u/one_eye_smiley

I got lucky this week at work. At the library I work part time at, I was digging through a lower cabinet to look for buried supplies for the 4th of July coloring tablecloth. See the attached pictures for what I found. My supervisor was amused when I offered to pay for them, and told me to take the box home. I'd had my eye on some eBay Color Slicks for a while, and this will be a good sampler. The peeled crayons were sharpened by me after plenty of kid use. And yes, there was a Dandelion in there. :)

Sigh, forgot to obscure original art, got it removed. Oh well, do over... Pic 1 cover, then pages colored by original kid owner,then edited scan of page colored, then colored page. Anyone got tips for a better grip or technique for left handed coloring? My left thumb still hurts .. (please God let this post actually work)

Here is a page from a Barbie coloring book I bought from the library book sale. The first few pages are the cover and pages colored by the previous young owner, who has a much steadier hand than I did as a young'un. Next is the page I wanted to color, but it felt a little plain to me. It says more sparkle, but modern Barbie is normie core, and my Barbie tastes run to the over the top divas of my 80s childhood. My goal was to crayon something over the original line, but black lines are hard to hide. I did three coats of crayon, first Crayola Pearl, then Crayola Cosmic, then Crayola Metallic The skin and face makeup are Brutfuner colored pencil, since some delicacy is called for there. Still black lines showing and my left pointer coloring finger is starting to hurt, ok time to bust out the acrylic paint markers. I went ham with the acrylic to hide the black lines, and it seemed to work. Somewhat. Honestly, it wasn't supposed to be half this over the top. The process just led that way somehow. Oh well, suits the 80s theme I was going for. By the way, it's supposed to be a riff on Jewel Secrets Barbie from 1987. The colors are off, but I had to work with what the crayons offered. Now my left pointer finger is telling me I need to find a gentler way to color, but too much color is my life. Any good coloring techniques or tips for lefties? (I am ham hands on the art supplies. Crayons fear my breaking grasp.)

Here's an interesting bit of ephemera I bought off eBay for about $20.a few years, and finally unboxed yesterday. Think of it as a Fashion Plate type toy, with extra steps. Instead of laying down the plates, covering it with a frame, and rubbing a special black crayon over the setup to get a picture, it uses old tech only old heads like me will remember. You're supposed to stick a foam pad in the tray permanently, place your plates of choice on top (5 total), insert some regular paper and carbon paper, then crank until it imprints the picture on the regular paper. I didn't feel like testing the 1980s carbon paper, so I put the plates flat in the tray, with some regular paper, taped the paper at the top and bottom to the tray, and treated it like a regular fashion plate. Note: there are regular Barbie fashion plate toys, from the early 90s to now. They say that you should run a rubbing plate crayon holder over the paper with no crayon inside first, to make it easier for the crayon to catch the line impressions. Even with that, I am ham hands and the smudgy mess you see in my examples is as good as I can get. Interestingly, I can recognize actually produced dolls and fashions in the plate designs. There's 1980 Black Barbie, early 80s Malibu Barbie, a Western Barbie Fashion, and the dress from 1981? Birthday Barbie. If you ever get one of these, try my taping the paper at top and bottom hack to dodge the carbon paper.

Here is my first attempt at alcohol markers. The page is Kimber from a vintage coloring book scan off retro reprints, and it's a half page sized print job gone awry. Try not to laugh too much.