A Little Hannah Lynn Coloring to Start My Week

The other day the coloring bug set in for me.  As I scrolled through Facebook, I saw some gorgeous pictures from one of the groups I'm in and decided I wanted to color a little bit too.  That's how it works for me when it comes to my many hobbies: I won't do one for ages (weeks or months even), then, one day, out of the blue I'll want to do it.  I've been working really hard on finding a balance when it comes to bouncing between hobbies, and I've gotten a little better, but there are just so many, I can't do it all at once.

I pick pictures to color like I pick books to read: a poke around my collection until something catches my attention.  I usually tend to know what artist or company I want to color, so I pull those books and go from there.  Over the summer and the other day, I was on a Hannah Lynn kick, which is perfectly fine with me.  I get new pages from her once or twice a month, and I have many of her digital and hard copy books.  She does beautiful artwork for a wide range of topics.

The first picture I colored was Jacqueline from Steampunk Darlings.  I'm going to be honest, I bought this book on a whim.  Sometimes I'm drawn to a book because I love every single page, and before I even get the book in my hands I have ideas for many of the pages (more on that later).  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for this book.  Don't get me wrong, the artwork is absolutely stunning (as always), and I definitely appreciate and like steampunk style, but I've struggled so much with how to color these pictures.  I can't pick out color schemes.  In my mind, steampunk is very metallic looking, but I don't know how to properly convey that on paper, especially since my coloring skills are mediocre at best.  I'm part of two different Facebook groups for Hannah Lynn, and I love looking at all the beautiful work there.

I'm going to be honest, that's where I got the idea for the color scheme for this piece.  Part of me feels gross for admitting that, like I stole someone else's idea.  I really hope that artist doesn't mind.  Trust me, mine looks nothing like the original (I can't even remember who colored it, I saw it ages ago and couldn't get it out of my head).  The style and colors for this picture are based on Black Widow from the Avengers, although Natasha Romanov has brighter red hair, while I went for mahogany with red and maroon mixed in to add some texture.  Another thing that really worried me about this picture was the lack of color.  The overwhelming majority of the picture is done in shades of grey or black, with a little bit of red and gold thrown in for accents (not to mention her skin tone).  As I colored, it was hard to get a firm understanding of how the final product would look, but by the time I got concerned, I was already committed to this color scheme, so there wasn't a lot I could do about it.  Well, my worries were for nought, as I absolutely love how it looks now.  I do wish I had done more silver on the goggles instead of gold, but if that's my only complaint, then I think I did a pretty good job.

Another picture I colored this week is called "Leprechaun's Treasure".  Also by Hannah Lynn, this can be found in her Mythical Maidens and Curious Creatures book.  Not only is this her newest book, it happens to be one of my favorites.  I'm fortunate enough to have seen pictures for this book over the few weeks leading up to its release, and I was so excited to get my hands on it.  Seriously, the pictures are absolutely gorgeous, and there's such a wide range of different mythical creatures.  If you're looking for a fantasy coloring book, this is definitely one you should get!  Usually I opt for hard copies of books, but I got a digital copy of this one.  The main reason was that there were a few pictures I wanted to color a few times with different color schemes.  I usually only color a picture once, and if there are double printed (which is common in many of Hannah Lynn's books, along with Jade Summer's), I don't color the picture the second time around until I've colored all the pictures at least once.

This picture was one I had printed a while ago, but it never really called out to me until just then ( I guess I was on a "redheads with one eye covered" kick or something).  Once again, there was a lot of the same color in this picture (I used about five different shades of green), although it wasn't nearly as bad as the Steampunk Darlings picture I colored earlier.  While this picture definitely has some more color than the other picture, I don't like it as much as the previous picture.  That's not to say I hate how it turned out, because that's definitely not the case, I just like the one from Steampunk Darlings just a little bit more.  I think it's because the colors went on the paper smoother on the other one because of the paper quality (the leprechaun one I used my own cheap computer paper).  Part of me is tempted to invest in higher quality printer paper, but I'm just a casual colorer, so I'd rather spend my money on more books.  I don't even use fancy colored pencils, just Crayolas.  It works for me, and that's all that matters.

The last picture I want to talk about is Lanai Time from Maui Mermaids, because who doesn't need a little bit of tropical during the season's first cold snap?  I won a digital copy of this book through a drawing on Hannah Lynn's Facebook page, and while the pictures are gorgeous (as always), they haven't spoken to me until now.  I printed out a few pages, and I originally planned on coloring another one first, but when I saw this one, I knew it was the one I had to color.  This reminded me a lot of Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii's last queen before America took over (I just glossed over everything, my knowledge on that is extremely limited at best, I haven't learned about it since 9th grade).  Many of the pictures of Queen Liliuokalani show her as being much older, but there are a few from when she was a young girl too (albeit, in black and white). 

I worried about the multiple shades of brown taking up the center of this picture with her skin, hair and chair, but I think it all came out fine since I used very distinct shades, although I did use one of the colors I used as highlights in her hair also for the coconut.  I had a lot of fun coloring the dress, the ferns and the mountains in the background because I used colors I don't use that often.  Pink isn't one of my favorite colors, not by a longshot, but I still use it fairly often.  When I do, I tend to use softer shades like regular pink or tickle me pink.  In this case, however, I went for a brighter pink (I'll admit, I don't remember the exact name if it, it might be blush).  For the ferns I went literal and used fern green, and the mountains are tropical green.  Both are colors I don't use very often, although I'm not entirely sure why.  I guess I don't do too many tropical pictures, so neither of them are particularly useful.  Although, I do use fern green every once in a while when I need another shade of green for something.  I also enjoyed using cerulean blue for the ocean.  Once again, it's a color I enjoy and appreciate, but not one I use very often.  I tend to like my oceans and skies more subdued, to blend into the background (no pun intended), but it seemed wrong to not have vivid blue seas in a tropical paradise.  Plus, I think the cerulean looks absolutely stunning alongside the fern.  That's definitely a color combination I'm going to have to remember for future reference.

When I started writing out this post, I didn't think I'd have a lot to say.  I'd simply show off my mediocre coloring, then say a few sentences about each piece and move out.  Overall, I'm shocked that I had so much to say about something as simple as some pieces I've colored.  I think what shocks me even more though, is the fact that you've kept on reading until the very end.  If you've made it this far, I appreciate it!  Make sure to come back, I'll have more coloring pieces in another post.