Pastels – Live Eat Colour

Adult Colouring Materials

Published on August 20, 2017August 31, 2017 by Vanessa Gregoria6 Comments

Hi all, I have recently been updating my blog to make it more user-friendly and I finally purchased my own domain! I have been thinking about it for a while and finally committed to this blog. I’m really happy with the kind of content I am able to put out as it covers all my passions for travel, food and colouring of course. I have been a bit slow to get more content out the past couple of months, due to holidays and illness. But I have a few projects in the works to share with you all soon.

I thought I’d share with my colouring enthusiast and curious friends what kind of materials I use for adult colouring. Since I started colouring I have slowing been upgrading and adding to my art supplies. Back when I first started I wish I knew the pros and cons of these brands. Although it was probably better to start with cheaper supplies before I committed to more expensive ones.

There are so many more art supplies I wish could buy if I had unlimited time and money. I would love a set of Faber-Castel Albrecht Dürer Watercolour Pencils, or to experiment with different types of markers like Tombow or Copic. I am also really curious about Tombow Irojiten Colored Pencils. However, I am always mindful about buying pencils that have open stock available and not doubling up too much on materials that are very similar. Who knows maybe Santa will bring me something new later this year.

The latest pencils I purchased were the Prismacolor Premiers, which I can’t live without now. Although I love to go back to my Faber-Castell Polychromos for a different experience and when doing tutorials that use them. I also love my Inktense pencils, which are water-soluble. The technique for Inktense is completely different, so it’s nice to have a break and go crazy with them sometimes. I don’t have a lot of additional materials, but I’m happy with the brands I have bought.

What are your favourite pencils?

Do you have any art supplies you can’t live without for adult colouring books?

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Book Review: Imagimorphia

Published on January 12, 2017September 4, 2017 by Vanessa GregoriaLeave a comment

The current object of my colouring obsession at the moment is Imagimorphia: An Extreme Coloring and Search Challenge by Kerby Rosanes. Since I bought this book I haven’t really coloured in anything else. Just flipping through this book I can find inspiration and can’t wait to unlock all the intricate doodles which can be hard to decipher until you start colouring them.

Kerby is a Philippines-based illustrator with a very distinct artistic style of using doodles to create intricate, quirky images. He originally collaborated with other authors and illustrated Doodle Invasion: Zifflin’s Coloring Book (Volume 1) and Never Quit Drawing: Sketch Your Way to an Everyday Art Habit. But it wasn’t long until he brought out two of his own colouring books, Animorphia, Imagimorphia and Sketchy Stories: The Sketchbook Art of Kerby Rosanes. He also has a third colouring book coming out in the new year, Mythomorphi a.

His first two colouring books are very similar in style. Animorphia features animals morphing into doodles, whereas Imagimorphia also features animals morphing or surrounded by buildings, travel devices, and machines. I was more attracted to Imagimorphia, because I liked the variety of images and I was not as keen on adding to the doodling. Animorphia offers many images to add to, but I am not very confident in doing this.

For a great review of both of these colouring books I recommend La Artistino’s website and Youtube videos. In her videos she includes finished pages and tips on how to colour Kerby’s work. She also did an amazing job completing the wave ponies picture in Animorphia, which has plenty of space to add additional doodles. When looking at the completed work its hard to know where Kerby’s work ends and La Artistino’s begins. I will post some more links below of some videos and info.

Now for my completed pictures. Nearly all have been coloured with my new favourite pencils, Prismacolor Premier Soft Core Colored Pencils. The first two are coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos Artists‘ Colour Pencils. For sparkles and other details I used a White Uniball Signo Broud Gell Pen. For the black background I used a black Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen. For the backgrounds of the last two pictures I used Mungyo Non Toxic Square Chalk Soft Pastel.

Title Page – This was my very first page and I love it. I used Polychomos pencils and stuck to a very limited colour scheme. The colours used in the doodle are the same ones used for the leopard.

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Book Review: Animal Kingdom

Published on January 12, 2017September 8, 2017 by Vanessa GregoriaLeave a comment

Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom was my first colouring book that began my obsession with adult colouring. I received it as a gift from my uncle and it was exactly what I needed to relax and be creative. At the time my baby was only a few months, so this was the only outlet I had when she was sleeping.

Millie is a Welsh artist and who published her first colouring book Animal Kingdom in 2014. Her book was extremely successful. It was translated in 31 languages and reached the Amazon Top Ten list. She has since bought out three more adult colouring books, including Tropical Wonderland, Wild Savannah and Curious Creatures. Her popularity in the colouring realm has gone on to birth a product family with her distinctive style. Millie Marotta themed calendar, diary, journals, stationary, postcards, wall decals and tableware can be found on her website or from online retailers, book stores and art stores.

Animal Kingdom has a soft white cover, decorated with her line drawings and coloured with random flecks of gold, blue and pink. Inside there are 96 line drawings, which are printed back and front. The paper is high-quality and is bright white in colour. The illustrations include a range of flora and fauna but are primarily centred around animals. A few of the pictures do have suggestions on how to colour the animals. There are a few double page spreads of larger images of animals or repetitious illustrations, which are slightly different and extend onto both pages. The paper takes pencils, pastels, water-based markers and gel pens quite well. I’m not sure this is the best paper for watercolour though. This book does come in the Delux Edition, which has thicker paper and is single sided, which would be more appropriate for watercolour and alcohol markers.

After receiving this book I purchased a tin of 36 Derwent Studio pencils. I didn’t realise that these pencils were meant for sketching and I found them rather hard. They were also less vibrant than other brands, harder to blend and very scratchy. However, at the time I was ignorant and was just enjoying the process. You will probably notice the indents in the paper from pressing so hard. I found it really difficult to get much pigment out of them and it was almost impossible to layer.

The turtle was my very first picture that I coloured. It took me a while to colour all the individual sections. At the time I was really happy how it turned out and really enjoyed colouring it. Now I look back and realise how far I’ve come.

I began craving more vibrant colours, so I bought myself a 12 set of Jasart Premium Colour Pencil. These pencils are inexpensive, quite smooth and the colour is more concentrated.

This first picture was coloured with only Jasart pencils. You can probably already see a difference compared to my earlier work. The following pictures use both Jasart and Derwent Studio pencils. Although the results are still scratching, there are more pops of colour.