Colouring The Orchids

Today I want to share a colouring tutorial with you using the Orchid digital stamps, smooth cardstock and alcohol markers. I've chosen to go with yellow orchids, but you can use any colour you wish as the principals of colouring are the same.

1. I began by printing the orchid stem in a very light shade of grey, giving me a no-line look to the finished piece. You can alter the colour of the digital stamp in Microsoft Word or your favourite image editing software. If you prefer, you can print the image with the black outlines instead.

2. I like to start with the stem, or whatever is in the background, but this is just a personal preference. Add in the darkest of the greens (YG67) keeping the colour to the bottom of the stem and close to the flowers. The darker areas will recede, giving the illusion of shape and "pushing" the stem back behind the flowers.

3. Start to blend the mid colour (YG17) into the darkest green by overlapping the shades. Don't try to blend the colours completely as you want to keep some of the sudden variation and change in shade. Blend the next colour into the first two for the highlights (YG13). If you wish, you can come back in with the first green to darken the shadow areas.

4. Time to work on the little buds. I added a nice bright green (YG13) to the very tip of the bud, then blended in a lighter green (YG11) working from the tip, over the bright green and toward the base.

5. Now I'm adding a mid yellow (Y15) to the base of the bud, which will be the darkest area, and then adding two lighter shades (Y13 and Y11) as I work my way toward the green tip. The lightest yellow will come right up to the lightest green with a slight overlap. I'll use a blender pen (0) to blend the yellow and green. Alternatively, you could use either of the lighter makers to blend the colours together.

6. The flowers have several very small parts, as you can see from the photo below. The tiny tri-petal structure in the centre of the flower is really too small to do a lot of blending, so I'm only using two deep yellows (Y35 and Y38), concentrating the darkest colour closer to the base of each little petal.

7. The larger structure, also made up of three petals, is coloured with four shades of red, starting with the deepest shade (R39) that's laid around the base of the petals. Remember that the darker colours recede, giving the illusion of depth. I've used the remaining reds (R29, R27, R24) to colour the area, blending between each layer.

8. The structure that holds the red and yellow area of the flower is coloured with the two greens we used on the tips of the buds (YG13 and YG11). You want to bring the lighter green through to the base of the two large, side petals, which will be blended with the lightest yellow (Y11).

9. Time to blend all those yellows again, starting with the lightest yellow at the very base of the petal, over the green, and working out to the mid yellow (Y13 and Y15).

10. Add the two greens (YG13 and YG11) to the tip of each petal in the same way you did the buds. This will help break up all the yellow, distinguish each petal and also add interest to the coloured image. Once the tips are coloured, blend in the lightest yellow (Y11) and work back through the other yellows until you hit the mid colour again (Y13 and Y15). 

11. Add a layer of the lightest yellow (Y11) over the entire petal to help blend. Don't overwork the image though, you want to retain some of the texture from the pen strokes.

12. The remaining three petals are set further back on the flower, which means you want them to be darker. Use your darkest yellow (Y17) at the base of the petals and work through to the mid yellow again (Y18, Y15 NOTE: Y18 is actually a less intense colour than Y17)

13. Add the green tips, then complete the petals in the same way as the previous two, remembering to blend with the lightest yellow (Y11) once all the other colours have been added.

14. Adding a little shading will help distinguish the petals and layers of the flower. Take care to apply the pencil VERY lightly over the yellow. You can always add more layers of colour but it's very difficult to remove. I used a nice warm grey pencil (50% French Grey), followed by a slightly darker pencil right in close to the base (70% French Grey). If you're using cool colours for your flower, such as blue or purple, then choose a cool toned grey for the shadows.

15. Time to colour the remaining flowers.

16. And finish with some shading.

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