How to pick a color palette to use in coloring books

As an artist, even I have a hard time picking a color palette once in a while.  That is when I turn to reference material for inspiration. 

I will go through home decoration catalogs such as Frontgate or Pier 1 Imports, or search the Internet for colorful photographs. There is even a blog called Design Seeds that creates color palettes for inspirational use.

I had my mom try it out (she is my creative guinea pig on everything) and she really enjoyed this technique. 

Here is how it's done:

First off, grab those catalogs that you have laying around the house. You know, those home decor ones that you keep "just in case" you hit the lotto one day and want to buy that killer princess dog bed that matches your couch. 

Go through the catalog and look at the beautiful color schemes they use in their home setting photos. Sometimes they will even have the palette shown. My favorite photos just happen to be extra colorful and outdoorsy. Such as poolside or garden settings.  Example:

Once you've selected a photo to use, select three to five main colors used in the photo.  The Frontgate photo above has bright pinks, light blues, creams, and greens. 

Now the fun part, from your photo and colors you've picked out, select the pen, pencil, and/or paint you want to use.

Now color!  Don't stress out about where the colors should go or what it should look like. Just have fun!  My mom used one of the mandalas out of my "Creative Spark Coloring Book - Relaxing Mandalas" (found on Etsy and Amazon)

Once was done, this was her final piece. She has since then colored a bunch more using her catalog as inspiration. She did a great job.  What do you think?

Try this exercise and show me how yours ended up. I can't wait to see your masterpieces!

Instagram, Art and Me

I've been totally lax on my blog for the past year.  But I am going to rectify that.  I am linking my pinterest, deviantart and instagram accounts to this page.  I want to be able to share my art with everyone as well as my journey from sometimes artist, to full-fledged art professional.

Follow me on Instagram at: @thejulesbaker

My Pinterest page: https://www.pinterest.com/thejulesbaker/

Deviantart: http://julesbaker.deviantart.com/

And here is some art to make you smile!

So I got Married! .......

Actually, I got married last year on 12-12-12.  But it was random and we did it last minute on a dare.  We were already engaged and had set our original wedding date for 4-20-2013.

Me and my son on my wedding day

Me and my new husband on our 12-12-12 wedding day.  Not bad for a wedding planned in 24 hours huh?

We decided to keep the April wedding date and use it to throw a reception/party instead.  We wanted it to have that Rock-a-Billy/Tattoo feel so I designed some artwork for the invitations as well as some banners that we had around.

Here is the original top to our invite:

Here is our invite (my lettering was a bit off but it was a last minute rush job):

And then I also did this sugar skull drawing for the banners:

Everyone had an amazing time, we loved every minute of it.

Me and my girls on my 4-20-2013 reception day.

Cheers!  We had a crazy fun time!

New Painting - My Largest to Date

My mother has really eclectic taste in art. She acquired three fairly large, colorful paintings from a local artist and although they are really fun to look at, they don't really go with the rest of the decor in her house.

 

About 6 months ago she asked me to make her a painting for her newly remodeled diningroom, but I never got around to it until now. I chose to make her 2 ft x 3 ft painting in a 4 part canvas series, different sizes but put together they make one large painting. She can eventually hang them together as a series, or hang them separately throughout her house.

 

I asked her what palatte she wanted (I like to work in a color theme), and she asked me to match the colors in her funky paintings, which is pretty much every primary color and every other bright color under the rainbow). I did the best I could, I think it will match well and will tie all of her paintings in every room, together.

 

I used acrylic paint on gessoed canvas. This took me from sketch stage, to paint stage, to lining stage, to the end about 2 weeks (1 full weekend and a couple of hours every night).

 

I haven't given it to her yet, but I know she will love it. It's very detaailed and there is something to look at in every part of the painting.

 

Enjoy!

Step-By-Step Sketching

I love making patterns.  I am very symetrical, I have a hard time not balancing things out when I draw.  (I really need to learn to let go of that!)

 

I drew this mandala with the help of my 9 year-old son who directed me on where to place the lines in my picture as I drew.

 

The first step I took was to sketch it out in pencil (sorry, I don't have that picture to show you!).

 

The next step was to line it all in pen, then erase the pencil lines.  I used the Micron pens for this step.

Looks nice but kind of boring with all the same size lines.

 

Step three, I made some lines thicker and added the fine details, again with my Micron pens.

It's looking way better!  My son loves this last step.  I colored everything in using my Copics, Sharpies and Bic Mark-Its.  My son picked the colors to use.  Then my final touch was with my white paint pens. 

Turned out pretty nice for a mommy and me project (he says "mommy and me" sounds to baby-ish - hahaha).