Monthly Coloring Series - July

We are just a few short days away from the big USA Independence Day celebration! What better way to celebrate than with a red, white, and blue coloring project!

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.

We only have one month left in our series! I would love to know what I should color next?! Leave a comment below telling me what you would like to see:

1. Another monthly flower series

2. A 12-month Christmas image/card series

3. Monthly images other than flowers (if so, what type of image)

4. An alternating series of masculine and feminine images

5. A "Stamp Your Stash" series (I choose a stamp set from my vast stash, and color up some images each month for card making or tag making)

One lucky comment will receive a surprise box from me at the end of the month!

I have been saving this rose image for the whole year, wanting to try my hand at a red, white, and blue combination. In the end, I decided to NOT make any of the roses blue, but instead color the cups blue. I took a peeky at the roses in our front garden, and tried to match them up with Copics. 

The Everything's Rosy digital stamp set I used for my July image is currently a $6 download. If you prefer clear stamps, this image is part of the Everything's Even Rosier set for $18.

This image contains a lot of stuff, so getting it sized to fit my panel was a bit tricky. I really do not enjoy coloring tiny, intricate images, so I sized this right to the edges of the panel!

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. 

Thankfully I did not have any printer issues this month. I did have some bleeding issues with the red markers, however. I had recently filled them and they were VERY JUICY. Which means I had a lot more ink down than I needed! Dark colors tend to want to go everywhere, so I had to work in sections to allow the ink to dry a bit.

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. I also added some of the gray pencils this time to deepen shadows. You can see the pencil lines a bit on some of the photos because the camera wants to pick that up for some reason. In real life, it is not as noticeable. 

I loved coloring those deep reds and deep blues! But, the white flowers were tricksy! I ended up giving them a bit of a "buzz" with the chartreuse pencil at the end because I thought they looked really flat!

This digital set also contains an image of just the mug with the roses. The single image is great for A2-size cards! I colored this one up about two years ago, with pink flowers, using only Copics.  (See the post HERE.)

With roses, you can pretty much color them any color you wish. Roses are one flower that mankind has tinkered with and created pretty much any color imaginable! For this image, I used only Prismacolor Pencils! That is something I rarely do, because I find Copic coloring to be faster and easier for me. (See the post HERE.) I made a 5" x 7" card with this image.

Now, back to the July project...

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

Red roses: RV99, R59, R46, R29, R27, R22, R14, C5, C1; Prismacolor 70% Warm Grey, White

White roses: C5, C3, C1, C00, Prismacolor 70% Warm Grey, 10% Cool Grey, Chartreuse, White

Leaves: YG67, YG17, YG13, YG11, G28

Cup and mug: B39, B37, B34, B21, C5, C1, C00; Prismacolor 70% Warm Grey, White

Background: W5, W3, W1, W00, BG000, BG000), Colorless blender

My cardstock panels are black, red, and blueberry. I added some loops of red, white, and blue ribbon, plus some wonderful stars. A few "splashes" of enamel dots finish it all off!

We have only 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.

REMEMBER: LEAVE A COMMENT ABOUT WHAT I SHOULD COLOR NEXT FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A SURPRISE FROM ME!!!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Digital image: Power Poppy Everything's Rosy
Cardstock: Hammermill 100# Digital Color Copy; WorldWin Papers Smooth Black, Red, Blueberry
Markers: Copic (see list above)
Pencils: Prismacolor (see list above)
Ribbon: Really Reasonable Ribbon Patriotic Plaid
Star brads: The Paper Studio Spare Parts
Metal star: craft supply
Enamel dots: Eyelet Outlet
Ink: Delicata Silvery Shimmer
Die: Elizabeth Craft Designs Stitched Squares
Adhesive: ATG tape, Glue Dots, Scor-tape