Adding colour/shading around your images Tutorial.

Hi all, Tracy here. I have been asked a few times about the colour/shading i add around my images, so i thought I would do a tutorial for all of those that have asked. 

Colour your image up using your image of choice, I have used this months cute little freebie which can be found here. 

You then need to decide what "scene" you would like your image in, I have decided mine is going to be outside, so have picked blues to represent the sky, and browns for the ground.

You do need a blender pen for this, all of the alcohol pen systems will have a blender pen. 

I have started with the "ground" and added where my darkest area will be

I have then blended and extended the area with the next lightest colour. 

I have then added the lightest colour I am going to be using. 

Use your blender pen in small circles over the whole of the "ground" area, make sure you pay particular attention to the edges. 

Now to start on your "sky", it is very important that you work in small areas as alcohol ink evaporates very quickly, the trick is too work whilst the paper is still "wet". 

Choose where you are going to start and using your blender pen go over a small area (being careful not to go over your coloured image) then taking your lightest colour (this will create your main area of colour around the image) go over where the blender has moistened the paper, then take your blender pen and go back over the area you have just coloured. I blend from the edge of the image towards the edge of the paper. Make sure you pay particular attention to the edges of the colour as you want to blend this away to give a faded look.  

Once you have done the whole of the area you want to cover you then need to go in with your darker colour to add shadows.....you do not have to do this step, but it is something I like doing. 

The good thing about this tecnique is you can do it across the whole of the area, or just around the edge...it is totally up to you :), you can also keep going back in with your blender. I recommend allowing 10 mins for your colour to settle before adding/removing more as it does tend to change quite a bit once it is dry. 

Once you are happy with the shading you can then add your image to your project :) 

I hope you have found my tutorial helpful. Please do not forget we always love to see what you have been creating with our images, so head on over to the Facebook group and share with us and our lovely members.