Everything you need to know about colour to get started ...

Knowing how to get what you want on the page using colour is a useful skill to have, whether it's with crayons, markers, paint or collage. Knowing which colour combinations add excitement and which ones add calm might make all the difference to how happy you are with your finished pages. The best way to learn is by doing, so at the bottom of this post you'll find page 5 of your handouts which will give you a chance to colour your own colour wheel like the one I've shown here, as well as almost everything you need to get started working with colour more confidently.

I wanted to share with you some different colour combinations to show you what a difference it makes on a piece of artwork, so below are examples of the same mandala coloured many different ways. These were all "painted" using Neocolors II Water Soluble Crayons from Caran d'ache as if they were watercolours, by using a waterbrush (a paintbrush with water in the handle) to pick up pigment from the crayon rather than colouring with the crayon on the paper.

When I'm adding colour to a page, whether it's with paint, crayons, markers, collage or washi tape, I'm always, always, always subconsciously thinking about how the colours will go together. I think about the effect I want the colour to have, and then choose accordingly.

To make something eye-catching, I use a colour from opposite sides of the colour wheel to give the strongestt contrast. To make something calming, I'll stick to a tight range of colours right next to each other. To make things *really* calm, I' stick to darks and lights of the *same* colour.

Here's a little trick I use when I can't decide what colour to use: with my hand I'll cover the area of the page that I think needs colour, and then I'll look at the rest of the page and see what's missing. What colour should be under my hand when I lift it? Sounds silly, but it works for me.

Another reason why it's good to feel comfortable with colour is that all the handouts for this class are in black and white, but it's actually quite fun (and easy) to add colour to them. You'll see what I mean in a later post where I show all the stuff I got up to in my own journal with our handouts.

In the meantime, here's your Page 5 handout so you can start playing with colour yourself: