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Pictures to Colour

Each month you will now be able to download a new black and white image to colour absolutely free as a thank you for supporting my site, and if you send me copies of your finished work I will add some of the best to a special gallery page.

If you have any suggestions that may make these pages more interesting as I aim to make the site to become more interactive in the future.

I mainly work in gouache as they are bright and cover well though with the great selection of art materials around today you can even create them as a scratch and sniff masterpiece! The main thing is to just experiment and enjoy yourself.

Click on the image below to see a large, printable black and white version.

Colour

We live in an extremely colourful world, and are daily bombarded with glossy and bright images in newspapers, magazines and the junk mail landing on our doormats. Have you noticed that some of the slickest and most polished promotional material uses colour sparingly, and for that reason it stands out from the rest? Companies spend vast sums choosing the right colour for a product label or site, as they know that one colour can create the right ambience while another will kill it.

Many years ago when I exhibited my work on the UK craft circuit, I sold a lot of hand-coloured prints, which I produced conveyor-belt fashion throughout the winter months. I was amazed how my mood of the day was reflected in the finished pictures; the same print finished on another day had a totally different colour range and feel.

When we tell someone: `That colour doesn't suit you,' on what is that judgment based? Perhaps we are looking beyond stein tones and, unconsciously, `seeing' something else. Many people believe they can see an auroric field which surrounds each of us, and that when we say someone is `green with envy' or `red with rage' we are not far wrong.

I receive a constant stream of mail from people who have bought my books, asking for ideas on the colours they should use for projects rather than trusting their own judgment. If you consider the different energies we are working with and how each contributes to the make-up of a colour, its location, its properties, and how it touches our senses, it is easier to understand the power that lies in our palette.

One of the most inspiring moments of my career was after a talk I gave to a group of twenty adults at St James' Church, Piccadilly, London. Members of the group were spread around on the floor, happily colouring in black and white prints I had brought. I moved around chatting and the discussion turned to the last time they had coloured pictures, and how they had forgotten the pleasure to be gained.

Some of the pictures were very dark, and the people who had coloured them told me that they were going through rough times. I suggested that they should start again, this time visualising a happy conclusion to their troubles and using gentler and more peaceful colours, so the pictures could be used as a focal point next time they were depressed.

Before working on your picture, make some photocopies of it and try to let the colours choose themselves. If the result is a mess, fine - it is only a photocopy. 'With perseverance and by letting instinct and inspiration rather than will guide your brush, you will begin to tap into another level of satisfaction with your endeavors.

Text from Celtic Illumination, Search Press