Creative Chat: Coloring

It's time for the MFT Creative Chat. The My Favorite Things Design Team Creative Chat is a monthly feature, where we are challenged to explore our creative spaces and share valuable organizational methods, tools, and shopping strategies with you. You'll be able to peek into our creative spaces, ask questions, and share your own ideas in the MFT forum.  This month, we were asked the following questions:  

Show us how you organize and store your different coloring mediums (colored pencils, watercolors, paint, markers, chalks, etc).

What is your favorite coloring medium?

Any coloring tips you'd like to share?

Visit Kim's Blog for a full list of designers that have taken up the challenge and get ready to delve into the minds of our creative team.

Let's start with Copic storage.  This has been a journey, to say the least.  When I started out I used the clear cases to store all of my markers.  I liked that it was transportable and it worked nicely since I only had the Copic Sketch markers (those cases fit the different kinds of markers individually, in other words you couldn't store the Ciaos in with the Sketches).  I quickly outgrew those and tried a few other ways that didn't work out so nicely.  I had them on a shelf in my craft room, but if I wanted to color in the living room, I couldn't.  I had them in a wire basket, but I couldn't prop the basket up on it's side to easily see them and the colors couldn't be separated into color families.  I had them in little mugs by color families, but that made for difficult transport.  Finally, I found this guy.  It works perfectly.  Transportable?  Yes.  Separate color families?  Yes.  Able to be propped up on it's side?  Yes.  Extra room for growth, but not so much that there are huge gaps?  Yes.  

I got this tote at Michaels and it works wonderfully.  I don't have anything in the side pockets, but the extra bulk there helps it to "prop" nicely on its side.  It also has dividers that keep the color families separate, which is a must for me.  After the wire basket fiasco and spending way too much time looking for a single color, this is perfect.

Next up are the Prismacolor colored pencils.  I threw away the original box a while ago, though I like that idea for storage.  If you've seen the box, it has a built in "stand" that holds all the pencils up so you can see them easily.  This little plastic container also does the trick.  I store all the pencils and blending sticks inside. 

When I'm coloring and the lid is off, I just transfer about half of the pencils into the lid so I can see a variety of colors.  The ones on the bottom get buried otherwise and I like to see all the colors.

Here's a picture of my pencils and the Odorless Mineral Spirits I use.  I love this little container!  I bought it at Sally Beauty Supply and it's for nail technicians.  They usually put fingernail polish remover in it, but it works wonderfully for this particular application.

The important part of this bottle is the lid.  The bottle has an internal pump and just a little push of the lid pools the liquid into the bowl of the lid.  Seriously perfect if you like to color this way!

Lastly, here are the Twinkling H2Os.  There's a variety of ways to watercolor, but this one is my favorite.  These are little (and a handful of big) pots of Twinkling H2Os.  They leave a lovely shimmer once dried.  I had a friend ask me once how I got the glitter to be so pretty without being so "glittery."  

As you can see, I store each of the pots upside down so I can see the name of the color.  These can be deceiving in that the color of the pot may not correspond to the color on watercolor paper.  That's a quick tip: I use watercolor paper when I use these, not standard cardstock.  

I have a Stampin' Up! Aquabrush and a Niji Waterbrush.  I prefer the Niji because the brush tip is smaller and I can color small spaces in an image.  In my experience, it also has better water flow.  The SU brush lets water flow much quicker and can result in excessive pooling.  I let my daughter play with it.  :)

I store the water brushes right inside the little plastic container, too.  

My last tip is a big one.  Make a color chart!  This is especially important for Copics and Twinkling H2Os.  My two color charts (for the colors I have) are pictured below.  You can't trust the color of the Twinkling H2O pot or the color of the Copic lid as an accurate test of color.  I reference these color charts all of the time!  

My favorite coloring medium would probably be the Twinkling H2Os.  I use my Copics the most out of convenience, because they are quick.  Maybe I should go watercolor now, I'm inspired!  

Thanks for stopping by and having a look at my storage and the few tips I had to share!  See you soon.