Coloring techniques

A flat page and a page with depth usually use the same colors. The difference is how they're put down. Three habits help with every technique below:

• Decide where the light comes from. Pick one direction before you start and keep highlights and shadows consistent with it.
• Build in layers. Several thin layers give richer color than one heavy one.
• Leave some texture. Small variations in stroke look natural. You don't need a perfectly flat fill.

Work through the levels in order. Each builds on the one before.

Colored pencils are the most controllable medium for detailed pages.

1. Layering Beginner

Build color with several thin layers using light pressure. Each layer adds depth and intensity.

Tip: start with the lightest color first, even if it isn't the main color you want.

2. Burnishing Intermediate

Go over layered color with heavy pressure using a light pencil or a colorless blender. It gives a smooth, polished, waxy finish.

Tip: burnish last. You can't add more layers on top afterwards.

3. Circular strokes Beginner

Fill an area with tiny overlapping circles. It hides stroke marks and gives an even, seamless fill.

Tip: keep the circles small and the same size, about as wide as a pencil eraser.

4. Cross-hatching Intermediate

Layer sets of parallel lines in different directions to build up darkness and texture. Good for shadows.

Tip: turn the paper about 45° between each set of lines.

5. Color lifting Advanced

Press a kneaded eraser, mounting putty or tape onto the page to lift pigment off. Use it for highlights or to fix mistakes.

Tip: works best with wax-based pencils, before you burnish.

6. Solvent blending Advanced

Use odorless mineral spirits or a blending solution to melt pencil layers together into very smooth gradients.

Tip: work somewhere well ventilated, on heavy paper so it doesn't warp. Solvents are for adults, not children.

Markers give bold, even color and smooth blends. Use cardstock so they don't bleed (see the printing guide).

7. Flicking Beginner

Make quick strokes that lift off the paper at the end. Good for grass, fur and hair.

Tip: keep your wrist loose and let the marker leave the paper on its own.

8. Feathering Intermediate

Blend two colors by overlapping their edges with light, feathery strokes, for a soft transition.

Tip: work while both colors are still wet.

9. Stippling Intermediate

Use dots instead of strokes. Put dots closer together for shadow and further apart for light.

Tip: tilt a brush tip to vary the shape of the dots.

10. Wet blending Advanced

Work quickly while the ink is wet to blend colors on the paper. With alcohol markers this gives smooth, painterly gradients.

Tip: a colorless blender marker gives you more working time and softens edges.

11. Layered saturation Advanced

Go over an area with the same color several times. Each pass makes it deeper without changing the hue.

Tip: let each layer dry completely before the next.

12. Color mapping Beginner

Plan your colors before you start. Choose a light, middle and dark shade for each area so the page hangs together.

Tip: keep a swatch sheet to test combinations first.

Put a finished page next to this list. If it looks like the left column, pick one technique from above and try it on your next page.