Changelog 2024-12-01 Significant edits to add clarity, information and more to this post. A basic re-write. A Problem One of my biggest ‘problems’ with digital art is the fact it has more constraints than non-digital (analog) art. When working with analog art I usually have a sketch book and some kind of composition book or journal handy so I can cross reference ideas with my actual drawing or reference materials. With digital, all this falls apart and becomes A Problem as digital forces less ‘scattered about the pages’ and more ‘hierarchical folder and file structure’.
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Convert PDF Coloring Pages
If you have access to imagemagick you can quickly convert a PDF coloring page(s) to grayscale PNG using the below procedure and notes.
Notes The pdfimages will get you a dpi listing for each page in the PDF that has an image, use that value instead of 300 in the below, if it is present. The -type Grayscale parameter can be removed if you need color output. Conversion Install imagemagick pdfimages -list shipspage1.
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Convert Photo to Coloring Page
Sounds Cool, Is Tricky Before getting into how to convert a photo into a coloring page, I’d like to point out a fundamental concern: this is not easy and a mild PITA. It also deserves some manual cleanup to get best results. I recommend doing this only if you have time to try the process and focus on some of the subtleties while also converting a ton of photos.
Like most forms of art, this one takes some practice to get desired results.
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Color Palates
Change Log 2023-02-27 Cleanup text and add a basic text description of the page. 2023-02-26 Replace exiting page with a better list, add new Krita palettes and remove palettes eclipsed by current set Palettes Below you’ll find a link to a color palette generator I use as well as a number of Krita color palettes I’ve created.
The zip files can be extracted into the Krita palettes directory for use. Please see the Krita official docs for more detail on how to setup a new palette.
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Digital Coloring and Drawing
Figure 1: An in-progress coloring page
Changelog 2023-04-05 Tune Krita S Pen config 2022-12-11 Added information on how I use Krita (Sketchbook is still VALID) 2022-11-13 Make tags more consistent with updated site tags Analog? Yes, I tagged this post Analog despite the topic being digital. [Edited 2022-11-13 to make tags more consistent with updated site tags] I’ve spent a long time staring at my sketchbook and wanting to draw and color but… my desk situation is such that I’d have to spend at least 5 minutes getting it cleared enough for drawing/coloring, then I’d have to put it back the way it was so I could type when I was done, I’d have to turn on the light at night (I like dark).
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Zentangle Template Images
The attached files are files I created as a ‘Zentangle Template’. It’s setup to be a 3.5" square with a 2nd ‘circle’ layer if you’d like to create a circular Zentangle. These are aimed at the digital artist who wants a basic canvas to start from.
Download Krita (kra) File
Download Photoshop (psd) File
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