There is no question that adult coloring is such a success … it’s fun, it’s fast, and it’s easy.
But aren’t you ready for something more? Aren’t you losing interest in filling in little tiny areas of nonsense doodle designs? Have you had enough of coloring in one repeated pattern a hundred times across a sheet of paper?
You know you can do so much more than just fill-in-the-blank!
Let’s break out of the boundaries, let’s color outside the box, and let’s take on a new challenge … Adult Coloring Portraits.
Our new 149 page PDF E-Book, by Lora S Irish, Adult Coloring Portraits is now ready for download to your computer. It includes 6 step-by-step projects for creating brilliant, vibrant skin tones; 62 patterns for wood spirits, greenmen, pixies, elves, vampires, feathered shamans, dragons, and a small assortment of fun designs.
Let’s look at a sample portrait from our new E-Book.
We think of skin tones as shades of white, black, brown, red, and yellow … but all skin coloring is simply a shade of orange. From very pale orange to deep, rich red-black, every human skin color can be created using the same set of colored pencils – a pale yellow-orange, medium golden orange, medium cadmium orange, red-orange, deep rust-orange, and burnt umber orange.
And we often think of skin shadow colors as shades of deep brown or black. Yet in colored pencils using a plain medium or dark brown dulls and dirties the face color.
So let’s start by exploring what other colored pencil shades you may have in your kit that will create those vibrant shadows in your portrait work.
Here are five pages, directly from the E-Book, that show a few of the different shading colors you can used for your face – burnt umber, 70% gray, black cherry red, deep violet, and indigo blue – and how these colors interact with your overall skin color.
Click on the images, below, for a full-sized, 8 1/2″ x 11″, printable copy directly from our new E-Book, Adult Coloring Portraits.
Preparation – Begin by cleaning, and sanding your wood to create a smooth surface on to which you can transfer your pattern. Remove all sanding dust using a dusting brush and clean, dry cloth.
Chose Your Tracing Media – There are three primary tracing products which are graphite paper, carbon paper, newspaper, and a soft #4 to #8 artist pencil.
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Graphite Paper – Graphite paper can be purchased through both office supply and craft stores. It comes in several colors, including gray, white, and blue for easy tracing onto different colors of wood. Graphite leaves a very fine line on the wood and can be erased with a white artist eraser after you have completed your project.
Carbon Paper – Carbon paper comes in 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheets and has a very dark, heavy layer of tracing media on the back surface. It is available in deep blue and black colors. Carbon paper lines do not erase easily and should be carved or scraped away as your work your project. Use this media on projects that will receive excessive handling or for long-term projects as it holds up very well. Because carbon paper was primarily used with typewriter to create multiple copies, you may need to do a little searching to find it.
Pencil Rubbing – My favorite way to trace my pattern to the wood is to rub the back of the pattern paper with a #4 to #8 artist pencil. This creates a layer of graphite that will easily transfer to the wood surface as your copy the pattern lines with an ink pen. Pencil rubbings work extremely well for wood, gourds, and even leather. Woodless pencils work wonderfully for tracing.
Newspaper – Heavily printed sheets of newspaper works wonderfully as a tracing media. As you trace along the pattern lines the printer’s ink from the newspaper will leave a dotted line on the wood. This process is especially good for extra large projects as out door signs or long, wide mantel boards. The ink is easily erased with a white artist’s eraser.
1. Adjust your digital pattern as necessary to fit your project piece. Print several copies of your pattern – one for the main tracing, one for cutting and tracing small areas of the pattern, and one for a reference to the detail lines of the design.
2. With a right angle triangle or small t-square mark the center vertical line of your project’s surface.
3. Use your ruler to find and mark the center point of your vertical line.
4. With the t-square or right angle triangle, draw a horizontal line across the project surface at the center point of the vertical line.
5. Fold your printed pattern into quarters, matching the outer pattern lines on the sides of the pattern. Place the folded pattern on to the wood, aligning the paper folds to the marked lines on the wood.
If you will using a pencil rubbing for your tracing media, open the folded pattern and rub the back of the pattern to completely cover it with pencil graphite. Refold your pattern and begin the positioning steps.
6. Unfold your pattern, continuing to match folds in the pattern paper with your guidelines. Cut several small strips of painters tape. Use the tape to secure two sides of the pattern paper to the wood surface.
7. Use a colored ink pen to mark any changes you want to make in the pattern, so that you will follow your changes during the tracing process.
8. Slide your tracing media – graphite paper, carbon paper, newspaper – under the printed pattern with the tracing surface against the wood. Trace along the pattern lines with a colored ink pen. Use a light pressure, just enough to transfer the pattern line without leaving an indented score line from the ink pen’s point. When your tracing is complete lift the pattern paper at one of the un-taped corners. Check your work before you remove the pattern paper and tape.
9. Trace only those lines that you really need for your initial working steps. For my Beta Fish relief carving I needed only the outlines of each area of the fish and the outlines of the grass to work the rough out carving steps.
10. When your project work is done, remove any remaining tracing lines using a white artist’s eraser. Avoid colored erasers that can leave dye streaks on your carving or pyrography work.
11. Click on the small image on the right for your free full-sized, printable Beta Fish pattern – a design from Relief Carving Workshop, by Lora Irish.
12. This second example is from the Wood Spirit Carving project posted on the Wood Carving Illustrated Forum. The pattern was transferred to the wood using typewriter carbon paper because the project would require intense handling.
Relief Carving Wood Spirit Grape Man WIP – Over 250 detailed, close-up photos with step-by-step instructions of relief carving the wood spirit, green man face. This thread has had over 69,000 views!
13. After the levels where established in the carving I cut my paper pattern into small sections that could be easily re-traced to the project.
14. Click on the small image to the right for a free full-sized printable pattern.
Whether you are a wood carver, a pyrographer, or a gourd artist eventually you will be using color. Color is part of everything we see and understanding how color works – the basics to color theory – insures that your project is vibrant, vivid, and bold each and every time.
Over the next few days we will focus on how the eye sees color v. how the eye sees shadows and light, primary colors v. complimentary colors, and color combinations that create intense skin tones.
So, grab your freebie now and have fun reading through the basics. Tomorrow we will start a fun, step-by-step Mystic Shaman portrait!
To often I am so serious about our pyrography work, carefully planning each layer of burning, examining every stroke for even thickness and tonal value, trying to create as perfect as possible a realistic reproduction.
But once in a while I just ‘wanna have fun’. And this is the perfect, just have fun project. Because this was created as a text run for my new book, The Art of Leather Burning, I wasn’t concerned about absolutely matching ever corner or seam, or carefully measuring the distance between every stitching awl hole, or even about how the fill patterns I chose matched the ones I had already burned. The entire idea behind this leather burned purse was to just see what I could do, and how I could do it.
I am a strong advocate of practice boards. Usually this is a small scrap of the same material from which you will work your main project upon which you can experiment with your temperature settings, pen tips, and fill patterns.
Well, this time, when I began my work with pyrography on leather, my practice board got a touch out of hand. I began my text project with a 10 lb. scrap bag of vegetable-dyed leather from Springfield Leather Co. which contained a variety of weights, textures, and species of leather pieces.
What came out of this practice session was a Greenman Slop Bag! This rough and rugged purse measures 7 1/2″ high, 9 1/2″ wide, and 2 3/4″ thick. The front of my purse has a double pocket and the back has one large pocket with a hidden pocket inside of it. Its constructed using an awl to create the stitching holes and the simple double-needle stitching pattern.
I’m not done with this purse yet. To date I have only gotten the front flap, top roll over, and front of the purse body burned. So I still have the entire back, the sides, and the should strap on which to play, and experiment with more fill textures, shading ideas, and even miniature patterns.
Play, practice, experiment, and create … that is our goal!
Legendary wood and leather crafter Lora Susan Irish focuses solely on leather pyrography techniques and projects for the first time in this book. She presents instructions for a dozen easy-to-make projects, including jewelry, wallets, journals, and belts, in a spectacular array of patterns ranging from American West and Celtic motifs to wildlife and tattoo-inspired imagery. The completed projects are perfect for gift-giving or personal use.
Moving from tools and supplies to pyrography and leather crafting basics; pattern techniques; leather selection; and the projects themselves, the book includes detailed, step-by-step directions with full-color photographs. Sidebars and tips offer helpful hints. This invaluable guide is ideal for experienced crafters as well as those who wish to acquire leather-crafting and leather-burning skills.
One of those wonderful boxes arrived in the studio this week containing my newest book – The Art of Leather Burning.
See me jumping up and down, screaming with delight!!! This year we, Michael and I, celebrate our 20th year on the web, our 20th year of sharing our love for the crafts with you, and my 20th year as a carving, pyrography, and craft book author! This new book, number 28, is just the icing on the cake for us. For the complete listing, please visit our Books page.
FREE PATTERN PACK ALERT!
Try it before you buy it! Enjoy this free pattern pack from our wood carving, pyrography, and craft patterns website, ArtDesignsStudio.com
