Grayscale Coloring
Techniques BLOG
TIPS, TECHNIQUES & TUTORIALS
Below you will find a collection of over 20 grayscale coloring video tutorials from a variety of creators. I thought it would be helpful to have them all in one place as a reference when learning how to color grayscale. I will make a point of continually updating this post when I find or create more grayscale coloring tutorials. If I've missed any, please let me know and I'll add them! I've grouped the video tutorials into three categories: Coloring Grayscale with Colored Pencils
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Faber Castell Polychromos: A Butterfly & Flowers Speed Coloring Video Creator: Peta Hewitt Duration: 13:40 Synopsis: In this beautiful speed coloring tutorial, we learn some wonderful techniques that Peta uses when coloring grayscale. Techniques include: selecting your colors, using black over grayscale, creating a soft out of focus effect vs. a sharp in focus effect, using the grayscale to guide us in terms of where light and shadows should be, and more!
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Colored Pencils & Petroleum Jelly for Blending: a Landscape
Full length tutorial and color-along Creator: Jones Flores Duration: 2 hours 7 minutes Synopsis: In this recorded version of a live stream grayscale coloring tutorial and color-along with Jones Flores you will learn four key things:
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils: Flowers
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Jones Flores Duration: 11:07 Synopsis: In this tutorial Jones colors a picture of a magnolia tree from the "Beautiful Nature" grayscale coloring book. Using Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, Jones uses the technique of burnishing to get bold, beautiful colors and great blending.
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils: A Ladybug
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Nicole Stocker (Huelish) Duration: 1:01 Synopsis: A coloring page of a ladybug crawling on a leaf is the subject of this speed coloring video. Watch how the colors are applied to the ladybug based on the darkness or lightness of the gray. As the colors are applied you will see the ladybug come to life.
TOPIC: Layering and Burnishing: A Flower
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Jones Flores Duration: 19:30 Synopsis: In this tutorial Jones colors a picture of a dahlia from the "Beautiful Nature" grayscale coloring book. Using mostly Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, Jones uses layers and burnishing to get beautiful results. Using mainly Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, Jones uses layering and burnishing to get beautiful results. This is a great video for seeing how Jones does her layering. Also, you'll be able to watch the change that occurs as she burnishes and see the positive impact it has on the final picture.
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils: A Horse
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Nicole Stocker (Huelish) Duration: 1:38 Synopsis: In this speed coloring of a horse, you will see that the shadows are colored with the darker browns and blacks, the highlights with light brown and cream and medium browns in between. As the colors are applied you will have fun watching the horse come to life!
TOPIC: How to Color a Rainbow Effect Over Grayscale: A Fantasy Character
Creator: Nikki Burnette Duration: 17:46 Synopsis: Nikki shows us a very cool technique for creating a rainbow effect over grayscale using colored pencils and some petroleum jelly to help with the blending.
TOPIC: Colored pencil blending on grayscale & selecting your colors: A Succulent
Creator: Pam Proctor Duration: 21:39 Synopsis: In this tutorial, Pam shows us a cool tool for selecting your colors and guides us on coloring and blending over grayscale.
TOPIC: Grayscale Coloring Tip for Light Skin Tone with Colored Pencils: A Fantasy Character
Creator: Nikki Burnette Duration: 10:44 Synopsis: Nikki provides us with some great tips on coloring light skin tone, something many find challenging! She includes guidance on colors to use and how to use petroleum jelly to get a nice smooth result.
TOPIC: Coloring with Colored Pencils: A Dog
Creator: Art by Alisann (Abee Accessories) Duration: 7:45 Synopsis: Follow along as Alisann colors a grayscale dog using colored pencils. Watch as she uses what seem like unlikely colors (e.g. purple on the dog's nose) to achieve a realistic result.
TOPIC: Using Unlikely Colored Pencil Colors For Your Grayscale Picture: A Giraffe
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Jones Flores Duration: 3:52 Synopsis: When coloring grayscale you can use any color palette you choose, as long as your palette offers a light, medium and dark option. In this video you will see Jones color a giraffe in unrealistic colors using colored pencil. In addition, you will see her technique of using chalk pastels with colored pencil over top to get a nice smooth result.
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Colored Pencils: A Landscape
Creator: Grace Brannigan Duration: 1:09 Synopsis: In this video Grace provides a photo progression showing how the grayscale image changes each step along the way as you apply color. She also provides an interesting tip of applying clear gesso to your coloring page before starting to color (see the more detailed video by Grace on this in the next section of videos).
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Colored Pencils: A Cat
Creator: Erica Henry Duration: 12:00 Synopsis: Watch as Erica colors a grayscale cat with colored pencils. She provides guidance along the way, explaining what she is coloring, what colors she is using (and why) and some extra tips & tricks!
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale for the First Time: A Bee
Creator: MissVickybee Duration: 23:12 (actual tutorial begins at 4:25) Synopsis: Learn with MissVickybee as she discovers and tries out grayscale coloring for the first time. She reads the grayscale coloring instructions and then begins coloring, only to find out it is much easier than she expected.
TOPIC: Coloring with Colored Pencils: A Window & Shutters
Creator: Art by Alisann (Abee Accessories) Duration: 6:54 Synopsis: In this video tutorial, Alisann guides us through coloring a grayscale image of a window and shutters. Watch as she applies color and brings the scene to life.
TOPIC: Coloring with Colored Pencils: A Cat
Creator: Art by Alisann (Abee Accessories) Duration: 13:32 Synopsis: In this video tutorial, Alisann guides us through coloring a grayscale image of a grayscale cat with colored pencils. Watch as she applies color and brings the adorably serious cat to life. Coloring Grayscale with a Mixture of &/or Different MediumsTOPIC: Coloring Grayscale Water Drops with Colored Pencils and Ink Pens Speed Coloring Video Creator: Jones Flores Duration: 13:55 Synopsis: In this tutorial, Jones teaches us how to color water drops using the leaf from the "Beautiful Nature" grayscale coloring book. All the details from how to do the background around the drops to the drops themselves are included. You will find all the info needed on the color names and materials used as well as an explanation of each layer of color and type of stroke or pressure used.
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Colored Pencils and Ink Pens: a Cat
Full length tutorial and color-along Creator: Jones Flores Duration: 2 hours 29 minutes Synopsis: In this grayscale coloring tutorial and color-along, Jones Flores teaches the basics of grayscale coloring, how to color fur and eyes, how to use soft pastels for a basic background and how to use ink pens to achieve a more realistic and textured result with the fur. To download and print the cat so you can color along as well as get a list of the coloring supplies you will need, visit our complete blog post that accompanies this video tutorial.
TOPIC: Painting Grayscale with Acrylic Paints: A Flower
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Julie Flores Duration: 11:24 Synopsis: In this grayscale coloring tutorial, the talented artist Julie Flores shows us how to paint a grayscale coloring page from "Beautiful Nature" using acrylics. This video is based on the painting techniques provided by Julie and outlined in this blog post.
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Derwent Inktense Pencils: A Cat
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Nicole Stocker (Huelish) Duration: 1:59 Synopsis: In this speed coloring of a cat, you will see how Derwent Inktense pencils are used over grayscale and then activated with a watercolor brush. In addition, you will see where colored pencil is used for finer details such as the eyes and soft chalk pastels for the background.
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Soft Pastels Blended with Oil, Colored Pencils, Ink Pens and More: A Succulent
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Jones Flores Duration: 11:41 Synopsis: This is the first in a series of grayscale coloring tutorials featuring the coloring of the talented grayscale colorist, Jones Flores. In this tutorial Jones colors a picture of a succulent from the soon-to-be-released Beautiful Nature grayscale coloring book. She shows you how she colors over the grayscale with soft pastels and hair oil (argan oil) for blending. In addition, she uses colored pencils, ink pens and fibre tip pens with a paintbrush to enhance details and further intensify the impact of the final picture.
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Colored Pencils, Ink Pens and Soft Pastels: A Squirrel
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Jones Flores Duration: 3:00 Synopsis: In this speed coloring video, Jones shows us the steps she follows for coloring the squirrel. First she focuses on the dark areas, then the light areas and then she begins layering with the medium colors to blend everything together. In addition she does the finer details with ink pens. We also see her complete a background using soft pastels with colored pencil over top to achieve a nice smooth effect.
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Oil Pastels and Baby Oil: A Cow
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Nicole Stocker (Huelish) Duration: 2:21 Synopsis: Learn how to apply oil pastels over a grayscale image and then blend them with baby oil. You will see that baby oil helps smooth out the oil pastels enough to bring everything together while still leaving an interesting texture from the pastels and allowing enough of the grayscale image underneath to come through to provide additional detail and definition.
TOPIC: Grayscale Coloring Tip - How to Use Gel Pens: A Fantasy Character
Creator: Nikki Burnette Duration: 15:31 Synopsis: Nikki talks about how she uses gel pens with grayscale coloring. She will show how to use fine tip gel pens to color in small areas in a grayscale coloring page. Nikki also covers how to use metallic and glitter gel pens to add neat effects to your coloring to make chains and jewelry look like real metal. And finally, she talks about how she uses white gel pens to add highlights on eyes, lips, clothes wings, etc.
TOPIC: Painting Grayscale with Acrylics: A Sunset and Reflection
Creator: Julie Flores Duration: 13:02 Synopsis: This is the second in a series of grayscale coloring tutorials featuring the painting of the talented grayscale colorist, Julie Flores. In this tutorial Julie paints a picture of a mountain reflection landscape from the "Beautiful Nature" grayscale coloring book. Using acrylic paint, Julie walks us through the steps she follows to create a stunning sunset and reflection.
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Colored Pencils and Clear Gesso To Make Your Colors Pop: A Landscape
Creator: Grace Brannigan Duration: 2:47 Synopsis: In this tutorial Grace pre-treats her grayscale picture with clear gesso and then colors over it using Derwent Inktense and Prismacolor colored pencils. Grace uses this approach in order to get her colors to really pop.
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Prismacolor Premiers and Berkeley Turpentine For Blending: Three Horses
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Jones Flores Duration: 1:57 Synopsis: Here you will learn about the technique of using Berkeley Turpentine for blending your colored pencils. In addition, Jones is using unlikely colors when coloring her horses yet still gets a beautiful result because she has used the gray to guide where to use dark or light colors.
TOPIC: Using Gamsol with Oil Based Colored Pencils for Coloring Grayscale: A Fox
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Kourtney Ferro Duration: 15:20 (actual speed coloring tutorial begins at 6:03) Synopsis: In this video Kourtney colors a fox and the background using oil based colored pencils and gamsol for blending. The gamsol helps provide a beautiful soft, out of focus effect for the background.
TOPIC: Using Gel Pens, Soft Pastels and Colored Pencils to Color Grayscale: A Crocodile
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Jones Flores Duration: 1:30 Synopsis: Jones uses soft pastels to create a base before continuing on with gel pens to go over all the very specific details of the crocodile and colored pencil to add color and capture the remaining shadow and highlight details.
TOPIC: Using Vaseline to Color Grayscale with Colored Pencil: A Fantasy Character
Creator: Nikki Burnette Duration: 4:49 Synopsis: Nikki shows us the technique of dipping the tip of your colored pencil in vaseline and then coloring over grayscale. This helps to get a nice smooth result when coloring.
TOPIC: Using Colored Pencils and Gel Pens to Color Grayscale: A Cat
Creator: Jones Flores Duration: 1:35 Synopsis: In this speed coloring video, Jones switches back and forth between using gel pens for the finer details of the cat (especially the hair) and colored pencils. It is interesting to see how the combination comes together so nicely.
TOPIC: Coloring Grayscale with Faber Castell Classic Colored Pencils Over Soft Pastels: A Basenji
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Jones Flores Duration: 0:59 Synopsis: The key learning from this video is regarding the use of soft pastels for your base colors to enable your colored pencil (Faber Castell Classic Colored Pencils) to lay down smoothly over top. In addition, you see Jones use ink pens to add lots of detail to her picture. Coloring a Grayscale BackgroundTOPIC: A Comparison of Grayscale Coloring Background Options: A Fantasy Character Creator: Nikki Burnette Duration: 19:46 Synopsis: in this video, Nikki compares different background options when coloring a grayscale background. Watch as she compares: pastel chalk, pan pastels, eye shadow and pebbles chalk.
TOPIC: How to Color a Grayscale Background with Soft Chalk Pastels: A Lion
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Nicole Stocker (Huelish) Duration: 0:28 Synopsis: watch as Nicole scribbles the soft chalk pastels on the grayscale background of a picture of a lion and then just smudges them around with her finger to blend. This allows the grayscale details to show through, adding definition and detail to the final background. https://youtu.be/fa5dXXgESII
TOPIC: Coloring a Grayscale Background with Pebble Chalks: A Fantasy Character
Creator: Nikki Burnette Duration: 13:38 Synopsis: Nikki shows us how she uses pebble chalks to color a grayscale background using a cotton ball for application.
TOPIC: Achieving a Smooth Effect For Your Background Using Soft Pastels & Colored Pencil: A Giraffe
Speed Coloring Video Creator: Jones Flores Duration: 3:52 Synopsis: In this video you will see the technique of using chalk pastels with colored pencil over top to get a nice smooth result. In addition, you will see Jones color a giraffe in unrealistic colors while still getting a realistic result.
I hope you have found this collection of grayscale coloring tutorials helpful. If you come across any tutorials not already included here then please let me know and I'll be sure to add them to the collection!
Happy Coloring! Nicole 5/20/2016 05:13:48 pm
Fantastic resource for grayscale coloring techniques. Thank you!
Barbara Leonard
5/21/2016 05:52:33 pm
This is great. Thank you!!
Lori
5/22/2016 05:37:11 am
After the horse, all I get are black squares, no videos at all for the rest on this page. :( 5/22/2016 06:10:22 am
Lori, sorry the videos aren't showing up properly for you. It sounds like the videos just haven't finished loading in your browser. I would recommend refreshing your browser. If that doesn't work then try opening the same link in a new browser window or tab. It's a big post so it can take a moment for all the videos to load. I hope that works!
Karen
5/22/2016 09:52:29 am
Thanks for compiling all these in one spot for easy reference. I've watched some of them but will now work through this list.
Audrey
5/31/2016 01:00:08 pm
Thanks for all of these videos. They have helped immensely. I was making this technique much harder than it is. I'm ordering a new copy of beautiful creatures ( one for practice and one for the final work. Turns out that if I had just followed my intuition, I would have been fine. I always seem to make things harder than they are. Lol. 5/31/2016 03:39:37 pm
I'm so glad you are finding these video tutorials helpful, Audrey. It's so true that we make things harder than they are. I'm always overthinking things!! Thank you very much for ordering a second copy of Beautiful Creatures. It is nice to get to do a picture a second time, whether it's to do it a completely new way or to perfect the approach you were taking the first time.
Pam Proctor
8/10/2016 06:06:58 pm
Love your book... Thank you for sharing my video. The ladies over on facebook group... Coloring Books - Keep it clean ... are loving this! Comments are closed.
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