Hi. I’m terrified.
I’m always slightly terrified because my anxiety disorder is a real asshole but it suddenly occurred to me that my book tour starts in a few days and I’ll be on the road for two weeks and this is always such a mix of amazingness and dread and fear and exhilaration, and I know I’ll get through it but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m literally shaking with anxiety right now. I don’t have a joke here. Just being honest.
It’s ironic that so many people use coloring as a tool to fight anxiety and I’m touring with what is essentially a coloring book (with lots of words in it) but I don’t really color. Drawing is what I do to keep my hands from destroying myself so I haven’t actually colored any of the drawings in my own book because to me it looks done already. But people are starting to get their copies of YOU ARE HERE early and they’re sharing their work online and now I’m seeing such amazing images as my drawings are reimagined with color and now I get it.
I started coloring an image I made last year that didn’t make it into the book and I’m finally finishing it but I suspect I’m missing out on the right tools and techniques so I’m sharing what I do here so you can tell me what I’m doing wrong.
First off, here’s the drawing I made if you want to print and color it yourself. Just click on it to embiggen.
This is what it looked like halfway through. Then I fucked it up and ran out of ink so I walked away for awhile.
But then I realized that I could blend the colors I had left and make it all rainbowy and shit. (“All rainbowy and shit” = technical artistic terminology.) So I did. And when I accidentally smudged stuff I just got out a marker and incorporated it into the drawing. And when I went outside the lines I just made it look like it was supposed to look like that. And it worked. Kind of. From a distance.
Long story short, I get why people color now. But I enjoy it much more after learning from my mistakes. And after a booze slushie. So if you are new to coloring I will give you my few hints:
- You don’t have to color it. You can just leave it black and white. DONE. You are the fastest colorer ever.
- I used two different kinds of pencils. I used Ohuhu pencils for the light colors because they’re inexpensive. I used watercolor pencils to get the really vivid colors. You can color and then use a damp brush to activate the colors but personally I just dip the pencil in water and color with the wet pencil because it gives me more control.
- I used gel pens to color over stuff I’ve messed up on because they work like paint. Plus THEY HAVE GLITTER IN THEM. I used these because they’re cheaper but these are really nice if you have extra cash to spend.
- When the cat would head-butt me with his face while I was drawing I’d use white gel pens to color over the mess. It’s like white-out but in a pen.
- If you want to color but don’t really want to color then get a gold sharpie and just add some spot color where you want. Classy, lazy and elegant all at the same time.
Your turn. Share your hints or your drawings. And use the #youarehere hashtag so I can find your pictures online when you get your copy of my book?
I’ll be in Austin on Wednesday and then on from there. Click here for the tour info. Come see me. Pretty please?