Friday, January 14, 2011

Colouring With Distress Inks

Here's what you need, sorry I forgot to take a pic.....
Selection of Distress Inks
Water Brush or Paint Brush and Water
Water Colour Card
Choice of stamp
Versafine Ink Pad
Piece of Kitchen Roll

Stamp up your image and start with the skin.
I use Tattered Rose for skin and start by applying a light covering over all skin areas, try not to get your card too wet. I dab of any excess water onto the kitchen roll as I go.Go back and add more of the same shade, but now start where shadows would be and as the colour runs out blend in so you don't get a hard line where the colour ends.

Continue blend the skin till you're happy with the shade adding more colour to the shadowy parts.Once you're happy with the shade of the skin, move on to your next colour and start to add the colour starting again in the shadowy parts, pushing the colour away to the lighter parts. Don't be frightend to leave some parts of your image white where it'll be lightest, you can always colour these very lightly as you go along.
Carry on adding more colour where you think you need it, blending all the time.You can't really blend the colour on the smaller partsColour her hair in just the same way, blending all the time.You can always go back and add more colour so if you're not sure whether to add more, leave it and go back to it when you've finished.

I think the secret with colouring with Distress Inks is to get the amount of water on your brush right and remember to blend the colour, pushing the colour to the lighter parts of the image as you work.

Don't give up if you don't get it right first time, just keep on practising, after all, practice make perfect, doesn't it?
Have Fun!

The colours I used are
Tattered Rose - Skin
Victorian Velvet - Dress
Dusty Concord- Shoes, beads and mirror
Tea Die and Vintage Photo - Hair

11 comments:

Kathyk said...

LOVELY colouring and thanks for the tutorial

Kathyk

Debs M said...

fantastic tutorial..you make it look so easy x

Karen said...

Debs it is easy once you get the hang of it, honest.

xx

Unknown said...

Thanks for this Tutorial I bet you made it look so much easier than it really is, but will have a go sometime and see!

Clare Lloyd said...

beautiful work karen. i only have 4distress ink pads, off to order some more!!! thanks for sharing. just thought, i have a set of whispers pens, i expect i could get the same effect using them with a waterbrush?? xx

My name is Wynneth said...

Great tutorial Karen, loving that image too, is it one of Mo's ?
hugs
wynneth
x

Croms' Cubby Hole said...

Fab tutorial Karen. thanks for putting it together

Anonymous said...

You did a beautiful job on her. Cute image too :)

Cherry said...

Thanks Karen, I'm slowly building my collection of DIs and am planning on having a go at this - you make it looks deceptively easy. But practice makes perfect. That is a beautifully coloured image. Hugs Cherry xxx

Words and Pictures said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Words and Pictures said...

This is gorgeous. I've had a little go at colouring with my Distress Markers and a water brush, but this is really beautiful. Thanks so much for the tips.
Alison x