Pencil or Chalk (Pastels)

Until I discovered chalks or otherwise known as pastels, I watercolored or used colored pencils to color in my images. Although watercoloring is a fast and easy way to color stamped images, I do have a few issues using this medium. First of all, unless watercolor paper is used, the vibrancy and full effect of watercoloring is lost. Watercolor paper is ideal for watercoloring but it is expensive. If regular cardstock is used, layering the colors become a problem if a watercoloring medium is not used because using too much water on regular cardstock and heavy brushing of colors will eventually cause the cardstock to lose its integrity and start to cause "paper balls" - you know, little rough spots on the colored areas. Furthermore, the cardstock will warp when it dries. Yuck!


Colored pencils are a great way to color in images but it's VERY TIME CONSUMING and difficult to blend. I found that the most ideal medium to color in images is chalk because it's blendable and quick. The only drawback is unless you use glossy cardstock, it's difficult to blend and the color application is not consistent on regular matte cardstock. Blender pens can be used to blend the pastel but it gives the same effect as markers but less bold. Glossy cardstock can be expensive at times if you don't find it on sale and it's not heavily marketed as regular cardstock, therefore, difficult to find.


Here are two samples using the same images. The first one is colored in with chalk. To color in the entire image took me approximately 20 minutes. The 2nd image was colored in with pencil and it took me approximately 40 minutes to complete. I do take a long time coloring images because I blend the colors in thoroughly - I don't just color the image quickly. I use cross-hatch techniques and circular motion to blend the colors. As with both images, I highlighted the images outline with markers. See if you can tell the difference between coloring with chalk versus coloring in with pencil. Personally, there's only a fine difference between the two.




This was colored with pastels (chalk)





This was colored with Pencils