New book, new pens

I started the New Year going on a buying spree for coloring books. One of these is the Ayahuasca Jungle Visions by Alexander Ward. The illustrations in this book are amazing if you are a fan of jungle themed art. At the same time, I was given a set of Kelly Creates new Aqua brush pens (10 colors) and multicolour fineliners to try by Kelly Klapstein, the author of “The Art of Brush Lettering”. Kelly and I are friends and our dogs are friends, we often chat about the ideal dream pens while our dogs are playing. Before I know it, she made her dreams all come true with her own line of Kelly Creates pens with American Craft which includes dream brush lettering pens, lettering kits, metallic brush pens, aqua brushes, fineliners and bullet journals, stamps etc, too many to list here. Although Kelly’s main interest is brush lettering, I am a colorist and I want to show that these pens are good for coloring too! Putting my new book and my new pens together, out comes this gorgeous (if I may say so myself) color art. Even I can’t believe I only use 10 colors in this work!

Kelly Creates Aqua Brush pens & fineliners

Just a few words about these lovely pens.

The colors of the aqua brushes are vibrant. The pack has 10 colors. In my demo, I showed how I dilute the colors to create lighter shades, how to mix and blend colors, how to create depth and dimension.

The multicolor fineliners are size 05, not too thick not too fine, making it perfect for coloring. I love that it has grey! You’ll see in my demo how grey is blended with black to create amazing hair braid. The same technique can be used for colors of same color tones e.g. red with orange, dark blue with light blue.

The Coloring book – Ayahuasca Jungle Visions

As I mentioned before this is a jungle themed coloring book. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful. The paper quality is a little disappointing but I do understand the cost limitation for a small publisher. If you use colored pencil or markers, the paper is fine. The illustrations are one-sided so you don’t need to worry about bleed through. It is also perforated, so you can easily remove the finished page for framing.

As the paper in this book is not ideal for water based media, I wanted to thank Alexander Ward for allowing me to make a copy of this illustration from my book onto 90 lb watercolor paper so that I can use the Aqua brush pens and water brush to create the effect I wanted.

The Demo

I have made a video to show you the techniques I used in coloring this beautiful page using Kelly Creates Aqua brush pens and fineliners. Enjoy and happy coloring!

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