Are your coloring projects pretty but boring?
Has this ever happened to you?
You find a wonderful stamp image. It’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen. You can’t wait to color it with your Copic Markers, colored pencils, or maybe you’ll use watercolor.
You’ve got big dreams for this stamp. It’s going to be the best thing you’ve ever colored.
The coloring goes well. The blends look good, the depth is better than usual, you even manage to stay inside the lines the whole entire time.
It’s great coloring on the perfect stamp!
And yet…
The finished project is just a little…
Boring?
What a let-down!
Even worse is when the project turns out exactly as you imagined and you’re pretty darned proud of yourself…
Until you’re on Pinterest and stumble across sixteen other people who colored the stamp exactly like you did.
Why is it so hard to color a jaw-dropping stamp in an eye-popping way?
Let’s look closer today at why great stamps go mediocre during the coloring process.
3 mistakes everyone makes with stamp images
When your coloring projects turn out ho-hum and hum-drum, it usually has nothing to do with the stamp.
That’s on you.
When your coloring looks the same as everyone else’s, it’s all too easy to rationalize. “Oh, that’s because we all used the same stamp!”
Nope. That’s on you too.
My All is Bright project here started with the Snowy Church/Oh Holy Night stamp from PowerPoppy.com.
This is not a new stamp. It’s been out for five years now. Hundreds of people have colored this stamp before. Heck, you’ve probably colored this stamp before!
And yet when you saw my project here, you hesitated for a moment, right?
You weren’t 100% completely sure that I used a stamp, right?
You’re still not sure, eh?
So what’s the secret to getting something fresh and original from a classic stamp?
It’s all about the mindset and approach to a stamp.
You’re making three big mistakes that stunt your artistic potential.
But first: it’s not talent!
Don’t look at my project and roll your eyes. “Oh, that’s just Amy. She’s really talented.”
WRONG!
People use talent as an excuse. “She can but I can’t.”
SO WRONG!
I wasn’t born with the ability to color pretty snow and churches.
I learned how.
Did you catch that? I learned.
It’s not talent. It’s skill.
All skills are learnable.
YOU can learn to do it too.
Let’s look at the 3 mistakes you make when coloring stamps.
Three things I’ve learned NOT to do.
1: Do you treat the uncolored stamp like finished art?
You fell in love with the stamp the minute you saw it. It triggered something in you—
a memory from the past
a vision of how to color it
you got the joke
the cuteness overwhelmed you
We buy every stamp for a different reason but the universal truth is that you identified with something in the line drawing.
Here’s the problem though… it doesn’t matter how much you love the image or the sentiment. It’s just a drawing, it’s just a stamp.
It’s not finished.
No stamp artist ever sketches out a stamp and says “Voila! This is done!”
Stamps are made with the intention that you will complete the project.
The stamp artists wants you to add color, value, texture, light, shadow, depth, dimension, personality, and love.
If a stamp was perfect, as-is with nothing more, nobody would ever send a Christmas card. We’d all mail each other stamp sets.
On some level, many card makers don’t quite understand this. The lack of understanding is why you’ll see so many cards with just the image stamped or embossed on white paper. No coloring. Nothing but some pretty paper around it.
They’re treating the stamp like it’s something worth framing, charishing, and celebrating.
Stamps are NOT art!
A stamp is just an ingredient. It’s the start of something better.
Too many colorers tiptoe around the stamp art, afraid to screw it up. They treat it with far more reverence than the stamp artist did.
“Oh, I’ll just add a pop of color but not too much because I don’t want to ruin it.”
When you treat a stamp as precious, you kill your chance to be creative.
2: Do you color with preschool rules?
Let me ask a few questions:
What color is snow? White
What color is a pine tree? Green
What color is the moon? White… or maybe yellow
What color is the night sky? Black… or dark blue
What color is an old fashioned church? White
What color is a glowing window? Yellow
Hmmmmmm… I just described a lot of Snowy Church cards, didn’t I?
Wait, I can do this magic trick again!
What are the traditional colors of winter? Blue and white
There you go. I just described ALL the other Snowy Church cards, eh?
I’m not psychic, I’m just poking fun at your childhood stereotypes.
Too many colorers sit down with a gorgeous stamp and color it like a kindergarten teacher.
You literally color every stereotype you’ve ever encountered.
Remember when I said that stamps are not finished art?
No amount of skill, talent, or general amazingness by the stamp artist is enough to overcome your bad habit of coloring every object exactly the same color you’d find in a toddler’s picture book.
Red apple. Gray elephant. Brown dog. Green grass. Blue water. Yellow star. Zzzzzzz!
Stop for a second and look at my All is Bright project here. What color is the snow?
Is the snow on the roof and trees white?
This is a tricky question because you want to tell me snow is white. It feels white. But really look at my project. Is the snow actually white?
Oh… hold on… what color is my snow?
Let me help you out a bit. The only white pencil in the whole entire image is the big circles of out-of-focus snow falling from the sky.
The rest of the snow is pink. Yes, I used Prismacolor’s PC1001 Salmon Pink.
Why did I color the snow pink?
Well, I looked for a nighttime photo reference and what I learned from the snow in the photograph is that snow at night under the glow from windows is not white.
It’s really, really, really not white.
So if I want Snowy Church to look like snow at night under the glow from windows, then coloring it white isn’t going to get me the look I want.
When you color stereotypes, you kill your chance to be creative.
3: Tell me a story!
Every good drawing, every good painting, every good piece of art tells a story.
Art is only art if it tells a story!
On Christmas Eve, the entire town gathered at the old country church to sing carols. As the first notes came from the organ, the snow started to softly fall.
That’s my story. Did you get that feeling from my coloring?
Sadly, here’s the story most people tell:
I found this stamp at PowerPoppy.com and I colored it with Copics.
Zzzzzz.
Art is communication.
If you’re not communicating, you are boring.
There are thousands of ways to tell a story with the stamps you color.
use a dramatic or a sedate color palette to set a mood
use interesting texture to remind people of objects they know
create a setting or time of day to trigger a memory
Too many colorers look at a stamp and think all kinds of wonderful thoughts which could be used to make art.
Oh, I visited a church like that when I was young!
I remember daisies like that growing in my grandmother’s garden.
I once had a dog with that same sad expression.
When I was a little girl, I would have loved a ruffled skirt like this!
You see things in the stamp that trigger memories and wishes. The small thoughts that run through your head when you see a stamp are golden! These are valuable ideas which you could use to tell a unique and interesting story.
But no, you skip the storytelling in favor of blending or using some new glitter you just bought.
You’re thinking about technique or tools when you should be focused on communicating something from your heart.
I’m not going to lie. It’s easier to think about blending than to tell a story.
But if you want to take stamps to the next level and make something worth paying attention to, you need to tap into your memories or wishes and then show us what you’re thinking.
When you don’t communicate a story, you kill your chance to be creative.
Check out Amy’s favorite art supplies, click above.
Stop taking the easy way out!
Ultimately, all three of these coloring mistakes boil down to the same thing: it’s a heck of a lot easier to slap some ink on the page than it is to think deeply.
When you treat the stamp as precious, when you color the same old things in the same old way, and when you color shapes rather than communicate…
It all adds up to project that looks like everyone else’s project.
Unoriginal. Uninteresting. Boring.
Artists think deeper about their projects in order to be more creative.
You can do the same.
3 mistakes everyone makes with stamp images:
1. A stamp image is not finished art
A stamp is just one ingredient. You wouldn’t serve your guests a bowl of flour, right? So stop serving uncolored or barely colored stamps!
2. Coloring everything exactly as expected is boring.
Google the stamp name to find 100 people who have colored red apples, blue water, or white snow. If you want to be an artist, you’ve got to break away from the kindergarten stereotypes.
3. You are the storyteller!
The stamp outlines are just a hint. Your job is to fill in the story.
Want to know more about using color to tell artistic stories?
Join me for All is Bright, a lesson on communicating story and setting through the use of color instead of white.
The abuse of white gel pens and white pencils flattens your coloring by removing depth, dimension, and realism.
But the overuse of white also damages your ability to set a scene and mood.
We’re looking beyond the use of white to find alternatives that will knock your socks off. You’ll never look at color the same way again.
Let’s color a snowy memory!
Ready to try challenge level coloring?
All is Bright an Intermediate level Marker Painting Workshop
A lesson on cast shadows to add life and reality to your coloring.
Real time coloring, recorded live
Live Workshops are unscripted demonstrations which provide students with a real look into the authentic coloring process. You’ll see mistakes being made and corrected. It’s just like visiting Amy in her home studio.
Log in and color with Amy at your convenience. Anytime access, no expiration dates.
Class was recorded in December 2019 and featured a live student audience. Amy answers questions from the students and offers many tips for better colored pencil art.
Join me for an online lesson that will change the way you think about color!
Plus, it'll be tons of fun!
Select supplies used in “All Is Bright”:
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