How Do You Color in Grayscale?


One of the most slept-on features of the coloring world is grayscale coloring. Using specialized coloring books and pages you have a great opportunity to create an image with greater depth without dedicating much to it. Grayscale coloring bolsters and enhances what you already have to offer.

When coloring grayscale it is important to understand how everything is interacting, including your medium and the ink on the paper. Let’s look at how colors work together, how you should be filling in your pages, and what tips and tricks you can employ to take your art to the next level.

What is Grayscale Coloring

We already know that a grayscale image is portrayed using only shades of gray, ranging from black to white. Grayscale coloring involves using these images as a basis for coloring. Instead of working with a line art image that you fill in, you fill in the form on top of any existing shading.

Why Do People Like Grayscale Coloring?

People like grayscale coloring for several reasons. At its core, grayscale coloring gives you the look of shading without requiring much work on your part. The grayscale coloring adds more depth to your coloring, so a single color can do a lot more work than it would without the gray shades underneath.

Grayscale coloring also serves as a guide for some beginners. It is not always easy to figure out where you should be adding depth, so having the depth built into the image can help you train your eyes and map things out. Beginners are not the only ones who can benefit from grayscale coloring. Even advanced colorists can enhance their techniques with grayscale images.

How Darkness Helps You Color

Grayscale images help you color because the darker shades give your art more depth. This is a technique that can be difficult to master on its own, and it takes a lot of effort. Some criticism when looking at grayscale coloring pages is that the gray is too dark, but it is important to remember that they need to be dark enough to manipulate the color laid on top. The more you color them the more it makes sense for some areas to be darker.

Materials to Use for Grayscale Coloring

While grayscale coloring is generally easy, it can be extremely hard to do if you choose materials that do not allow for the grayscale to peek out or interact with the medium.

Popular proven mediums include:

  • Colored pencils
  • Some markers
  • Some crayons
  • Watercolor pencils
  • Chalk pastels
  • You are not restricted to this list, but using it to get started should alleviate some stress.

Best to Use

With grayscale coloring, it is better to use a medium you are familiar with, but it also needs to have a level of transparency and blendability. Colored pencils like Prismacolor Premier are popular because they are of decent quality, come in a variety of colors, and are well known for their easy blendability. Colored pencils can be a bit more opaque, but even amateur artists can find a nice pressure that lets the depth of grayscale show through. Blendable markers are another favorite because markers are generally transparent. Make sure you choose a brand that is easily blendable, like Copic or Spectrum Noir.

Can Also Use

Mediums like crayon, wax, or oil pastels may be too opaque for grayscale coloring, but some can lay down a light layer with no issue. It depends largely on your application and the brand you are using. Watercolor pencils and paints are also popular, but the liquid medium may be too abrasive for the grayscale ink on the page. Chalk pastels are also popular with grayscale coloring, but most reserve them for background coloring. It can be difficult to achieve the vibrancy you need without covering the grayscale, but light shading in the background adds to the depth of the image.

Best Left for Details

Use gel pens or fine-tip markers to add details. They are generally too opaque and thin to be of much use in coloring but make phenomenal additions to your image. White gel pens can be used to add highlights, brighten eyes, and bring a bright white to the images. Fine-tip markers reinforce lines lost by the coloring or add details like whiskers.

Make Sure Your Medium Plays Safe

It is important to make sure that your medium works well with the grayscale image you are coloring on. This might be obvious with markers or watercolors, but even some colored pencils can be too abrasive for the ink underneath. For example, colorless blender pencils are known to be too aggressive to be used to blend colored pencils on grayscale images. Test everything out beforehand to make sure that the grayscale will not lift as you color and blend. 

How to Choose Colors for Grayscale Coloring

There are a few ways to choose colors for grayscale coloring, and either one is applicable. The first method involves choosing only one shade per color you want in the image. This involves less effort, and it is preferred by those starting with grayscale coloring.

If you want more of a challenge you can try choosing at least three shades for every color:

  • Light
  • Medium
  • Dark

This lets you match up colors with different shades on the image, and it multiplies the deepening effect of the grayscale. You can choose more shades and tones to represent the colors as you grow comfortable with this method, but starting with one or three is standard and will produce great work.

Learn more about grayscale HERE!

How to Color in Grayscale

Coloring in grayscale is similar to coloring line work, but you have fewer colors you need to work with. This might seem like less work to you, but you take the leftover energy and apply it to laying down colors carefully so they embrace the full potential of the piece.

It does not matter how many colors you intend to use. Whether you are using one color or twenty, you color in grayscale by:

  • Mapping out colors on the image
  • Adding layers and blending
  • Refining the image to perfect the base
  • Adding any details you lost or want to enhance the image

Each step is easy to master on its own, but making sure they make sense when working together is the hard part.

Mapping Colors

Start by adding a light layer to map out where you want the colors to be. This is important because it gives you an idea of how the colors will interact with the existing shading on the paper. Make sure you match your shades at this point as well. Pay close attention to the contrast already available and make sure your shades match. This will also help you help certain areas “hold” colors as you progress, marking them with a certain shade or value.

Adding Layers and Blending

Once you have your base layer complete you can add on additional layers. You might want to add layers at the same time instead of working on one area to ensure the shading is consistent throughout the image. When blending make sure you are not working away at the grayscale image. With colored pencils especially, use light pressure and circular motions to help preserve the darkness and light while blending.

Refining the Image

When you believe you have completed coloring take a step back and look at how all the colors interact. Is everything where you want it to be in terms of vibrancy and value? If you need more vibrancy then you can add additional layers of color to enhance that beyond shading. You can also add more of the original color to make it appear lighter, or you can try using a shade lighter. Using a darker color or adding black can also add more depth to the image. Make sure you blend out any harsh edges between colors. These blends do not need to be seamless, but you can probably find a few spots to work on to improve the overall appearance of the piece.

Adding Details

When the basic coloring is done you can turn to adding details. If there is anything in the original image that was lost as it was colored over you might want to bring it to the forefront using fine-tip markers or pens. Some examples here include:

  • Linework
  • Small details lost in the colors
  • Highlights

You can use an appropriate color to fit in the scheme of things or a lighter color to add highlights. Lighter colored pencils are also useful for adding softer highlights to pieces.

Additional Tips and Tricks

  • Use lighter pressure when first applying colors. You do not need to get that vibrancy down in the first layer. You need just enough to get the color on the page so you can see how it interacts with the grayscale underneath.
  • Focus on contrast. The truth about grayscale images is that your color scheme is less important than keeping up that seamless shift from shade to shade. As long as your colors match the shades the grayscale image can do all the hard work.
  • Overlap light and dark areas. For optimal blending make sure your colors do end bluntly. This is great for color mapping, but an actual image has variations of light to dark. Grayscale does most of the work here, but you should take the time to make sure there are no harsh edges.

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Shawn C

Hi! I’m Shawn and I Love Coloring and Art and the people in it! I created this website as a resource to help those who are considering getting into adult coloring. My website is your one-stop destination for all the inspired instruction and resources you need to start and grow your adult coloring hobby. From geometric to floral to zen doodles and from time to time even mandala’s when I am in the mood. I have researched and gathered the information to help you in your goal of starting your adult coloring hobby.

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