Chalks and Eye Shadows Over Grayscale
Chalks and eye shadows are very fun to play with over a grayscale image! Their transparent qualities allow the grayscale shading to shine through and they're very easy to use. My favorite way to use them is on backgrounds. You can blend and layer them with ease. Plus the chalks and eye shadows come in pearlescent and shimmer options....who doesn't love a little sparkle? I'll describe my favorite products below.
Pebbles Chalk
Pebbles Chalk is a soft, smooth chalk. Each set of chalks comes with 15 colors (2 shades per color - i.e. a light and dark purple) for a total of 30 unique colors. Each color has 3 different pom poms (small, medium and large) that you pick up with the clamp applicator tool and use to apply the color. Everything is contained in a convenient tin for storage. They are available in 4 sets.
Nikki's Experiences: I LOVE these chalks and they are one of my favorite products that I have discovered while testing supplies for grayscale coloring. As I was experimenting with how to color my images in grayscale, one thing that I kept struggling with was backgrounds. I have a lot of textured, mottled backgrounds in my work and many skies. I found colored pencils tedious and time consuming and markers were streaky. A lovely lady named Sandy clued me into Pebbles Chalks (thanks Sandy!!).
I had tried soft pastels in stick form previously on backgrounds, but they were so messy! Pebbles Chalks are packaged in a convenient metal tin so everything is self contained. The little applicators are fantastic. There is a small, medium and large pom pom for each color family. So you don't have to worry about washing out your applicators! I also found that the soft pastels I tried previously were too dry and very dusty. They didn't adhere to the paper that well even after several layers. But the Pebbles Chalks aren't as dry and I felt like they stuck to my paper better.
I think initially these chalks were designed for stamping and scrapbooking, but they work brilliantly over grayscale. They are transparent and allow the grayscale to show through, but I was able to get fairly vivid colors, sometimes even in one layer. They blend together with ease and with the small pom pom, you can apply the color in some fairly tight areas.
I purchased the Pearlescent, Basic Brights and Metallic set. My favorite is the Pearlescent set. Theses chalks have a very nice shimmer to them. They aren't over the top glittery, but instead are more delicate. I also felt like they were less dry than the Basic Brights and created less dust when I used them. The Basic Brights are also very nice and offer similar colors without the sparkle. I did not care for the Metallic set as much. They are creamy chalks and have an almost wet consistency. I didn't feel like they went on as smoothly and they were messier. But you may have a different experience, so you can always give them a whirl! I have not tried the Pastels set, but it is on my wish list.
See my background tutorials section for more information on how to use Pebbles Chalk over grayscale.
Nikki's Experiences: I LOVE these chalks and they are one of my favorite products that I have discovered while testing supplies for grayscale coloring. As I was experimenting with how to color my images in grayscale, one thing that I kept struggling with was backgrounds. I have a lot of textured, mottled backgrounds in my work and many skies. I found colored pencils tedious and time consuming and markers were streaky. A lovely lady named Sandy clued me into Pebbles Chalks (thanks Sandy!!).
I had tried soft pastels in stick form previously on backgrounds, but they were so messy! Pebbles Chalks are packaged in a convenient metal tin so everything is self contained. The little applicators are fantastic. There is a small, medium and large pom pom for each color family. So you don't have to worry about washing out your applicators! I also found that the soft pastels I tried previously were too dry and very dusty. They didn't adhere to the paper that well even after several layers. But the Pebbles Chalks aren't as dry and I felt like they stuck to my paper better.
I think initially these chalks were designed for stamping and scrapbooking, but they work brilliantly over grayscale. They are transparent and allow the grayscale to show through, but I was able to get fairly vivid colors, sometimes even in one layer. They blend together with ease and with the small pom pom, you can apply the color in some fairly tight areas.
I purchased the Pearlescent, Basic Brights and Metallic set. My favorite is the Pearlescent set. Theses chalks have a very nice shimmer to them. They aren't over the top glittery, but instead are more delicate. I also felt like they were less dry than the Basic Brights and created less dust when I used them. The Basic Brights are also very nice and offer similar colors without the sparkle. I did not care for the Metallic set as much. They are creamy chalks and have an almost wet consistency. I didn't feel like they went on as smoothly and they were messier. But you may have a different experience, so you can always give them a whirl! I have not tried the Pastels set, but it is on my wish list.
See my background tutorials section for more information on how to use Pebbles Chalk over grayscale.
Eye Shadow
I find the Adult Coloring World to be so creative! I see people using all sorts of things to color their pieces. And one thing that I kept hearing over and over again is "Use eye shadows on backgrounds." Well, I decided to give it a try and it is such a brilliant idea!
You can get a huge selection of colors for not too much of an investment or you can use what you have on hand. Being a person who always has to have ALL the colors, I decided to buy this set:
It was the largest set for the least amount of money that I could find. And I liked what the reviewers had to say about how pigmented the makeup is. I wanted something very bright and bold so that the colors didn't get washed out.
I really enjoyed using these eye shadows to create backgrounds! They are very pigmented and the colors stand up to being used over grayscale. I didn't like them quite as much as the Pebbles Chalks. I just found them a little more cumbersome to use and you need to find your own applicators. Q-tips will work, but I personally don't like the sound or feel of a Q-tip going across the surface of the paper. So I will have to find better applicators that are smoother, perhaps like a sponge applicator.
But you do get a large amount of colors with very good color variety and all three trays fit nicely back inside a plastic box with a lid that snaps shut. Each circle is about the size of a dime, so I'm sure they would last a fairly long time. There are both matte and shimmer eye shadows in this set. I found them easy to blend and some colors were a little more opaque than others, but they still worked very well for backgrounds.
See my background tutorials section for more information on how to use eye shadow over grayscale.
You can get a huge selection of colors for not too much of an investment or you can use what you have on hand. Being a person who always has to have ALL the colors, I decided to buy this set:
It was the largest set for the least amount of money that I could find. And I liked what the reviewers had to say about how pigmented the makeup is. I wanted something very bright and bold so that the colors didn't get washed out.
I really enjoyed using these eye shadows to create backgrounds! They are very pigmented and the colors stand up to being used over grayscale. I didn't like them quite as much as the Pebbles Chalks. I just found them a little more cumbersome to use and you need to find your own applicators. Q-tips will work, but I personally don't like the sound or feel of a Q-tip going across the surface of the paper. So I will have to find better applicators that are smoother, perhaps like a sponge applicator.
But you do get a large amount of colors with very good color variety and all three trays fit nicely back inside a plastic box with a lid that snaps shut. Each circle is about the size of a dime, so I'm sure they would last a fairly long time. There are both matte and shimmer eye shadows in this set. I found them easy to blend and some colors were a little more opaque than others, but they still worked very well for backgrounds.
See my background tutorials section for more information on how to use eye shadow over grayscale.
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