Making the most of coloring pages

Coloring pages figure rather prominently in our homeschool.  Admitting this to other homeschoolers is akin to announcing that xbox or Pokemon figures prominently into your homeschool. ; )  I mean, really, you color?  And that is supposed to be art?  Well, in a word, yes.  Here is how we make it so. 

First, there are so many incredible sources for coloring pages today, both in print and online. Beautiful, realistic images and line drawings of famous works of art abound.  There are portraits of almost any famous person you might study.  If you can't find what you need, there are tutorials for turning any image into a coloring page by using your photo software. 

Coloring pages are virtually free and require next to no prep on the teacher/mom's part. Crayons and pencils are not messy to use, clean up after, or store.  Yes, that is a big sell point for me.  When you have upwards of ten people in the house at any given time, including a nursing baby and teenagers driving in and out, messy art can be daunting and requires preplanning and a good chunk of time.  Not saying you shouldn't do messy things.  Just acknowledging that under these circumstances, you can do a whole lot more art if its less stressful for you. 

Consider the paper you are using to print your pages. Copy paper is fine for scribbling but it is a poor medium for art projects.  Card stock is much better and still cheap. For older students it is even better yet to experiment with different drawing papers.  If you have a paper trimmer you can have the child trim a pad of drawing weight paper to fit your printer.  

What are you coloring with?   I admit we use Crayola for most of our crayon work.  I still have a little person who snaps crayons in half periodically or drops them on the ground.  However Waldorf suppliers have lovely crayons that blend well.  Regular crayons (just avoid generic and thrift store crayons)  can make fantastic pictures however. This  tutorial gives some good pointers for making realistic crayon illustrations.  

Layer.  Use a light hand. Add shadows versus laying down flat planes of color. If you make the outsides of your shapes a bit darker it will add depth. Reviewing 3D techniques like those found in The Drawing Textbook will help shading line drawings more realistically. Encourage them to use the entire page and not just the center image. Color in the background.  The background does not need to be one color either. Start with a blue on one side for instance, and move into greens and then yellows as you move across the page. 

Berol Prismacolor pencils are outstanding for colored pencil work. A blender tool will astound you. It makes the illustration look much more professional.  Learning basic techniques like cross hatch etc will help add texture to the finished product. 

Colored pencil with blender tutorial

Colored pencil tutorials here and here

If you print your coloring page unto watercolor paper you have even more options. You can first color the page with watercolor pencils, then gently blend them with a wet paintbrush.  Or you can wet the paper first and then use the pencils.  Just be sure your printer ink doesn't run or you will have a mess. 

Moira got a large set of high quality markers for Christmas.  She has used them to create vivid pages. They work really well to color over prints like these. or these.

Printing onto vellum or parchment paper will give the effect of the stained glass window coloring pages Dover produces.   Vellum is not cheap however so it should be used by a responsible student.  We are going to pick some up for an idea we had this week.  Many of the large votive candles available in the grocery store come with no labels.  We are thinking of reducing and printing sacred images unto vellum and then wrapping the glass candles with that so the light will shine through the  translucent homemade labels. 

So please, don't feel guilty about coloring.  You can teach color theory, shading, art appreciation, and keep your wits about you.  Of course you will bring out the paint and clay at other times.  But when you can't, you can still make beautiful pictures together. 

More resources:

Rod and Staff Artpacs are dirt cheap and help teach coloring as an art in itself

Charlottes liturgical year coloring pages are so lovely

Best coloring pages

more free pages

Discovery teacher clip art

History pages here and here

fine art pages  and also here

Comments

[cindy dodd]

My daughter loves art and really enjoys coloring.
Cindy

[Erin]

Thanks for the tutorial link in turning photos into colouring. My children love colouring, in fact they have spent all this week colouring up a storm with Charlotte's colouring pages. My ds 3 literally spent 2 hours per picture, not bad for a child who can't make it through Mass.

[Erin]

Kym
Just had to share an idea you've inspired, I'm so excited. I've been trying to find a Mass colouring book to keep the above mentioned 3 yr old still in Mass (I'm desperate)
If I can work out the tut, I'm going to approach Father and ask if I could take pictures during Mass and turn it into colouring, it would make it more easy for S. to make the connection when it is his own church. What do you think?

[Marcia]

Thanks for the nice links. We have some who like coloring here...others don't so it's great to have some new resources.

[Gae]

Dear Kym,
I can't wait for the children to try some of these out. Isn't it funny how all children seem to love coulouring pages and the sceptisism that they can't be creative if they do. I beg to disagree as ours also love colouring pics and I think they are very creative.
Thank you for putting this together it is great
God Bless

[Chrissy]

My children love to draw. They also love to use different type of papers. We watch the ads at Micheal's or A.C.Moore. They have some amazing sales. :)

[Jennifer Mackintosh]

Ooh! I love this post! I can't believe I didn't have some of those great coloring pages links bookmarked yet! Wonderful post!

[Jennifer Mackintosh]

And adding that Dover coloring books are inexpensive and cover a HUGE array of subjects and interests! They're great and one of our favorite coloring book resources!

[mary@evlogia]

This is a great post. Thanks for sharing.