How to color Crystals

The most beautiful thing about crystals is how all the different faces and shapes reflect light. On one small crystal, when closely watched, we will see at least ten different shades of the same color, from the darkest corners to clear light reflections. Beauty is also added by various natural "defects" such as cracks, bubbles ...
I chose a picture of Crystal Lady from my new adult coloring book Enigma to color. I used my favorite Prismacolor premier colored pencils.

So how about coloring crystals?

Before we even start, it's good to think about what colors we want to match the whole picture. I wanted to try different colors on the crystals, but the monochromatic concept will also look beautiful, ie if all the crystals were painted in the same color, in different shades, from the lightest to the darkest.
To find out what such a typical crystal looks like and how I should place the colors on it, I searched the net for pictures and photos. This is an important step, to study how real shapes and colors look like, and understand how light is refracted on them. As an example, we can study the following sample photos:

From this observation, I understood that it looks good when the adjacent areas on the crystal differ significantly in their level of darkness and saturation, so that there is contrast in at least one or more places on the same crystal. Make a sharp border between illuminated area and adjacent dark area. Leave a lot of medium-colored surfaces, and these contrasts and reflections then emerge from them and give the whole image freshness and contrast. In the end it will be good to use a few strokes of a white gel pen for the most striking reflections.

Don't be afraid of strong contrasts, in some places omit the color, so that white paper shines through, and in other places don't be afraid to press with a crayon with a dark shade (where there are the darkest shadows, ie in those tucked away and half-hidden places).
Finally, use a white gel pen to highlight the sharpest edges and add a few cracks, bubbles or dots - this will give the crystals more naturalness.
If you would like to see how I colored my crystals, you can also watch my video: