Category: Written Tutorials

I decided to colour the lion door knocker from The Ink House by Rory Dobner today but could not film it as the family is around. Therefore I took a series of photos to show you my steps in colouring it. I used Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. I put Burnt Umber over the areas that […]

I thought it would be fun to show you how I colour an autumn leaf. I have picked a leaf from Miniature Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford and coloured it using Black Widows pencils. I have chosen this set because they sharpen to a good point and the leaves are very small in this book! […]

I am going to use Castle Arts pencils to colour this chestnut from Miniature Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford. I will start with a pale green layer using the Leaf Green Middle pencil. I want to emphasise the spherical shape of this, to make it look more three dimensional. This means that I will go […]

I am going to colour this blackberry using pencils from my Castle Art 72 set. You can use other brands and similar colours though. To start with I will do the berry part and then finish with the leaves. I start by doing a fairly pale background in a light purple shade. I will use […]

Backgrounds to colouring pages can be something that many people find daunting or just do not know how to start. There are lots of different ways that they can be coloured though. I thought it might be helpful to show you some of the techniques that I have used to give you some ideas. In […]

It can be difficult knowing how to create shade and shadow, whether you are looking at a picture as a whole or individual items within the picture. It is always best to start by thinking about where your light source is coming from and then you can get the shadow right on every item. Normally […]

Colouring the middles of flowers can actually be quite daunting. It can be tempting to always grab a yellow pencil and just fill it in. Although this can look rather pretty, there are lots of different approaches that could be taken. I have chosen a flower from World of Flowers by Johanna Basford to show […]

There are lots of butterflies in Johanna Basford books and it is not always easy to know how to colour them. Sometimes I use photos as guides to make them look more realistic, but now I have learned a few techniques that I tend to use most of the time. I have picked a butterfly […]

There are lots of leaves in Johanna Basford colouring books and sometimes it can be tricky to know how to colour them. Here is an idea for a leaf from Magical Jungle. I have decided to colour this one in Faber Castell Polychromos but you can use any brand of pencils just with several different […]

Colouring plants can be fun and there are lots to do in Johanna Basford books such as this one from Magical Jungle. I am going to show you how to colour it with Black Widows pencils but you can use any brand and get the same results. Just pick colours of your choice or similar […]