Stuff to Color Pinterest board. So you will want to check those out!
FOLLOW MY STUFF TO COLOR BOARD HERE!
Before you color the Scene
The key to making the scene look less intimidating is to color the background.
This breaks up the lines and you can actually see the objects and scene in parts so you don’t just see a bunch of run off lines and not sure what goes to what.
This way you can focus on a part of the scene, coloring it up up a section at a time. 🙂
Here’s a post on 3 tips to overcome your fear of blending large areas.
Not sure what Copics to buy?
Download my FREE Copic Planner Budget and Guide to creating your own coloring style!
JOIN MY CREATIVE LIBRARY HERE!
What Colors do you use for a realistic scene?
One of my biggest tips when deciding what colors I’m going to use is to research!
Yes my creative friend. Google. Is. Awesome. So is Pinterest.
I decided on my Hummingbird scene now let’s look at what colors to color the flowers and hummingbirds.
Let’s look at the photo. This is an actual picture I found on this blog and there are tons of colors in this photo.
It’s intimidating because it looks so real and how can you get your coloring to look like this right?
There are two ways we can do this — through vectoring and searching paintings. I’m going to show you the vector way first. You will need Adobe Illustrator to do this.
So you are going to take your photo and open it up in Adobe Illustrator.
At the top of the tool bar you will see a button that says expand, click it.
Then, you are going to want to go over to the drop down menu that says preset and click the high fidelity photo. This is going to vectorize the entire photo, breaking up and simplifying the colors.
See the comparison below.
In the photo to the left I see a bunch of colors..
in the vector photo I see it more simplified.
Take for example the green area — I can easily narrow those colors down to G21, G24, G28!
Plus — it doesn’t even have to be green you can use blue and it even shows you where to lay the darker colors.
B32, B34 and B37 would work just fine – just try to replace the same amount of colors.
Pretty Awesome, Right?!!
Don't have Illustrator? No problem...
Let’s do this again without Adobe Illustrator.
You can just simply Google or Pinterest Paintings or Vectors.. just to simply get the idea of colors.
I really love looking up paintings because you can get an artist view on highlights and shadows and it still breaks up the colors into more simplified colors.
Let’s look at the painting below I got from this website. The colors are simple, you can see where the artist has blended and the textures that were created, shadows etc. If you’re wanting more information on using photos and paintings as a reference check out my post, STOP trying to find the light source!
Hopefully after these tips those detailed coloring pages wont look as intimidating.
Step by Step Coloring a Hummingbird using Copic Markers
Are you ready to color your own realistic scene with Copics?
Find an image or coloring page to use as a reference.
Make a list of the items in your scene bird, leaves, flowers etc.
Then make a list of the colors you see in the image and get to work! 🙂
Below you will find my step by step coloring of one the hummingbirds in my scene.
I printed my image at 25% opacity and the image size is about 7 inches tall.
My scene from the coloring page is printed on Copic Xpress Blending card. If you need advice on what items to use check out my Copic Marker Must Have Shopping List!
Copic Markers used in step by step tutorial
Copic Marker List for How to Color a Large Realistic Scene using Copic Markers + Hummingbird Tutorial:
- Flowers – V09, V06, V01, R01, R000, B23, N9, RV13
- Leaves – G82, G85, BG11, YG13, Y02, N9
- Hummingbirds – YG13, BG11, G20, V01, V06, V09, RV13, B00, R01, G82,
- Sky – B000, C00, E000
TIP: Earth tones or the ‘E’ Family of Copics have a much more realistic feel if you want more of that look.
Pin this image below So you can always find your way back to this post!
FREE Copic Workbook
Workbook: Planning A Copic Budget And Deciding Colors
Are you new to Copic Markers?
Not sure what colors to buy?
Are you limited on how much you can spend?
If so, I’m so happy you have stumbled across my site and onto this page so you can grab a special Free Copic Workbook and Guide!
Thank you for the simplified, easy to follow, directions on how to color this amazing scene. It is gorgeous!
BRILLIANT WORK
Gorgeous! Terrific tutorial too
Your picture is just so beautiful. Hummingbirds are my favorite. How God put so much beauty in such a little package is a miracle. Thanks for the directions.
What a fabulous tutorial. The time you put in to helping others learn to color with their Copics is really appreciated. I’ll be giving this a try with mine.
Super cute!!! Thank you for joining us at Glitter N Sparkle, good luck!!! Amy DT
WOW! Your work is stunning!!
wow!! Thanks for joining us at Creative Ladybird Creations Challenge Blog.
Bye, Groetjes van Ine (DT)
http://creaine-cards.blogspot.nl/
Just stunning and a fantastic job! Thanks for sharing your wonderful work with us.
Patricia
Hi Mindy, a great tutorial and a perfectly coloured finished project, thank you for joining us this fortnight at Lil Patch of Crafty Friends, good luck in the prize draw, have a wonderful week… Megan DT LPoCF
Wow, Mindy, this is exquisite and even more! I truly appreciate how you approach such detailed images and loved that you colored the background first. It’s always the first step that’s the hardest! Ha! But the hummer is amazing, and I always search the web for inspiration. Stunning card and coloring! I love it! Hugs!
Stunning. Thanks for tutorial.
Marjeta
Absolutely stunning, amazing colouring.
Thank you for sharing at Allsorts ‘Flower Power’ challenge this week and good luck x Susan x
Oooh this is amazing – hummingbirds really are gorgeous creatures and the colours are just WOW! Love your colouring of these birds and flowers too. Thank you so much for playing along with our IntAAS (Flowers) challenge this fortnight. Hope we see you again very soon. Hugs to you Sue Pxxx DT
Incredible. Fantastic tutorial thankyou. Thank-you for joining us at the Crafts Galore Encore Anything Goes Challenge
Good luck
DT Lynda x
SO talented! Beautiful result and you’re right! Vectors would work great to figure out key transition aspects of the coloring. Great tip!
You are amazing, Mindy! Not only is your coloured image a work of art, but the information you’ve provided is SO important to know. You are definitely a blogger to follow. Thank you for joining us at Angie’s Digital Stamp blog. Cheers, Janelle (DT) 🙂
Amazing! This really helps in coloring large realistic scenes. Thanks!
Awesome Tutorial!! Thanks for sharing this!! 🙂