How to Color Poinsettias

I've had lots of wonderful feedback as well requests for coloring the poinsettias in "Festive Frame": although I don't have a video, my process of just 4-5 steps for these is so simple, a few pictures ought to do! :) I don't use the Colorless blender very much when I'm coloring (for me it's mainly for taking away boo boos or just when I ended up putting on waaaay too much color than I should have), preferring to stick with just a few contrasting shades of each color for a lot of "pop". (Blend too much and you can lose the dramatic shadows that really make your images look 3D.) Today's will be using traditional colors.

Color the poinsettias completely with a solid coat of R16 Strong Red (above).

Imagine "the light" coming from "above", and trace along the undersides of each petal with R59 Cardinal where there is one overlapping another, just following the underside of the lines.

Now trace the veins with Cardinal down the centers of the leaves, working from the middle going outward, and small strokes out from these, again just going over the lines. I love the contrast of these two colors, they provide very dramatic shadows and give lots of dimension. (If you like this look, skip the next step. If you want a more blended look, go to step 3.)

Pick up Strong Red again and go over these areas you did with Cardinal, working in the same direction you made the Cardinal strokes. If more blending is desired, go over the lines/areas in small circles. You'll see how these darker lines blend seamlessly into the Strong Red layer.

Color in the center with YG03 Yellow Green of other bright, light green.

Add a few dots of Greenish Olive or other darker green to the middle and bottom of the center.
That's it! you're done! Trace with a Stardust pen or add Stickles for shimmer if desired.

Here are the remaining colors I used for the pine cones and needles. As you can see: I usually only use two shades of a color, and create the other shades i need "in between" by doing tip to tip coloring, (which is picking up the darker color on to the lighter marker and coloring with that, which I'll share this another time) )or as I did in this tutorial just using the lighter color as a blender going over the darker color.

I hope this was helpful! I know you've seen this color combo from me a ton of times with this image, but it's just what goes with stuff I like around my house. ;) To make purple, pink, blue, whatever, just choose a light and dark shade of each and follow the steps above! :)

Stay tuned for a project I am SO excited about using this colored image!! :) Any guesses what I made this time??