White Space with Tobi Crawford

Hi there! It’s Tobi Crawford here again with another helpful (hopefully) Blogstar post! I have coloured up a brand-new Stampendous image called Star Santa:

My focus on today’s post is “White Space.” Wow… Revolutionary, I know, but white space makes all the difference when we’re applying the concept to coloured images. Take a look:

When I coloured up our dear Santa with Distress Markers you can clearly see where I left entire sections of the image un-coloured/white. I like to leave large spaces uncoloured, especially when it’s vintage or old-fashioned, it’s just makes everything look a little worn. It’s obvious that I left his cloak white:

but I also left patches of white here and there all over the image… Like his hat:

I left that bit of white above the line drawn in the hat to enhance the bump of the wrinkle. Here’s the entire image one more time:

Are you ready to give it a try? A lot of people feel weird about leaving portions of the image uncoloured, but you just have to trust your instincts, practice, and study other artists whom you admire.

Thanks for joining me today!!