Newspaper Color Wash Tutorial

Hello everyone! Wow, I feel like I'm just about fully recovered from the holidays! Hope everyone's New Year is off to a great start!

Today I have a tutorial featuring the image "Purple Woods" from Ching-Chou Kuik's Fantasy Art Collection, Sheet #4, plate #24.

This is a variation on the color wash technique and I call it the 'newspaper color wash'.

NEWSPAPER COLOR WASH TUTORIAL:


Stamp your image and then cover the entire image in a grey shade. Here I used Copic Markers in W00 and W3. I put down 2-3 layers of W3, then a layer of W00. You can repeat this to saturate the paper even more. This would work with any of the W shades from W00-W3 and probably any of the C, T, or N shades of grey.

While your coats of grey are still wet start adding your color. Be sure to add your color with a light hand. The key is to have a lot of the grey show through. Sketch or Ciao is best to get the light, brush strokes. Here I added a touch of BOO to her hair.

I then added some BG01 to shade/darken some of the areas I colored with BOO.

Next, I outlined her skin in R01 and colored the eyes in YG03, YG23, and added some RV02 to her lips and the fairy cat's ears.

To add a little more color, I used V12 and YR000 around her. I used the V12 first and then blended out with the YR000 to give it a slight glowy appearance.

I then took my favorite grey, W3 and added some shadows to the fairy cat and other areas that need a deeper shade.

Once I was done with my Copics, I added some Spica glitter pen in mint to her hair and used a Sakura Clear Stardust pen on the fairy cat's wings. I also edged the image in Versamagic Midnight Black.

To make it a little more edgier, I added some black speckles.

This technique is fast and fun! There are so many variations. You can lay any light color down first for a color wash.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial!