Coloring Page: African Mask

 

For some days now coloring digitally has become a more or less daily activity. I enjoy it very much and it has taught me a few things:

1. How to create my own coloring pages with AI Art Generators: There is an AI Art Generator which specialises on creating coloring page - however with the proper prompt you can get line art pages with almost every AI Art Generator.The lineart for the mask on the left was created with Blue Willow.

2. How to set up a coloring page in Gimp by creating an alpha channel: There are a few very good youtube tutorials which explain the necessary steps in an easy to follow way, so I will not go into detail here.

3. How to find the proper color combinations
I tend to use too many colors. There is a very good book called "The complete Color Harmony, Pantone Edition" which gives many examples of color combinations. All of these color combinations consist of only three colors, not more, with one color being the dominant one. I must say this is something I have to learn.

And not to forget: I think coloring a page also has a very relaxing and almost meditative side to it!

Abstract Cityscape - digitally colored with Gimp

 Before I discovered Color Pop AI as an AI Generator specialised on creating coloring pages I tried to create coloring pages with other AI Art generators. I still thought about coloring these pages manually - with my markers for example - and I was not too happy about the results. Then I decided to refresh my knowledge about coloring digitally with Gimp. There are quite a few videos on YouTube teaching you how to do it, and I decided to give Gimp a try.

Here is my first colored in image. The image itself was created with Leonardo AI. I learnt two things during the process of coloring:

1. It takes more time than coloring something manually. My graphic tablet is not working properly anymore, and I work on a laptop. That means that my right index finger is doing the work. 

2. With coloring an image digitally you can endlessly change the colors, try out new combinations and such. On one side this is okay; on the other side one is tempted to overwork the image.

With all that said I love the process!