Can Wet Media Transform Your Colouring Art?

To begin with, it's important to remember that colouring books, adult or otherwise, are designed to stimulate an engaging activity, not as sketch pads for serious artists, which means that, for the most part, the paper used would not be considered art-grade. This keeps the price down and encourages people to express themselves freely without worrying too much about ongoing costs (art can be an expensive pastime).

With that said, wet media is popular with colouring artists, and it refers to any materials that are in a liquid or semi-liquid state during their application. The term encompasses various mediums such as watercolours, oil paint, acrylic paint, ink, and, for the colouring artist, felt-tip style pens and markers. There is no doubt that wet media offers a distinctive range of expressive possibilities. Due to its fluid nature, it allows the artist to blend colours and create diverse textures.

Whilst the allure of wet media in art is undeniable, their use comes with issues that have to be understood and allowed for. Working with wet media invariably requires a more relaxed approach. Instead of strictly controlling every stroke of colour, the artists must learn to flow with the medium they're working with. This means accepting that colouring precisely within the lines may not be possible for the colouring artist. Another major problem with wet media is the drying process. Depending on the medium used, proper drying can take hours (in the broader context, some artworks can take weeks to fully dry). For the colouring artist, this means accepting a certain level of smudging, colour 'bleed' and paper distortion. Colour bleed can present as blurred edges, but more importantly, the colour may seep through the colouring page onto the surface below.

It's clear that whilst wet media undoubtedly offers unique creative possibilities, colouring artists must take steps to ensure a quality outcome. For our colouring books, we suggest using an extra sheet of paper between pages and experimenting with the type of pens used. The extra sheet of paper acts like a blotter, absorbing any colour that makes it through the page and protecting the next image in the book. As far as pens are concerned, we have found that better quality pens and markers deliver better, more controlled results.