October 26, 2020

Amy Shulke

Copic Marker, Colored Pencil, Improve your Coloring, Details in Focus, Marker Painting Workshops

Details in Focus: Add Beautiful Color to Gray Copic Marker Projects (Grayscale Coloring Paper Recommendations)

October 26, 2020

Amy Shulke

Copic Marker, Colored Pencil, Improve your Coloring, Details in Focus, Marker Painting Workshops

Details in Focus: Add Beautiful Color to Gray Copic Marker Projects (Grayscale Coloring Paper Recommendations)

A whole project with only gray Copic Markers?

How boring!

Actually no.

In the coloring world, grayscale is presented as a fun novelty technique. Something to try just for the heck of it.

But in the art world, gray is serious. Gray is how artists train.

Grayscale projects improve your coloring by teaching you to focus on value rather than color.

But oh, gray markers are so… uh… well… they’re gray.

Gray is drab and ho-hum.

Meh times 10.

Pssstt… gray is only boring if you color it boring.

My spooky Nevermore Manor online class project is anything but drab. You can get the same beautiful effects from your gray markers on a wide variety of projects!

July 13, 2020

Amy Shulke

Power Poppy, Realism, Botanical, Color Theory

Artist’s Notebook: How to Create Rich & Complex Color (Copic Marker, Colored Pencil)

July 13, 2020

Amy Shulke

Power Poppy, Realism, Botanical, Color Theory

Artist’s Notebook: How to Create Rich & Complex Color (Copic Marker, Colored Pencil)

Light, medium, and dark Copic Marker combinations

As a coloring newbie, you didn’t really know what to do, so you colored the center of a daisy with one yellow marker or pencil. The petals were one solid color of pink. The leaves were one green.

It was fun but you quickly noticed it looked flat…

June 15, 2020

Amy Shulke

Power Poppy, Realism, Botanical, Color Theory

Artist's Notebook: Check Your Color Values! (Copic Marker, Colored Pencil)

June 15, 2020

Amy Shulke

Power Poppy, Realism, Botanical, Color Theory

Artist's Notebook: Check Your Color Values! (Copic Marker, Colored Pencil)

Tell me if this sounds right…

You’ve colored for months or maybe years, and you’re pretty darned good at it. There’s no tutorial that you can’t knock out of the park.

And yet when you go off on your own, picking original color palettes and choosing your own markers or pencils… well… your coloring is still good but, uhm… there’s something missing.

Your personal projects don’t have the same oh-la-la you see in professional projects.

You can’t quite put your finger on it, but something is just… off?

February 4, 2020

Amy Shulke

Copic Marker, Colored Pencil, Color Theory, Improve Your Coloring

Color Theory: Are you blinded by color? Value vs. Hue (Alcohol Marker, Colored Pencil)

February 4, 2020

Amy Shulke

Copic Marker, Colored Pencil, Color Theory, Improve Your Coloring

Color Theory: Are you blinded by color? Value vs. Hue (Alcohol Marker, Colored Pencil)

Confused by hues?

As a Copic Marker beginner, you follow marker recipes given to you by instructors or bloggers. Many colored pencil beginners do the same, using tried & true color combinations.

When you grow and improve, you try to invent your own color palettes. Sadly, this is where a lot of colorers decide they don’t really like independence.

A lot of intermediate colorers pretend to be beginners again!

They go back to using someone else’s color palettes even though they’re very capable of making their own.

Why?