Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Introduction to Grayscale Coloring

Hand-Coloring of Photographs started in Circa 1860 to 1899 in Japan. It is the art of coloring a black and white photograph with different materials and techniques. In post-1900 the art of Hand-Coloured Landscape Photography was pursued by a New England Minister and his work became best-selling of all time. However the art diminished at the start of the Great Depression.

Now that Adult Coloring Books became a trend, Grayscale Photograph Coloring is taking its journey back to popularity. As an aspiring artist, Grayscale coloring have opened up my skills to an adventure beyond my self-taught practice. It led me to explore variety of techniques and have realized great details in every creation whether a beautiful creature or a beautiful landscape.

Fly Agaric Mushrooms - Beautiful Nature


Some people ask me why I color grayscale when I can create my own art from a sketch or drawing. I told them that grayscale coloring is a tremendous practice that allowed me to experiment my theories in color values, saturation, depth and even mixing different mediums. It saves me time from drawing a subject so I could play with different materials.

Colored Page - Beautiful Nature


I have found the perfect coloring books for me, Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Nature by Nicole Stocker and self-published thru Huelish. The book's archival paper is beyond comparison to popular adult coloring books. The thick paper allowed me to use dry and wet medium with multiple layering. Aside from finding myself a new hobby, I have found my passion. It is still unbelievable how I can achieve such hyper-realistic results by coloring and following the grayscale tones.

To know more about Grayscale Coloring, read Huelish Blog they featured my tricks, techniques, coloring process and tips. You'll also find more awesome colorists sharing their coloring techniques in different mediums.


Thanks for reading! If you have questions, leave it in the comments below.

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