Maybe you strayed a bit too far outside the lines? Perhaps you selected the wrong the color? And there’s always the accidents— dropping your pencil and leaving a big ‘ol mark in the most inconvenient place possible.
Today, let’s look at my favorite erasers for colored pencil and how I erase mistakes.
Readers of my weekly Vanilla Beans newsletters (subscribe here) have heard me mention the fixing process in the last two issues.
Yes, I’m a fixer.
But so is every other professional artist I know.
Fixing flaws, making adjustments, and making corrections is part of the artistic process. Nobody throws paint at a canvas and calls it perfect.
Artists labor over their artwork. Sometimes the adjustments are major, like adding a tree to balance the composition or painting over something that detracts from the focal point.
But the vast majority of fixes are so minor that you’d hardly even notice them.
I’m constantly fiddling with the temperature of things. I’ll add warm colors over the top of an object when it feels too cool (because cool colors tend to recede and feel far away). And I’ll cool something off when it feels too bright and boisterous.
I play with depth too. I push things deeper by adding more dark, desaturated colors or I’ll pull them forward by lightening and brightening certain areas. I almost never get depth right the first time, it’s a process rather than a single step.
I also reshape things a lot, especially with botanicals. I’ll round off the edges of things or loosen up the outline if that’s what’s needed. I’m rarely happy with the original way that I draw anything; shapes always morph as I work my way through the project.
Wise people know that everything in life requires some form of adjustment.
I hope not.
It’s the equivalent of a race car driver who refuses to pit for fuel or a singer who knows the microphone isn’t working but continues to sing softly anyway.
Who does that?
Colorers. That’s who.
There’s this weird mindset within the coloring community that coloring is a one-and-done process. Once you color an area, you’re done with it forever.
Wrong.
So wrong it makes my left eye twitch…
Trying to get everything right on the first pass? Wow, that’s a lot of pressure to put on yourself.
But I can’t blame you. Tutorials never seem to mention the “go back and fix that thing you just did wrong” part.
And coloring bloggers and video makers try to present themselves as amazingly awesome coloring super-stars, so the parts where they screw things up often gets edited out.
I guess I can’t fault folks for thinking that they’re not very good at coloring when almost every Copic colorer you’ve ever seen pretends that they do things right every time and every step of the way.
...the good stuff really only begins to take shape when you go back and perfect things.
In the beginning stages, you color on white paper. Your colors will change as you build up more and more intense color throughout the project. There’s no way to predict how strong something needs to be at the beginning of a project. You absolutely have to go back and make value adjustments later- it’s part of the coloring process
Shapes change as you color the spaces around them. I usually do floral leaves before I color the petals. I almost always have to go back and reshape the leaves, especially when they overlap a blossom. Refining shapes is part of the coloring process.
Sometimes a shape isn’t what we thought it was. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve colored something as background, only to find out later that it was actually a flower petal or a lock of hair. You can’t skip that kind of correction. Correction is part of the coloring process.
And lastly, sometimes I look back and realize that some of my blends look choppy. As you work your way through any project, your blending gets better and smoother as you get into the groove. So it’s natural that you may need to go back and smooth the first few things you colored.
Are you sensing a pattern here? Smoothing your blends is also a part of the coloring process.
And yet in the coloring community, no one wants to admit this stuff.
But artists? Hoo boy, we mess up all the time and most of us will gladly talk at length about all the corrections we make. We kind'a take pride in rescuing projects that were heading southward... "man, I fixed the heck out of that area over there!"
The difference between a mediocre artist and a great artist is that great artists fix and adjust the mediocre stuff until it looks great.
I’m a better colorer for making these changes.
I’m an honest colorer for admitting that I do this. It serves no purpose to pretend that I got it right from the start. Hey world, I almost never get it right from the start!
So the next time you’re knee-deep into some online tutorial or internet video, don’t beat yourself up for not coloring it all perfectly.
There are steps missing from that tutorial. They are not showing you everything.
Correcting and adjusting… we all do it.
You should do it too.
It’s okay to go back and fix things. In fact, it’s vital that you go back and fix things.
It’s as simple as going back and making adjustments.
Professional scuba divers sometimes drown and winning an Academy Award does not preclude you from starring in a long string of box-office bombs.
Being good at something doesn't guarantee success.
In fact, some might say that your expertise on a subject makes it MORE likely that you'll encounter failure.
After all, the odds of being mutilated by a wild beast go up significantly when you earn that impressive promotion from Lion Feeder to Lion Tamer.
We talked about mistakes that beginning colorers make here.
And then we talked some more about it here.
But beginners aren't the only ones out there producing less-than-wow images. Blunders may be harder to spot when a colorer has had years of practice under their belt, but the oopses are still worth learning from.
Over the next few months, we'll take a look at mistakes that are more common amongst the experienced crowd.
I hesitate to call them mistakes because in most cases, pros do these things without realizing it. You get good at coloring and that breeds complacency. We're going to talk about the stuff that pops into your work when you're not paying attention. Is there a word for mucking something up because you were thinking about solving the middle east crisis instead of correctly coloring a laughing goat stamp?
Maybe not. Eskimos might have 200 words for snow but they got nothin' for that.
If you're an old-hand at markering, it never hurts to be reminded of possible pitfalls or pratfalls. And if you're still a beginner, use this as a warning about what not to do when you're good enough to do a lot more of what you like to do.
Is this really a problem?
Hoo-boy, it sure is!
Take an oogle at Pinterest some time and you'll see tons of recipes which use 5-6 markers for on hair or skin.
Six markers used on one head of hair?
Yep.
I once clicked on an pretty awesome dog image and found the blogger had used nine markers.
On a white poodle.
Nine, on just the white part. The pink collar had another four markers.
It was fabulous coloring but I wonder what her family was doing for the three years it took her to perfect her amazing thirteen marker technique.
Trust me. I've seen a lot of people who own 358 ways to screw something up.
Copic markers are an investment. They aren't cheap and for many of us, it takes a while to build up a decent collection.
Years of saving, wishing, dreaming. All that time spent waiting increases the pride of ownership when you finally do own more than a handful.
There's a certain joy that comes from having just the right color for every occasion. I know that sounds weird to non-marker people but darned if it doesn't feel great to think "hey, I need a darker orange" and to reach right for it. A good collection of colors makes your soul smile.
But you can color quite well without owning the entire collection.
I hate to harp on the K.I.S.S. principle but it really does hold true here. Simple color palettes almost always rise above the marker intensive palettes.
And using 42 reds doesn't make for a better apple image, it often leads to an over-inked image.
I'm serious.
Meet "Super Hero Henry" here, a wonderful stamp image by C. C. Designs.
He's colored in 2-marker blending combinations.
Yep.
2 red markers.
2 gold markers.
A gray and a black.
2 light blue.
2 dark blue.
And 3 pencils. But honestly, he looked pretty spiffy without the pencils.
You don't need to own every blue on the market to color that cape. And anyone who uses six markers to do it runs the risk of over-inking their image.
Because here's what happens when you try to squeeze six markers onto a 1 inch cape:
I've used six blue markers on the cape here, the darkest ends in a 9, the lightest in a 1.
See inside the yellow circle? The color has been eaten away. This happened when my B41 from the highlight zone leached up into a mid-tone area containing B34 and B37.
The high levels of solvent in the B41 literally ate away at the darker inks. Solvent can carry further than you think, especially if you're an experienced colorer who is past the point of having to think through every single stroke and blend.
To fix that, I need to go back up into that dark stripe and bring more color down to mask the transition from dark to light. And from the original B99, I'll have to go all the way down through the entire marker set to blend smoothly into the B41 area again.
But a quick check of the backside of my cardstock tells me that my paper is almost fully saturated.
Essentially, I laid down so much ink in the first go-round from B99 on downward that I've almost exhausted the amount of ink my cardstock can hold. Remember, this area only measures 1" square so it's pretty easy to ink it too aggressively as you blend.
If I go through the process again, I'm going to develop that greasy, flooded look that over-colored areas get.
This wouldn't have happened if I'd limited my blending combination. It's much harder to do damage with two or three colors from a smaller number range. Six complicates your life. You almost can't help over-inking when using large combinations, your level 1 is going to damage anything over a 4 that it makes contact with. Small stamp size only compounds the squeeze-'em-all-in-there problem.
And really, it is simply not necessary to blend with a 9-8-7-4-2-1 combination. That's complete overkill.
I own enough markers to do it, but that doesn't mean it's a wise decision.
The good news is that you don't need every blue under the sun to color well.
Two can do.
And for all those pros, showing off their overly complex blending combinations... well, to each his own. If it makes you happy to use 'em all, I can't stop you.
But color me unimpressed.
…especially not in the beginning stages
It can be pretty easy to assume that your Copic Marker idols popped out of the womb with a Copic in one hand and a certificate of genius in the other.
But the stinkin' truth is that everyone starts out rough.
Really rough.
There is a definite learning curve to coloring with markers. It takes time and practice to develop good marker skills.
And the one thing I notice is that everyone screws up.
Everyone.
The thing is, we all don't screw up in the same way. Every beginner has a different set of hurdles to overcome. Some people have hesitancy problems, others are over-eager.
Every student I’ve ever met has two or three technique flaws that lead to less than stellar projects.
What's interesting though, is that while student A has 3 problems and student B has 3 problems, once you see enough colorers, you realize that all students make similar mistakes, the only thing that changes is the combination they come in.
So to help you diagnose what goes wrong when you sit down to color, let's look at five MORE of the most common mistakes I see from beginners.
MORE mistakes? Yep, today we're covering Mistakes #6 through #10.
Don't miss the first article 5 Mistakes which covers Mistakes #1 through #5, here.
In the last article, I used a puffy red heart to illustrate mistakes. This time we're doing blue-violet balloons.
Here’s a good-blending sample. I used BV04, BV02, and BV01.
This isn't going to win me any prizes at the County Fair, especially since this balloon measures only 1” tall in real life and has now a high resolution, blown up giant... but it is a fairly good example of the kind of smooth blending to shoot for.
Each ink color blends into the next in a fairly smooth manner. The lights are light and the darks are dark with no jarring streaks or blobs to ugly-up the image.
So now that you know what pretty good coloring looks like, let’s take a look at some typical bad coloring and how to fix it.
Smooth blending should be a gentle transition from one marker color to another. The transition zones are key.
Think of a transition zone as a series of overlapping halves. You use markers A and C. Where the two colors overlap creates color B.
Where markers C and E overlap, you create color D.
To be clear, colors B and D are not actual marker colors, they're colors that are created when you transition between two markers.
In my pretty sample above, I overlapped BV04 and BV02 allowing them to magically create a BV03 section. I did not use BV03, I created it.
Same thing with BV02 and BV01. Those inks mixed and mingled to form the equivalent of a BV01.5.
It's all about the mixing.
But mixing can not happen if you color in blocky sections, as shown here.
Block colorers are not using flick strokes and that’s why they end up with stripes or blocks rather then transition zones.
They're physically laying down the correct colors but without the overlap, the inks barely touch each other and never get a chance to blend.
This is a flick stroke, it's a controlled pattern. I've used flicks here to concentrate the heaviest coat of BV04 down where the balloon is the darkest. As I move upwards, the flicks taper off, like little fingers. There is less BV04 ink at the top edge of my coloring and more down at the bottom.
Essentially, smooth blending is all about easing into the transition zone. Easy transitions lead to smooth blending.
It's much easier to blend finger zones to finger zones because there's less BV04 in the upper region for the BV02 to fight with.
Using flicks rather than coloring in blocks will improve your ability to blend inks in the transition zone and to form beautiful middle tones.
A quick note about blocky coloring: You may be a block colorer and not know it! If you typically color quarter-fold card sized stamps with Copics, you are likely coloring in blocks. The teeny-tiny size hides a lot of technique flaws! It’s usually not until you try coloring a larger image that your blocky habit becomes apparent.
Here’s a scenario for you: You want to make a batch of pancakes.
Just for kicks, let's say you add only half the liquids. So instead of adding 1 cup of milk you use 1/2 cup. Instead of four eggs, you use only two.
How will the pancakes turn out? Will they be light and fluffy?
Probably not.
You're going to have powdery mess on the griddle. Even the dog won’t eat these pancakes.
You need moisture to make the pancake magic happen.
The same is true for markers. You need wet ink on the paper to facilitate blending.
I usually see dry coloring from hesitant students.
They're afraid to lay down too much color for fear of doing it wrong.
But trying to blend with only a little bit of ink is a like trying to do the backstroke in 6 inches of water. Your heart may be in it, but there's not enough moisture to swim.
In the bad balloon above, I used a really healthy amount of BV04 but then I let it cure for about 20 minutes before proceeding.
Then I laid down a very wimpy layer of BV02.
Because I was working a light layer over a dried heavy layer, I did not have enough moisture to rehydrate the darker ink.
And surprise, surprise! It didn’t blend.
Blending is impossible in a desert.
The best blending happens when you work wet into wet. That means not waiting a long time in-between colors.
It also means being generous with the ink on every single coat.
It's not impossible to blend wet into dried ink but the process requires more ink than wet into wet. This is because ink #1 must be re-hydrated before the blending can begin. It's much easier to hit the ink while it's still fresh.
The other thing for beginners to note is that the magic doesn't always happen on the first pass.
Sometimes the two inks won't begin to blend until you hit it with a second coat.
If the blend isn't what you wanted it to be after the first application, it's okay to go back and wet it again!
Too little ink is a problem, but so is too much ink.
Remember when I said in the last fix that blending relies on a sense of timing AND quantities?
Well, here's why you can't go overboard.
This blend was going well until I got really happy with the lightest marker (BV01).
Basically, I went back with my lightest marker and coated the heck out of everything in the light and medium zones.
Single marker fixing is a problem because now my light area is almost as dark as the dark side.
And see the weird drying line running through the transition zone? That’s a bathtub ring!
And look in the upper left area, the paper is so saturated that we’re starting to get an oil slick up there.
Here's something you may never have considered.
One coat of BV01 equals BV01. But what does three coats of BV01 equal?
You can easily get away with a second or third coat of most inks but when you start playing with multiple layers of the same color, all those lovely transparent layers start to add up to more than your original color.
BV01 + BV01 + BV01 + BV01 = BV02.5 or even BV03
By adding too much BV01, I've darkened the top of that balloon past the middle color. I've ruined my dark to light transition.
How do we avoid this?
Balance your applications of every color.
If you're not happy with the blend, don't grab just the lightest marker to make the fix. Instead, go back with your middle color THEN go back with the lighter.
We’re not only blending, we’re also balancing.
Reblending with multiple colors keeps your lights from accidentally layering up to be darker than your middles.
When I introduce flicking, about half of the students do this.
It’s a tip flick which kinda wanders across the color zone. I call it “dinking around”. It’s like they’re saying “I’m an artist, so I make these sketchy artistic strokes.”
Dink. Dink. Dink.
Dinking is when you look like you’re busy but you’re not really getting anything done.
I think dinkers are so wrapped up in the fun of making pretty flick marks that they forget the ultimate goal of filling-in the shape with solid color.
Shaggy coloring is inefficient and a waste of time.
Shaggy strokes will never blend because you’re barely using enough ink to cover the white of the paper, much less make a blend.
Here’s the other bad thing I’ve noticed: even though a shaggy student might fix the problem, they still revert back to shaggy strokes when they get nervous or stop paying attention.
It’s a life-long tendency which you never really cure.
Be mindful.
Pay attention to the look of what you’re doing and not just the feel.
Flicking only works when you're generous with both the number of flicks and the length of those flicks.
Your flicks need to overlap each other, they need to touch and get really snuggly in order to cover over the white space.
This isn't just a case of the BV04 flicks not touching each other either. We've got double trouble in this example. The BV02 flicks need to come down and lay on top of a good portion of the BV04 for the actual blending to begin.
It's not enough to have coverage, the coverage needs to be layered.
Play some Barry White and turn the lights down low. These colors need to get comfy, romantic, and downright dirty with each other. If your two inks never touch, if they sit in quarantine, like wall flowers at a sixth grade dance, then they're never going to merge and mingle and make beautiful music together.
This is not usually a first-timer problem.
This bad technique develops after a few coloring sessions, once the student gets comfortable with flicking and coloring with using lots of moisture.
Actually, this is someone who is a little TOO comfortable.
Overstroking is dancing on the edge between a pretty darned good blend and perfection.
Dancing is only cool until you tumble headfirst into the piranha tank.
If you look really closely here, you'll see a mottled texture in the upper and middle thirds of the balloon.
That’s because I blended and blended and blended and blended and then blended some more with all three colors.
I'm right on the edge of oversaturating the paper and in the process, I've used too much of every color.
There’s so much ink here that the solvent in the lightest formula is starting to break down the darker inks.
Mottling happens when the paper is right at the saturation point. The ink particles are so free and floaty that they start to coagulate and clump together into islands of pigment surrounded by pale solvent.
This is basically too much of a good thing.
Mottling can also happen when the lightest marker in your blending combination is a smidge too light for the overall blend… but most mottling is when students get way too confident, pushing the wet into wet technique more towards sopping into dripping.
Know when to stop.
Just because you can balance on the edge doesn’t mean you should.
More is not better.
In fact, with some Copic inks, more is worse.
If you load enough moisture into the paper, some inks will not just mottle, they’ll shatter.
Shattering is when an ink breaks down into its components. With a dark gray or black you'll see greens and purples start to ooze out.
Green inks can shatter with little yellow halos that often seep outside the boundaries of the image.
Purple and orange can leak reds or pinks.
Experience will teach you to quit while you're ahead.
Good colorers step back from the project to evaluate before they add more ink.
Are you trying to fix a truly bad blend or are you trying to fix a flaw so tiny that you're the only one who can see it?
In my experience, 60% of your mistakes are ones only you can notice. We're our own worst critics and nothing looks awesome from 3 inches away.
Step back and put the marker down! Learn to live with good instead of killing it in the quest for perfection.
5 more common mistakes and 5 solutions to prevent them from happening again.
Blocky coloring
Overlap those colors because inks that never touch can never blend.
Dry coloring
Don’t be afraid to use some ink. Blends can only happen when you use adequate moisture.
Using too much light ink
Smooth out your blends with more than one marker. Use both the medium and the light color, not just the lightest.
Shaggy coloring
Don’t dink around with sketchy strokes. Cover that paper in smooth and generous flicks!
Overstroking
I know it feels artistic and oh-so-professional to blend well but too much of a good thing leads to mottles and shattering.
Don't feel bad if you're guilty of more than one!
Heck, I've broken four or five of these rules on a single project. The key is to spot it happening and mentally slap yourself out of it before you take it too far!
Correcting mistakes and flaws in your technique is part of the learning process.
It's good for you!
