Basic guide to colouring

The festive season is a time of great fun and frolic for children because of the various activities held just for them. Apart from Santa's visit, gifts, mouth-watering sweetmeats and new clothes, children have plenty of activities to look forward to during Christmas.

Fig 1

Many of you will be familiar with the traditional Christmas icons that would soon flood the streets and decorate most Christian houses. Santa Claus, snowman, reindeer, bells and baubles are some of the traditional images of the season.

In the coming weeks I will guide you to draw some of them so that you could make your own decorations or greeting cards to give family and friends.

I will start with simple subjects. Fig 1 shows a basic sketch of a Christmas bell. Start with the pencil sketch and later outline with ink using a thin nib. Finally you can colour it in any hue you prefer. First you should draw a vertical outline in the shape of a box, with a vertical line drawn in the centre (as shown with dotted lines).

Then draw the curves as shown on the left side up to the centre line and trace the other half to complete the sketch to the right. Once the final sketch is completed you can use ink and finish the drawing as shown in Figure 2.

As you will be using colour, the drawing paper should be quality paper where colours, especially water based ones will get absorbed without smudging the drawing. You can use water colours or poster colours.

A bright glossy paper does not absorb colour nor dry easily. The paper to be used for drawing and colouring should be fine grain paper. Very thin paper should also be avoided, since it wrinkles easily.

I would suggest medium - grain paper to be used. This the most commonly used drawing paper for painting with water colours.

Bond or Kent 250 or 200 grams paper is used for colouring. The selection of brushes is also important for water colour.

No 17 flat brush or number 14 round brush and Nos 2, 3 is usually used for light art work. Follow these colour sketches and practice as much as you can. I will give more items to draw next week.