TheDailyMarker.com 30 Day Color Challenge

Having always considered myself a bit color challenged, the idea of a 30 Day Coloring Challenge can be ... well ... a challenge. Nonetheless, having recently been turned on to Kathy Racoosin's blog by a Jennifer McGuire tutorial, I was intrigued by the idea that actually coloring for a little bit each day might improve my coloring skills.  For more info about the coloring challenge, link to Kathy's blog post. TheDailyMarker.com 30 Day Coloring Challenge

My first project for the 30 Day Coloring Challenge was actually inspired by a few other Jennifer McGuire tutorials on Ink Swatches and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens.

I used Jennifer McGuire's swatch templates for my Ink Pad swatches and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pen pages.

For my Distress Inks, I not only stamped an image, but on the backside of the swatch card, I sponged the ink, watercolor brushed some on and drew with a Distress Marker when applicable.

For the Zig Clean Color Swatch pages, I followed Jennifer's suggestion to brush the color straight from the pen on one side, and apply water to it on the other side.

Using these swatch pages as a template, I created pages for my Marvy LePlume II Markers which I use to watercolor the Art Impressions way.  The swatch pages look a bit like a hot mess, but they illustrate what the ink looks like when drawn on, stamped on, stamped on damp watercolor paper and watercolor brushed on from a palette.

I had used a less expensive brand of watercolor paper for the swatch pages and there was a huge difference in how the color moved on the paper.  I decided to use the swatch cards for my different watercolor papers to stamp a few Art Impressions images to compare how the papers worked for this technique.

Next up, I am working on creating swatch pages for my Copic markers, so all of these can live in my ink swatch binder.

Since the 30 Day Color Challenge started, I have spent a lot of time getting inky to have a better idea of what colors I actually have and how they relate to one another. This should help me feel a little less color challenged moving forward.