Blending

Guide to Coloring ~ Blending 

By getting further into my New Guide to Coloring book I have learned of another simple technique to make drawings a bit more creative and fancy looking. It is a simple technique called blending. Blending refers to two different things that have a lot of overlap: mixing colors together to create a new color and also seamlessly shifting from one color to another to create a gradient effect (Couch 68). Blending is an essential for more advanced coloring and creates more beautiful, smooth rainbows in your designs. 

Mixing colors is pretty straightforward you just mix two or more colors together to create a new colors. So I will explain more on the transitions and gradients and overall blending finishes. "To use blending to create gradients and transitions...begin working with a light and dark tool of the same color family...the light color will be your base color "(Couch 70). Blending works best with two similar colors from the same color group because then it really gives the effect of two colors colliding and mixing together. Colored pencils are best to use when starting out this technique, the colors have have chosen are a light and dark green. I will be trying something fairly simple by blending a leaf.

Base Step: First you start by coloring your 

drawing (start simple like my leaf) with 

your light color over the entire area you 

want to blend. 

Next Step: Once your satisfied with the base layer use your dark shade to color lightly from the middle of your base color toward one edge of the shape. As you move further away from the area of the base shade apply more pressure to your pencil.

Last Step: Once you have added your darker color go
back with your light base color and color over the entire
area you've previously colored with the darker shade.
Redo process if needed ti create a nice and even coat of your color,
blending from light to dark. 

Here is the final result, as you can see
the leaf is darker at the bottom and
slowly starts to lighten up causing the
gradient and transitioning effect. 

Do you think its simpler to just mix two colors or blend the colors with the transition method? 

Do you have any favorite techniques you use in your coloring's/drawings? 

Couch, Peg. New Guide to Coloring for Crafts, Adult Coloring Books, and Other Coloristas!: Tips, Tricks, and      Techniques for All Skill Levels! Fox Chapel Pub Co Inc, 2016.