Professional artist Amy Shulke offers a glimpse into her creative drawing and coloring process. Poinsettia & Pepperberry, original art with Prismacolor colored pencils. Frustrated by how long it takes you to color? Compare your speed with Amy’s as she shares the ups and downs of this new project.
Every Project Starts Somewhere…
It’s in our nature— we always assume everyone has it easier than we do.
So an artist? They must sit down at their desk and poof! The beautiful art just magically happens!
Uhm… no.
Pretty stuff doesn’t appear out of nowhere.
In the interest of keeping it real and realistic, let’s take a look at my latest project.
And because we’re being honest here, it’s not finished yet.
Here’s a peek at the ugly duckling stage of Poinsettia & Pepperberry, where I’m applying base colors to each leaf and bract.
But this is just the start.
I still have many hours of work yet to do.
I’m not totally in love with this project yet. Heck, it’s too early to tell if I’ll ever be in love with it. Right now, I’m too frustrated.
Let me tell you why.
Reality Check:
Even professional artists struggle to find uninterrupted coloring time.
Work in Progress
It’s still early in the coloring process for Poinsettia & Pepperberry. I still don’t have everything base-coated yet.
Normally, I start with an underpaint layer of either watercolor or Copic Marker. Because I want a softer, paler, almost uncolored effect on these blossoms, I skipped the initial painted layer. I have a bad habit of applying too much color in the watercolor/marker phase. To ensure I left a lot of white space on each leaf and bract, I deliberately chose not to underpaint.
Because I’m coloring this in 100% colored pencil, it will take more layers of pencil to build up the depth of color I envisioned. By skipping the underpaint, I’ve likely doubled the amount of time it will take to complete the project.
What was the inspiration for Poinsettia & Pepperberries?
This image was drawn for my advanced coloring group, The Underpainters. I introduced a simpler poinsettia image at the beginning of last month and this project is intended as their challenge image.
The pepperberry comes from a live-greenery wreath I bought for my front door a few weeks ago. The real wreath has juniper berries but when I searched for juniper photo references, a stray pepperberry image also came up. I was smitten by the alliteration of “Poinsettia and Pepperberry” so I simply had to draw them together.
How long did the drawing process take?
I think it took about 7 hours— much longer than usual!
I’ve actually drawn this image several times, trying to get the balance correct. The first version was taller and more narrow. The second had a simpler bowl and more pepperberries. The third reverted back to the original urn but I’ve widened the shape.
The real agony came after I inked the sketch and digitized it. For some reason the scanner added weird blobs and shapes to the digital version— all of which had to be erased with a stylus by hand. Then when I’d fully cleaned it, mysterious vertical lines appeared over the image but they didn’t show in the printed version. I still don’t know why. I almost cried.
How many photo references are involved?
The poinsettia blossoms were drawn from a live poinsettia plant in my studio but the white color palette is from a stock photo. The urn is one I own (plastic) but I’ll use the colors from a photo reference of mercury glass. The pepperberry is inspired by a photo from a gardening website but the actual berries were drawn with a randomized pattern brush in Adobe Illustrator.
What size is this project? Print details?
I printed the digital stamp onto a 12x12 sheet of paper and the line art measures 10” from the bottom of the urn to the top-most leaf.
Paper: 140lb hot press Fabriano Artistico in Extra White
Printer: Canon Pixma Pro 100
How long have I worked on the coloring so far?
I’ve spent about 4 hours developing the color palette and actually coloring. I’ve likely got another 3 hours of coloring to go.
Please note: that’ll be 7 hours of coloring on top of the 7 hours I spent fiddling with the drawing!
Is the color palette finalized yet?
No. I haven’t experimented with the pepperberry colors yet. I wasn’t sure how light my petals (bracts) would end up.. I’ll pick the pepperberry pencils based on how pink the completed petals appear.
How many color swatches did it take to finalize the recipes for the leaves? Petals?
I’ve got 6 trial petal recipes sitting here, most are far more pink than the colors I finally used. The leaves are a standard color combination I’ve used before.
What’s going well?
Despite the fact that I’m several days behind schedule on this project and that I almost had a nervous breakdown during the digitizing phase, I’m actually enjoying the coloring process a lot. I don’t color with pink very often, so it’s a nice change.
What’s going wrong?
It’s December, so there’s a lot going on right now. And even though I’m an artist, I can’t seem to find a block of several consecutive hours to color. So I’ve been sneaking in one leaf/petal at a time in short bursts. This has made it hard to keep track of which object I’m working on. More than once, I’ve accidentally started something new before completing the previous petal. I fully expect to look at this 6 months later and find things I forgot to finish.
What comes next?
After I finish the last leaf, petal, and bract, I’ll start the urn. The pepperberries will wait until last because I’ll base the value of their pink on the darkest value used in the urn. Once everything is base-coated, I’ll start the pushing/pulling process, amplifying the folds and waves, and then adding cast shadows under each petal.
Where will this piece be used or featured?
The line art was developed for my advanced student group here but we’re now offering the digital stamp at Sketch-Garden.com here. My completed project will likely end up being used as a graphic for an article here at VanillaArts.com, either this year or next. I have no plans for the original, it’ll likely get tucked into a drawer with all my other old projects.
If you like poinsettia & Pepperberry:
(Related articles, courses, stamps, and kits)
Free Article: Do you understand the difference between depth and dimension? Confusing the two can lead to cartoonish flowers. Amy helps diagnose your flat florals and offers tips for realism.
Artistic Coloring Kit: Color folds and waves for realistic dimension with Poinsettia Navidena. Kit includes digital stamp plus coloring guide booklet. Advanced level project with watercolor and colored pencil.
Free Article: Do your greens get progressively darker and wilder as you color? It’s a common problem with florals. Amy offers 6 tips to keep greens looking soft and delicate with Copic Markers or colored pencils.
Intermediate Online Class: Amy introduces a complimentary shading method for more creative color palettes. Poinsettia & Pepperberry uses this same concept and a similar color palette.
Color with me!
I’ve converted my original sketch into a line drawing in digital stamp PNG format, perfect for your next coloring project.
Poinsettia and Pepperberry is an instant download file from my shop at Sketch-Garden.com.
Supplies used in Poinsettia & Pepperberry:
So far… I’m still not done yet.
