Take your time. Unsurprisingly, the way we were taught to color as children will not help us when turning coloring pages into frame-worthy pieces of art. Of course, you’ll want to stay within the lines as much as humanly possible, but the fast back-and-forth “sketchy” style of coloring we learned to fill in a lot of space quickly will only give you messy results and likely damage your brush, liner and chisel-tip markers.
Pick color schemes from a color wheel or coolors.co. Since markers come with a limited range of colors, you’ll have to get creative in matching the limitless colorschemes of coolors.co, but when you can get close enough, you’ll get beautiful results. Choosing colors that look harmonious or pleasantly contrasting together is a great way to beautify your coloring pages. Learn the fundamentals of color theory, and then have fun with it – that’s what it means to be an artist. We learn the rules so we know when and how to break them while still making something that looks pretty.
Avoid overly cheap, low-quality marker brands – particularly those meant for children. When I began to research traditional means of coloring my own artwork, I wondered why everyone recommends expensive brush-tip markers. Surely cheaper brands like Crayola or even Roseart in the children’s section of your local Target can get the job done, right? We wrote another article comparing some cheap marker brands if you’d like a more detailed breakdown, but in short, Crayola markers can’t lay down even layers of color, which makes coloring with them a pain. It takes a lot of repetitive motion and effort to get something that looks nice.
Use a color sheet. Even if a box of markers comes with a color guide, it’s difficult to tell what each shade of marker is going to look like on paper. A lot of people online have designed different sheets for you to fill out with each color of your preferred marker brand, and some even suggest specific color combinations suggested to color in different materials like hair/fur, metal and eyes if you want to dabble in shading and color-blending.
You can find a printable PDF of our Ohuhu Maui marker color chart here.
To avoid ink bleed, use a thick sheet of some kind in between coloring pages. Sometimes, the marker you’re using will have bright, pigmented ink that bleeds through the page and stains the one beneath it. Depending on how big the stain is, it can ruin a blank coloring page. To keep all future coloring pages clear of stray ink stains, we would recommend slipping something like a sheet of laminate or cardstock-grade paper behind your current coloring page.