Colouring in...

Dede style...

Do you know Dede Willingham? she is a very talented and lovely lady who gives her time and experience freely online. She host a regular live show on Ustream, and uploads the recordings to Youtube. Last week she invited people to colour in alongside her. 

On her blog she offered this sketch of 'Amelia', which the viewers were advised to print out onto tan coloured paper.  {print this sketch}

Then over the course of 3 days, and 3 live shows, Dede showed how she would colour in a portrait... and the viewers coloured along with her. 

VIDEO 1    VIDEO 2   VIDEO 3

If you love faces, or colouring in or you are a beginner looking for tips then I urge you to print out the sketch and follow along. 

It has been ages since I did a face, there has just been so much other stuff to do. I have definitely missed it, so thought I would play along. it isn't my preferred style, but it is always a good thing,I think, to try new styles.. and to see how other people work. You can always pick up lots of handy tips to use in your own work. 

So for a bit of fun, and just to generally join in, I decided to print out the sketch and follow along. 

This is the sketch, remember I did not draw this, it is a print out of Dede's sketch. 

Dede also gives a list of colours to use, I have a mix of Prismas and Derwent Coloursoft. 

To get Dede's list of colours and numbers go HERE{from 5 mins onward}

These are the colours that I had. 

White, Black, Dk Grey, Mid Grey, Blue Grey

Dk Brown, Burnt ochre, Terracotta, Rose

Purple, China Blue,Caribbean Sea Blue, Sky

Indigo, Yellow Ochre,Peach,Lt.Peach

Ginger Root, Peach Beige

Make them nice and sharp. 

Doing the eyes first, then adding white highlights. 

You will also need acrylic paint as an undercoat for the dress and bow. This is where we got to at the end of video 1. 

Doing the hair and a little shading on the face. 

Love,love those eyes. 

This is where we got to at the end of Video 2. 

and here is the finished portrait, it really was fun to play along. Thankyou Dede. 

Next week, Dede is doing another colour-along class, and this time she is drawing me!

Come and play along. HERE is Dede's Ustream channel. 

Darcy x

Do you fancy a little watercolour workshop for beginners???

My lovely friend, and amazing artist DEDE, has drawn a flower outline for you to use. On Wednesday 9am (USA EST time)( which is 2pm UK time) Dede will be hosting a live,online show in which she demonstrates how to colour the image using watercolours.

The show will be on Ustream, it is free to watch, and you don't even have to sign in...but if you do, then you get to join in the chat as well...which is always lots of fun.

Dede's Ustream channel is HERE.

So, firstly go to Dede's blog...up there, first link....and right click and save the Iris flower outline. Find yourself some cheap children's watercolour paints, and also some watercolour pencils.

You can do one of 2 things with the outline, print onto medium weight card and paint straight onto that...

or print onto scrap paper and then trace onto watercolour paper. This is what I did, as I wanted a pencil outline that I could rub out.


1. I printed the flower outline onto scrap paper.



2.Turned it over and scribbled all over the back with a soft pencil.



3. Flipped it back over and lightly taped it to my watercolour paper.




4. Then I traced over the printed outline with a hard pencil, this transfer the softer pencil underneath onto the watercolour paper...and voila, I now have a pencil outline, on watercolour paper and I can paint directly onto this.



I do hope you will join us on Wednesday, it should be a lot of fun.