Reverse Coloring – Relaxed Painting When the Color Is Already There
For many people the blank page is the hardest part of painting. It lies there white and still and seems to expect that everything will turn out right straightaway. It is exactly this pressure that keeps many from ever starting. But there is a way of painting that takes this pressure away from the very beginning. It is called reverse coloring, and for this month I have prepared a special sheet for it.
What Reverse Coloring Is
Usually we know it the other way around. In classic coloring there are fine lines, and the task is to place the color inside them, ideally without going over the edge. With reverse coloring it is exactly the opposite. The color is already there, mostly as a loose, flowing watercolor shape, and the lines come only afterward. With a fine pen or a fineliner you add contours, patterns or small details on top of the colored areas. So you do not paint into given lines, but find the lines in what the color already offers.
Why It Delights So Many Right Now
Reverse coloring has become truly popular in recent years. The idea itself has been around for a while, but only recently have countless people been swept up by it, and interest has multiplied in a short time. The reason for that is obvious to me. There is no inside and no outside of the line anymore, and therefore no wrong. You do not have to be skilled, you do not have to have learned to draw, and you do not have to carry the perfect image in your head. You simply respond to what lies in front of you. That is calming, because the mind does not judge but only looks and answers. At the same time something of your own emerges almost in passing, because every line a person sets turns out differently. This mixture of ease and a result you can be proud of hits exactly the nerve of a time in which many are looking for a quiet and attainable form of creativity.
Why It Suits Me So Well
What I like most about it is that it cannot really fail. I often see that people would love to paint but do not dare, because they are afraid of ruining something. With reverse coloring that can hardly happen. The color already sits beautifully on the paper, and everything that is added makes the picture more personal, not worse. It is relaxed painting without pressure, and yet in the end you hold something in your hands that truly belongs to you. It is exactly this promise of success that matters to me, because it makes the first step so much easier.
The Red Clover Sheet
For this month I painted a watercolor of red clover and designed the creative sheet so that it can be used as a reverse coloring template. Red clover is one of the friendly wild ones, the meadow flowers I am painting at the moment. So the colors of the meadow are already there, the warm pink of the blossoms, the green of the leaves and the soft transitions in between. What is missing are the lines, and those everyone may now add themselves. You can trace the blossoms, but just as well draw your own patterns entirely freely. I myself chose dots and lines for the leaves, simply to bring a little tension into the picture. That is exactly the beauty of it, there is no right way, only your own. Some follow the contours of the plant, others set small patterns, and still others simply follow what the colored areas suggest on their own. If you would like to see how I go about it, I guide you step by step in the free painting session for the creative sheet.
Just Begin
When the next stressful day announces itself, perhaps this is worth a try. No blank page, no expectation, only color that is already there and a pen in your hand. Often that is enough to grow quite calm for a while and to forget that you did not actually feel like painting.