“Candy Cane Heart” line art. Do you struggle to color small line art and tiny details with large alcohol markers? Illustrator Amy Shulke shares tips and tools for coloring tiny spaces with ease. | VanillaArts.com

DEPTH AND DIMENSION IS NOT REALISM

You tried alcohol markers because… well… you weren’t sure about your art skills…

And markers looked soooo easy!

Now you’re kinda wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into.

Because brush nibs make you feel clumsy.

The markers feel gigantic in your hand and the brush nib is large and wobbly… Maybe you’re just not cut out to color with big ol’ markers?

Are you constantly going outside the lines and struggling to fill tiny corners without making a mess of it?

But other people are getting great results— what are they doing that you’re not???

Today, let’s look at big fat markers with big fat brush nibs

And some of the tricks I use to create teeny tiny details.

“Candy Cane Heart” artist grade line art for realistic coloring. Perfect for marker, colored pencil, watercolor, mixed media. | VanillaArts.com — *“Candy Cane Heart”. Copic Marker + Pablo Colored Pencil on Strathmore 300 Smooth Bristol Board. 8 × 8” by the author, Amy Shulke.*

PURCHASE: CANDY CANE HEART

WATCH: BIG MARKERS, LITTLE SPACES

Latest Video - Small Line Art & Tiny Details with Large Markers

(supply list at bottom of this article)

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LEARN MARKER + PENCIL COLORING TECHNIQUES

Marker with a dash of colored pencil…

The Blend - A 12 week online course for beginners/intermediates which focuses solely on smooth blending with Copic Markers. Learn to blend or improve your current blending technique with this intensive skill building approach to coloring.

Enrollment open January through June.

Learn more + Enroll: The Blend

Colored pencil with a touch of marker…

The Point - A 12 week online course for beginners/intermediates which focuses on efficient techniques for Prismacolor colored pencils. Learn to layer colors with confidence and artistry through this intensive skill building approach to coloring.

Enrollment open July through December.

Learn more + Enroll: The Point

TECHNIQUES USED IN “CANDY CANE HEART”

The following techniques can be spotted in the BIG MARKERS, LITTLE SPACES video:

I printed my candy cane line art using a Copic safe ink-jet printer onto Bristol board. Bristol is almost a mixed media paper and it will tolerate some water. Then using a fine point waterbrush (Amazon), I moistened the outlines for white stripes. Once the printer ink melted, I then dabbed it with a tissue. This allows the gray stamp line to completely disappear underneath the extremely light E41 ink.
The red is 2 red markers over an underpaint of BG11. The red along the inner edges is not a clean red, it’s murky. BG11 creates the necessary muddiness to make the candy cane look rounded.
The fine red stripes are messy on purpose. With this many stripes, the odds of me drawing them all perfect are close to nill. Instead, I draw them wobbly and even criss-cross them— Now they’re creatively artistic instead of a pain in the rear.
Instead of shading the white stripes with gray, I chose a medium turquoise pencil. It’s an artistic choice which adds shade with style.
The cast shadow took about 35 minutes to color. I think it’s time well spent! A good cast shadow gives life and depth to a project while a rushed shadow detracts from the final results. Give it time and use more than boring old gray!

WATCH: BIG MARKERS, LITTLE SPACES

PURCHASE: CANDY CANE HEART

CHRISTMAS SWEETHEART?

Let’s be honest, we’ve seen a ton of candy cane stamps, right? They’re ubiquitous at Christmas but when I spotted a heart shaped kindergarten craft project on Pinterest, I thought to myself— “you know, I haven’t colored candy canes like that before!”

So I made a stamp of it.

Candy Cane Heart is an artist-grade digital stamp perfect for realistic coloring, now available at my line art site, Sketch-Garden.com