Aries Coloring Page in Complementary Colors

It’s Aries season and I’m feeling a big energetic shift and a lot of contrast, which I tried to reflect here in coloring this Aries Page.

The fiery warmth of the sun is back, yet there are still a lot of chilly blue skies. Green sprouts and tiny wildflowers are coming up everywhere. The forest smells like wet earth and happy trees. Be warned this is more of a “chill” color-along than a lot of very specific step-by-step photos. The biggest tip I wanted to pass along from my experience coloring this one is…

Let loose and have faith in your creativity.

Yep, I’ll admit I got a little worried in the middle of this!  I was afraid the contrasting Mars red and deep blue were too much. But I kept going with my original idea, and I absolutely love how using the complementary (opposite) colors turned out:

 

You’ll see in the photos below that the “in progress” shots really didn’t look too great. Dare I say, even kinda ugly?! To me, that’s part of the challenge and call of being creative.

Letting go of making it “right” and surprising myself with what happens when I follow my intuition. And also the thing I really love about using Prismacolor pencils is how you can “layer” them and just keep going. Usually I find if I don’t like the way my coloring looks, I just haven’t colored enough on the page yet!

Color till you’re happy with it. So… I invite you to color your Aries page (or any other page!) with your own interpretation of “Spring” and “Aries” season. Let loose, pick some bold colors and see what you can do. Of course, if you want to use mine here as a guide to “color-along,” that’s fun, too.

Supplies:

These are the supplies I used, but of course, you can use whatever brand of pencils and whatever coloring book you have if you don’t have this one with the Aries Coloring Page.

From: Coloring Book of Shadows By: Me! Amy Cesari.
Pencils Used: Prismacolor Premier 72 Pc. Set

Colored Pencils Used for the Border: Orange Yellowed Orange Poppy Red
Colored Pencils Used for the Background: True Blue Light Cerulean Blue Cloud Blue
Colored Pencils Used for Mars: Tuscan Red Terra Cotta Pale Vermillion
Colored Pencils Used for Fire Balls: Tuscan Red Pale Vermillion Sunburst Yellow Lemon Yellow Cream
Colored Pencils Used for the Wild Roses & Thistle: Magenta Process Red Lemon Yellow Spring Green Grass Green
Colored Pencils Used for Sage: Jade Green Spring Green Lime Peel
Colored Pencils Used for the Ram: … I can’t remember! A bunch of different browns 😀

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Step 1: A Simple, Sunny Border

Subtle, but I used 3 colors.

Just to give it some more depth! The thin lines were the darkest orange, then I alternated the other two in the bigger spaces.

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Step 2: Coloring Blue Skies

Opposites on the Color Wheel

Orange and Blue are complementary colors, or opposite each other on the color wheel. I wanted it to be sort of a splotchy blue sky that was darker at the top, as if the sun was still coming up.

I started with the True Blue and outlined the objects on the top of this Aries coloring page to give them some more depth. Then I used the Light Cerulean Blue to do the majority of the sky, and faded to white with the Cloud Blue, which you can barely see.

At this point my sky looks pretty blotchy and maybe even not so great. Not to worry. You can add more later and it’s not worth it to fuss too much at this point.

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Step 3: Martian Red

Coloring the Planets is super fun and easy.

I’ve always loved the Planets of our solar system, but I’ve found that coloring them is super-enjoyable. They are hard to mess up and always come out better than you think! It’s also fun to blend colored pencils with planets as they are swirly and usually have a few subtle shades to mix in. I started Mars with the dark spots in Tuscan Red and Terra Cotta, as you see above. Notice how loose and rough it can be! No need to get all crazy or worry about being neat.

Fill it in more.

See above how I started to fill it in more. This was the first time I got to use the Pale Vermillion pencil, which is very exciting if you’re a nerd like me. I thought it was the perfect light-but-bright reddish color for Mars, and I love how it turned out. But see here–it still looks messy and not very “good!” Just wait though…

Ta-Da! Mars is awesome!!

I kept going over it with those 3 pencils to shadow a little on the top and sides, and blend together the darker browns with the pale vermillion.

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Step 4: Coloring the FireBalls

Check out the photo above for the pencils I used on the fireballs. You can also see how I started one with Tuscan Red and Pale Vermillion. Then I added the bright orange and yellow, Sunburst and Lemon, and then a tiny bit of Cream to blend to white, but not much. I enjoyed coloring these fireballs. Easier than it looked!

 

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Step 4: Coloring the Herbs and Things

Color the Sacred Sage

I tried to work in a lot of the Jade Green for the darker shadows of the sage. You can see that more in the final photo, but here’s how I started–darker green around the edges and in the shadowy “nooks and crannies” brighter green in the middle.

Color the Wild Roses and Thistle

I used the same colors for the Wild Roses and the thistle. Magenta for a darker outline, then filled in to white with the Process Red. I used Grass Green and Spring Green for the leaves with the simple “outline” style coloring: darker on the outside, lighter in the center.

 

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Step 5: Finish it Up

My finished Aries Coloring Page!

To finish, I look at it from a few feet away and usually start darkening things to add contrast. I added a lot more of the darker blue to fill in the edges and background.

I added more contrast/darker on the rocks underneath the Ram because it looked kinda flat to me. I added darker edges and more contrast to the leaves and herbs! Then I blended, squinted at it a bit, and kept going till it looked “right” to me.

Fun, yeah?! If you color an Aries page, I’d love to see it! Post it on Instagram #coloringbookofshadows or on the Facebook. Hope you enjoyed coloring-along with this <3

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