Monthly Coloring Series - June

Hello, coloring fans! Welcome to June 1st. The year is nearly half over! My youngest son has finished his second year of college and is working hard toward his degree program, my daughter has been out of university for a YEAR already, and my oldest son has been out in "the real world" for four years! I just celebrated my 2nd year of retirement from homeschooling...and I am not sure what I have actually done with myself in those two years! Well, except for coloring stuff and making paper pretties! {grin}

For those of you just joining me, I have been coloring one image each month, using the Power Poppy digital flower images, found HERE. If you missed any of the previous projects, click HERE or select the TAB at the top of the blog.

This project was a little scary because I had no idea what the flowers were! I had to do some research and look at lots of photos of flowers! In the end, I am pretty happy with the result and I had a lot of fun playing with my markers!

The Bowl of Beauty digital stamp set I used for my June image is currently a $6 download. This image is part of a series called Café au Lait Bouquets. Also in the Café au Lait Series: Snowdrops and Tea Roses, My Favorite Pair, Clover and Pansies. 

I decided to color the flowers without the cup (or bowl). Using Adobe Illustrator, I created my panel at about 5 1/4" x 5 1/4". The finished panel is 6 1/8" x 6 1/8". I have used a stitched square die to cut out the main image panel (which measures 5 1/4" x 5 1/4"). My plan is to display each monthly image at my desk, as shown below.

I am using "Great Vibes" as the month word font, which I sized at about 45pt. I printed the panel onto Hammermill 100# cardstock with my Epson ET-3700 using black ink. You may remember that last month I had an issue with my ink bleeding. Well, this month I had an issue with the printer leaving gaps in the image! I fussed around with it trying to find out the problem. I finally found out that it was set to one of the draft modes! Once I fixed that, all was well!

My image is colored with a combination of Copic Markers and Prismacolor Pencils. I first lay down the Copic markers, and then go back and add depth and highlight with the pencils. I finish with more highlights using a white pencil or a gel pen.

This lovely bouquet contains Hellebores, Ferns, a Tree Peony, and stems of Spanish Bluebells. As I said, I have no clue what those are! I looked at lots of photos and picked a color palette that seemed to "go together." I think the result is very striking, even if it is not 100% true to real life!

Here are the color combinations I have used for the finished project (listed in this order: Copics, then Prismacolor Pencils by name):

Peony: R85, R83, R81, R59, R56, RV0000; Prismacolor Dark Purple, Black Cherry, White
Peony Leaves: YG67, YG21, YG17, YG03
Fern: BG72, BG70, B91, YG21
Bluebells: BV31, BV04, BV02, B63, YG21; Prismacolor Violet
Bluebell Leaves: YG67, YG17, YG03
Hellebores: C00, E000, E0000, RV99, RV93, RV91, RV69, R0000, YG21, YG01, Colorless blender
Hellebore Leaves: YG67, YG63, YG61, YG21, YG01, G40, G29
Flower Centers: Y00, Y02, Y04, Y35
Background: BG0000, BG000

My cardstock panels are black, pink, and dark green I added some green twine and two hot pink buttons to finish off the panel.

We have July and August to go! If you missed the other months...

I started this project series back in September 2018. If you missed any of the previous projects click the MONTHLY COLORING SERIES tab at the top of the blog.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Digital image: Power Poppy Bowl of Beauty
Cardstock: Hammermill 100# Digital Color Copy; WorldWin Papers Smooth Light Pretty Pink, Bazzill Ivy (dark green)
Markers: Copic (see list above)
Pencils: Prismacolor (see list above)
Twine: unknown
Buttons: stash
Die: Elizabeth Craft Designs Stitched Squares
Adhesive: ATG tape