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Grayscale Coloring
​Techniques BLOG

TIPS, TECHNIQUES & TUTORIALS

How to color over grayscale

11/6/2015

 
When coloring over grayscale the gray serves as your guide. Think of it as an adult color by numbers without the numbers. Instead the darkness or lightness of the gray tells you how dark or light a color to use and where to apply it. Simply put, light colors over light grays, dark colors over dark grays and medium colors in between to seamlessly blend light and dark. 

Some points to keep in mind:
  • Apply your dark colors lightly to begin with. It's easy to keep making them darker but it's not very easy to lighten them. 
  • Even if a part of your uncolored picture seems extremely dark you can and should still go over it with a dark color. It will make it pop and really help bring your image to life.
  • You can go heavy with your lights right away, if you wish.
  • You can start by doing your lights and then your darks or darks first then lights. Either way is fine and you'll likely switch back and forth a lot as you find spots you want to touch up along the way!
  • When you apply your medium colors don't be afraid to color right over your already applied lights and darks (e.g. if you are coloring fur) so that you manage to nicely blend everything. You will find that the lights and darks show through your medium colors. It's not to say that you should cover everything with your medium color but instead that it's ok if there is overlap where needed as it will help with the blending and the detail will not be lost. You can see an example of this in the leaves and water drops of the ladybug picture below. 
  • It doesn't have to be perfect. You will be amazed by how helpful the grayscale is not only in guiding you but also in enhancing your final picture. 

Here is a little cheat sheet I provide at the beginning of the "Beautiful Creatures" grayscale coloring book: 
Picture
Grayscale coloring in action
Now, watch these two time-lapse videos and watch how I apply my colors based on the darkness or lightness of the gray. As I apply the colors you will see the image come to life
What mediums should I use?
Colored pencils are the go to medium for coloring over grayscale but you are welcome to use whatever you prefer. Consider the grayscale as a guide for creating your own artwork. You can aim for a photo realistic result by using colored pencils or a more abstract result with oil pastels or acrylic paints. What's important to remember is that generally you want a medium that you are able to blend because you are trying to capture those various levels of gray and transition from one to the next somewhat seamlessly. Therefore, standard markers are not ideal but the blending markers can work.

If you are just starting out coloring grayscale then I would strongly recommend colored pencils as your main medium with others such as gel pens and fine markers for detail work (e.g. whiskers on a cat). 

How do I capture all those little details in a picture (e.g. water drops)?
What is wonderful about coloring over grayscale is that those little details will show through your coloring and help bring detail and definition to your final piece. Of course, you can help to make it more impactful by accentuating these details when you color but it is not necessary to perfectly color every single detail. 

For example, in the ladybug image below there are several water drops on the leaves. This seemed to be a daunting task. I thought I would need to carefully color each drop and then color around each one very carefully. Needless to say, it felt like the relaxation that comes with coloring was about to totally evaporate! However, to my great surprise, it was far easier and made me look way more talented than I expected! Basically, here's what I did:
  • Chose a dark blue pencil & a white pencil
  • For the handful of large drops I took the time to carefully color the darkest area with the blue and then highlight the rest with the white. 
  • For the rest of the drops I just quickly did a blue dot and a quick spot or semi-circle of white for each drop. I really wasn't very precise. 
  • Next I started coloring my leaves with colored pencils. Here's where I was thinking things would take forever. I thought I would need to color around each drop but I didn't! Instead I colored right over the drops and the details of the drops came through. In fact it looked more real because it was like the green of the leaves was coming through the water drop, as it would in real life.
  • Then I used a blending pencil over all the leaves to smooth things out and the water drops continued to hold their detail and definition. 
Picture
Coloring Book: Beautiful Creatures
Colorist: Nicole Stocker
pat phipps
8/28/2016 02:14:22 pm

I just cannot believe how "professional" my colored pictures look!!!

Laurie anderson
4/2/2017 10:27:53 am

Iam totally new to grayscale coloring& had picked up s couple coloring. Oils with dragons& such before I found yours. I signed up for your newsletter hoping I will unearth the mystery of what to do with my new books besides ruin them!!! Lol, since I already purchased the dragon book I can't afford to purchase yours, sad; Iam hoping you will help me anyway? Help???

Nicole Stocker link
4/2/2017 01:06:16 pm

This blog is filled with all kinds of tips for coloring grayscale. I'd recommend starting with going to the grayscale video tutorials section (http://www.huelish.com/grayscale-coloring-techniques/category/grayscale-coloring-video-tutorials). The two most recent posts in that section are full length video tutorials for coloring grayscale from start to finish. They include the page colored in the tutorial so you can print it and follow along. There are many more video tutorials in that section as well that I think you'll find helpful.

For more specific individual tips, visit the "Tips From Grayscale Colorists" section (http://www.huelish.com/grayscale-coloring-techniques/category/tips-from-grayscale-colorists). There you will find lots of useful tips and tricks for coloring grayscale. There are several posts so just scroll through until a topic catches your eye.

I hope this helps!


Laurie anderson
4/3/2017 07:50:25 pm

That helps a lot, Thankyou so much& a couple of your grayscale books will be my next purchase as finance allows! I wish I'd seen yours before I got the ones I did, and it's funny because I have a couple of your regular spellbinding coloring books!

Marilyn Behlke
7/29/2017 08:56:40 am

What type of pencil? If it is the softer lead . Is Prismacolor crayons de couleur good?

Nicole Stocker link
7/29/2017 12:15:58 pm

In these videos I am using Prismacolor Premier colored pencils. They are wax based and have a softer lead. They provide nice vibrant colors and are wonderful colored pencils! I also like to use Faber Castell Polychromos which are oil based and seem to have slightly harder leads. I find they are easier for doing a lot of layering because you do not get any wax bloom. Here is a link to a blog post comapring the two kinds of pencils: http://www.huelish.com/grayscale-coloring-techniques/prismacolor-premiers-vs-faber-castell-polychromos

Brandy
1/12/2018 03:52:21 pm

What is wax bloom? I am new to Gray Scale, and I use Prisma Premiers too, but the book in the book I have (not one of yours) the effect always looks waxy. Like I literally took a candle and colored it... What gives?

Nicole Stocker link
1/13/2018 09:26:49 am

Brandy, Prismacolor Premiers are wax-based pencils. When you color with them as you layer the wax builds up. Once you reach a point that there isn't enough tooth left in the paper for the color to "grab" on to you start to see wax bloom (a light white haze on the surface). It's possible that the book you are coloring in has paper that doesn't have much tooth and therefore you are getting the wax bloom quickly. Another possibility is that you are coloring with a heavy hand which pushes down the tooth as well as layers up the colored pencil quickly and thickly. I would suggest trying to do lots of very light layers. If the paper in the book you are using isn't very good quality then you could consider photocopying the picture onto better quality paper that has some tooth. I hope these suggestions help!

Kathleen Pace Warner
10/17/2017 06:13:06 am

Just discovered greyscale never knew what it was. Impressed

Anna Hanekom
2/23/2018 11:43:24 am

I just love greyscale colouring

Kelly Sonnenberg
1/16/2019 04:18:26 am

Thank you for your tutorials and articles! Say, I do understand what the process is, yet I’ve come across this grayscale book published by Black River Art called “Fairyland Grayscale Coloring Book” that has me completely stumped. The artwork is very capitive but is the darkest grayscale I’ve ever come across. I’ve ruined several pages trying to color them, and experimenting every time I failed.


What is your advice as to how to color that book and others like it?

Nicole Stocker link
1/16/2019 10:24:14 am

I haven't tried that specific book so it's hard to say for sure because I'm not familiar with the paper it uses. If it is a heavier paper stock with a bit of tooth then I would recommend doing lots of layers of color to build up your color over the dark areas. Hopefully the paper can handle enough layers that you can build some intensity to your color in order to cover the dark gray. If the paper is thinner or too smooth then you'll just have to be that much more careful when adding layers.

Whether the paper is thick, thin, has tooth or is smooth just be sure to apply your layers lightly so that you don't push down the tooth of the paper (until you are finished applying the layers). That way you can keep adding layers. At first it might seem like you aren't building any color but the intensity will build as the layers build.

If the grayscale is really dark then a first step might be to add a light layer of a light color as your base layer to help lighten up the gray a bit. I personally haven't had to do that before but it's certainly something I would try if I came across some grayscale that was too dark.


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