COLOR CRAZY

I am here to permit you -- no ENCOURAGE you -- to get a little crazy with color once in awhile.

You see, I've been coloring these flowers for several months now. I finally got tired of trying to make them look realistic, traditional, and/or at least, cohesive.

Do you remember me talking about these coloring pages of Designer Series Paper that Stampin' Up! had available during Sale-A-Bration?

I love them, and am tending to hoard them. In fact, one of the designs is still sitting whole and untouched. I don't want to RUIN it! Huh? Linda!!

Two of the designs I had cut up into 3 1/4" x 4 3/4" pieces for a workshop I'd had featuring them. I took all the unused (unloved??) pieces that were left over, and stuck them inside a folder which I bring to the 319 Gallery where I volunteer each Tuesday.

Recently, while I was there I pulled out a piece similar to the one I show above. I looked at all those lovely hand-drawn flowers, trying to decide what to do. I'd colored them in so many different ways. I wanted something that wasn't so cliche.

I always bring along with me to the Gallery a random selection of my Copic Markers. Seriously, no rhyme or reason for the colors I bring with me. I'd love to bring them all, but since I have about 130 of them, it's way too heavy. So I just pack up whatever fits in a pencil box.

I decided to treat this sparse floral scene the same way -- randomly.

I blindly grabbed inside my container for a marker, and colored two petals in that color -- two petals not near each other, but on different parts of the canvas.

Next, I randomly selected another marker, and colored two distant petals in that color. 

I continued in that fashion until I had all the petals colored, sometimes reusing colors I'd already used. What a feast for the eyes! The mishmash of colors was so much fun! No rhyme or reason gave way to a plethora of colorful petals. Fun!

And talk about coloring being therapeutic! Doing it in this fashion requires little thinking. Just do it!

 I decided to leave the dragonfly as is, thus adding no color to him at all. Later on in the process, he seemed kind of like dead wood, so I added a layer of clear Wink of Stella. Of course, no matter how I positioned this while taking the photos, I could not capture the glisten. Just imagine that it really is there. It is!

After I had all the flowers colored in, sure, it was fun and vibrant, but there was so much WHITE space. I know, I know. A certain amount of white space is a good thing. A place for the eyes to rest, a break from the routine, etc. etc.

 But I wanted MORE! And I just did not want to color all that white space. Yuk. Boring.

So I drew in squiggly double lines to create a grid across the piece. Then, having three markers in the yellow family with me that day, I randomly colored in each of those squares with a yellow hue, not paying attention to the fact that sometimes the same color is next to the same color. Like I keep saying: RANDOM. The theme of this piece.

Do you notice that the black mat the piece is set onto is cut squiggly to match the squiggly lines of the grid? I thought that was a cool touch.

After I had my background completed, the flowers seemed a little lost. Believe it or not. With all that color. Refer back to the photo of the uncolored piece. See how the line work is just that? Line work?

So I had a great time RANDOMLY thickening the lines of the flowers. Yes! I really liked that!

Since, of course, because it's what I do, I turned the creation into a card. And here it is!

So there! How little fun it is to constantly follow the tried and true path. Have a blast and do things RANDOMLY! It will be a complete surprise as to what you end up with. Sure to be a little different and outside the box!

Random

Smiles.