Learning from the “Painter of Light”

I received the Posh Adult Coloring Book: Thomas Kinkade Painter of Light for my Birthday. It is a very unique kind of coloring book in that it is a color along. It contains 63 of Thomas Kinkade’s most popular paintings presented in color across from the blank line art of the same image to be colored.

I called it license to copy his work without getting in trouble. I have always been a fan and to be given the opportunity to even try to copy his work is truly special. I felt the pressure of what if I totally mess it up, but the challenge of it all was too much to resist. Here’s an example of what a page looks like in the book:

Coloring of “Make a Wish Cottage”

I picked the “Make a wish cottage” as my first piece and proceeded to learn from the “Painter of Light”. What I learned from this exercise was immeasurable. It was not easy because the medium used was different, and the line art was just a rough outline probably rendered by a computer software (not sure, I could be wrong on this) and some places even looked weird. I also didn’t have all the colors that was in the original painting in my small colored pencil set. For example the roof of the well and the cottage was a mix of I don’t know how many layers of blues and greens to come close to his original color.

I am most fascinated with the stone pathway, all the color reflections from the light in the cottage and the sky – purples, blues, oranges, yellows. If I wasn’t copying from the master, I would probably just color it a boring brown/grey stone color walkway.

 

The comparison!

So here’s a side by side of my work beside the original of Thomas Kinkade the Painter of Light. What do you think?

This was the most fun project and in the end I was very proud of my “copying” technique. Seriously, I believe that the exercise brought my level of coloring skill up a notch. Learning by copying is a great idea. Obviously I am not encouraging you to copy others work without permission. Hence, I strongly recommend this book. After all, what better way to learn than from the master Painter of Light!

I look forward to doing another page out of this book soon and I hope I inspired you to give this a try.

Happy Coloring!