When you first started adult colouring, what media did you use? If you said "coloured pencils," then you've found one of the most vibrant groups in the world of adult colouring!

Colored pencils are among the most popular colouring mediums. They're cheap, simple to use, and colouring with them feels like colouring with an old friend. Glue sticks have long been a favourite of teachers and mothers, and of course, we want it to work for journaling, so it needs to be invisible and stick quickly so we can keep working.

Because I've had my small colouring book blog for over six months, I thought I'd commemorate the first six months that I've spent reviewing colouring books and playing with colouring items. Hopefully, I'll be able to go back and recognise mistakes I've made and correct them moving forward, as well as discover changes I've made inside myself, with others, and with the colouring world in general.

I still have a love/hate relationship with Yes Paste. It resembles a soft glue stick and is difficult to use. When I have a huge sheet of cardstock or a larger piece to glue down, I like to use it, but I don't like to use it on tiny bits since whatever oozes out from my application shows when it dries. You could clean it up with a moist towel, but who has time for that? It's a newer art supply for me, so it may grow on me / I'll get better at using it, but it does have a place for large items.

"Let's start from the very beginning, a really good place to start," the song says. We begin colouring by making sure our coloured pencils are sharp. Sharp tips may readily pierce the teeth of the paper, resulting in far fewer of those small white streaks you notice on your colouring page no matter how many times you shade an area. It also aids in keeping the pressure mild when laying down your base. In addition, a delicate touch keeps the coloured tip from shattering.

So, how would you sharpen your coloured pencil? Isn't it simple? Simply place it in a sharpener and give it a good spin. Colorful pencils, on the other hand, differ from lead pencils in that they include a coloured core made of wax, clay, or oil-based materials, depending on the brand and type. This will influence how you sharpen them as well as the type of sharpener you can use.

Soft coloured pencils made of wax or clay are preferable for deep colours and blending. They are, however, fragile and readily broken. For these, we recommend using a handheld sharpener. Here's a tip: after inserting the pencil into the sharpener, turn the sharpener while keeping the pencil still, not the other way around.

These colourful pencils, which are typically constructed of oil-based substance, resemble their lead-core Mongol cousins. You may sharpen them with electric sharpeners or even an artist's knife. Make sure the knife you choose is sharp. Even if they are strong, hard coloured pencils might break under strain. The fewer whittling knife swipes you take at them, the better.

You may have noticed that the artist turned her pencil rather than the sharpener in the video above. The coloured pencil she's holding is made of graphite, which is a speciality variety. Specialty varieties may also be constructed of chalk and have lead that is either too large or too small to fit in a conventional sharpener. These coloured pencils are generally used with an artist's knife.

Do you believe coloured pencils generate washed-out or faint colours? If that's the case, you're not alone. Colored pencils, like watercolours, are semi-transparent. If you want to colour in the petals of a red rose, for example, you'd want the colour to stand out just like the actual thing. Many colorists believe that coloured pencils are simply inadequate for the job. They delegate these tasks to the bolder gel pens or paint markers.

Simply put, it is the amount of force you apply to your pencil point on paper. The more pressure you apply, the brighter the colour will be. However, as we all taught in elementary school, if we apply too much pressure to our pencils, the points may snap off. We could even poke holes in the paper.

This brings us to the second half of the combination: the pencil type. As previously stated, soft coloured pencils give deeper colours and are preferred for layering. If you want to achieve rich colours with minimal effort, soft coloured pencils are the way to go.

But don't throw away those hard pencils just yet. Some colorists are just more naturally bold. Accept it as part of your style and simply adapt the technique to your liking. With a hard pencil, simply relax the pressure, ensure the tips are as sharp as they can be, and layer!

We don't typically consider the paper we work with, but it is just as important as any other instrument we use. Because of the semi-translucent nature of coloured pencils, artist-grade white paper is typically preferable when working with them. If you use coloured or tinted paper and don't layer it enough, the colour of the paper will show through the layers of coloured pencil, affecting the final product. Artist-grade paper is particularly significant because it is designed to withstand pressure and the many chemicals produced by colouring mediums.

The most significant Bic Mark It came with only 36 hues, and while I liked how they blended, I wished there was more variety to work with. I decided to attempt a tiny set of Spectrum Noir markers after asking around and doing some research. Spectrum Noir markers, like Copics (which are quite expensive), are dual-tipped, refillable, and can have their nibs replaced — yet they are less expensive than Copics. They offer a vast colour spectrum (more than 200) and can be purchased individually, in tiny groupings of six, or in packages of 24. Because the sets do not overlap, you may gradually build up your collection without purchasing duplicates.

In the grayscale colouring book, I coloured directly. I tucked a few of pages behind the page I was working on to avoid indentations in the page beneath, so I could colour it later without problems.