Get Coloring With A Color Along

Coloring provides a great opportunity to be social with others or be by ourselves coloring. One thing we all love, no matter how we choose to color, is seeing those completed illustrations brought to life with color. Taking part in color alongs allows us to see how other colorists interpret the same image and can inspire us with our own coloring journey.

Table of Contents

Toggle

This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the product. If you buy a book using that link, I will receive a small commission. This does not affect the price that you pay. Your support is very much appreciated x

What’s a color along?

I’m glad you asked 🙂    A  color along is when a group of colorists color the same picture with others.

Why color with others?

Often we  buy a few coloring books and become intimidated, overwhelmed or just caught up in life and end up not coloring our coloring book.

A color along is a great way of being motivated to complete a picture.    Not only that, you have the benefit of being able to see clearly how other people interpret the same image.  If you were not taking part in a color along, in order to find these pictures all at once, you would need to spend quite a bit of time researching.    A color along allows you to see how a number of different colorists interpreted and colored the image all at once.

Types of Color Alongs

There are a few different types of color alongs that you could join (or all of them if you wished!).  

There are color alongs that involve coloring and following along with an artist or colorist.    You can follow their techniques and color palettes in your own coloring book or just use it to help get you started and inspired.    

The other type of color alongs are when you are on your own basically.   You choose your colors and your techniques and mediums and then upload the finished result.

Structured Color Alongs

There are color alongs that are structured where you can all join an event, download an image and join a live streamed color along.   

Color Along with Anne Manera

Anne Manera is a well known colorist book publisher and artist.    She produces coloring books and images specifically so people can join in and color along.   These color alongs are run as Facebook events where you can sign up, download the image to be colored in the color along, and then attend and watch her coloring on a live stream.    The benefit of doing this is that you can interact with your fellow colorists and the artist in real time via comments.   Alternatively, you can watch the video at a later time, and still contribute to any discussion, via comments, if you wish.  

When Anne runs her color alongs she uses  Facebook Live video stream on her Facebook page here.   Anne then demonstrates how she colors the image and others can join in and color with her,  using her color palette or their own choice.    It’s a great way of taking time out to enjoy your book and learn from an artist as well.  

There are a range of different topics for the Color Alongs including coloring greyscale and using markers.    The Color Along events are noted at the top of  Anne’s Facebook page here or you can view upcoming color alongs to see which ones you would like to join or watch on her website here.   Anne has color alongs a couple of times a week but do check her page to find out correct days and times.

Anne has created a range of coloring books designed for color alongs and coloring parties.

Color Along with Laura Medeiros

Laura Medeiros  also hosts color alongs using live streaming via  her Facebook page.     Laura selects a page to be colored and makes it available to her followers.   Simply print out the page and tune in for the color along.    Laura generally hosts these color alongs on the third Wednesday of each month, but do check her page to make sure of the correct time and day.    Laura also provides video tutorials of coloring tips and techniques on her Facebook page.     If you have signed up to her free newsletter, you will see the color along announcement there first.

Laura has not created any specific coloring books for color alongs but you can get an idea of her artistic style from her current coloring books for sale.

 

You Tube Tutorials/Color Along

Other Color Alongs may be less structured for example You Tube tutorials.     There are a number of  super talented colorists on You Tube that will choose an image from a book and you can watch them color it in.  You can learn from just watching them color, about their color palettes and the different techniques they use in the image.   If you are stuck for inspiration on how to color a picture in your new book, or just want to learn from others then check out some of these colorists on You Tube.  

The great thing about these tutorials and color alongs is that there is no time frame.   You can click the play button at any time in your coloring journey and color along when you acquire the book or when you want to.    

Here is a selection of wonderful colorists that regularly post coloring book tutorials.   Find the colorist that matches your style of  coloring and learning and grab your book and get started!

Peta Hewitt –   Peta is an Australian colorist and has colored a number of popular coloring books including Magical Jungle, Lost Ocean, Jasmine Becket-Griffith, Enchanted Forest and some fabulous work with Inktense pencils and The Magical City by Lizzie Mary Cullen.

Julie’s Passion for Coloring – Julie has created a number of coloring tutorials for popular coloring books like The Time Chamber,  Magical Jungle, Romantic Country, Summer Nights, Imagimorphia, Harry Potter and mandala type images from Angie Grace.    Julie also shows you a number of techniques in separate videos like how to color feathers and uses different mediums including prismacolor, polychromos and water colors.

Chris Cheng is a wonderful colorist that effortlessly creates vibrant works of art.     You can find color alongs with Chris from all the popular coloring books for adults including Carovne Lahodnosti, Inklings, Blomster Mandala, Romantic Country, Daydreams and Magical Jungle.

Davlina Art produces vibrant and colorful colored pieces and is a dab  hand at creating gemstone effects.    She has some tutorials for Enchanted Forest,  Secret Garden, Lost Ocean and Curious Creatures. 

Nikki Burnette that is a fantasy artist and produces the Spellbinding Coloring books has a number of tutorials for coloring in images from her books.     The greyscale tutorials are particularly useful for colorists that are not familiar with that format.

Dede Willingham is an amazing artist and a character.  Her channel is full of great art videos and she hosts live video streams as well.    Dede also does some tutorials with coloring books and her focus is really adding your own touch and style to the work.      You can see coloring books that she has colored including Jasmine Becket-Griffith, Pop Manga, Romantic  Country, Imagimorphia and Bennett Klein with the Color My Sketchbook series.

Following these tutorials can be great if you want to improve techniques, get ideas for color selection and get to know different mediums.   Remember though that these colorists have had many years of practice so it is important that you have fun coloring and not compare your work negatively with theirs. 

Facebook Group Color Alongs

Other color alongs may involve a group of people deciding to color a specific image within a given period of time within a Facebook coloring group.    This is often quite informal in Facebook groups with one member often asking others if they fancy coloring a page from the same book.    If enough members have the same book and the interest then a color along may get under way.     Usually members will select an image from the book to color or maybe a choice of two.  If you want to join in you can, if not, you don’t.   

On Facebook there is a group created specifically to color along with others here.   They are quite organised with members noting on a list the books that they have.   The administrator chooses some images, based on the list of members books and general discussion and a color along gets under way.    As this is a group specifically for color alongs there may be a number of color alongs for different books taking place at any given time.        

Instagram Color Alongs

On Instagram user Booktalk27 often hosts color alongs and posts pictures of all the lovely colorings. Karen (Booktalk27) chooses a selection of images from a given book for the color along.    Colorists that have the book can then color either one or a number of the selected images in the color along if they want to join in.   The color alongs generally last a month.   You can see the colored pictures from each color along on Karen’s Instagram page.    The recent color alongs have featured beautiful coloring books like Inklings from Tanya Bond,  Intricate Ink from Tim Jeffs,  Jasmine Becket-Griffith and Sagolikt.   She also hosts themed color alongs with the most recent one being Halloween coloring books.      The current color along Karen is hosting  is for Carovne Lahodnosti.

Well there’s some information on color alongs to get you started!   If you know of any other color alongs that I may have missed please add them to the comments below.

Now, let’s have fun and get coloring!

Lea x

P.S.  At the moment I’m coloring Carovne Lahodnosti – join me in coloring the free pages that Klara Markova has provided.

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Related Posts