Realistic Color
Realistic dark yellow?
Yellow is tough! Even experienced Copic Marker and colored pencil colorers tend to shy away from it. What does dark yellow even look like?
Many online coloring tutorials and even the Copic company all promote yellow blending trios which recommend shading yellow with orange or brown markers.
But is blending brown with yellow really going to make your artwork have the depth and dimension you see in those cheery, upturned faces of daisies dancing in a sunlit meadow?
Or is this heavy handedness squelching your realism?
At Vanilla Arts Co., we teach students to shade their yellows beautifully, yet realistically by underpainting with violet. You need never be frustrated with fluorescent or dead yellows again!
Remember: Real shade is not merely darker color, real shade is desaturated color.
To create the desaturated colors that Copic does not make, Vanilla Arts Company teaches Online Workshops and Livestream Coloring challenges using the underpainting method. Students learn to layer colors realistically rather than blend.
Underpainting creates natural colors found in everyday life.
Copic - Daisy Gold
Layering BV00 beneath Y38 tames the tangerine and creates a beautiful, realistic golden hue. With such amazing daisies, you will have no more disappointed “loves me nots”… only “loves me!”
Elena’s Advice:
Underpainting with BV00 makes the daisy center very lifelike. It also adds incredible dimension due to the shadowy areas receding and allowing the brighter colors to pop.
Learn to use your BV’s to underpaint:
Vanilla Arts Company - Lemon Zest Online Class
Vanilla Arts Company - Cheers! Online Class
Crafts for Paws - Shy Sunflower Online Class
Crafts for Paws - Overly Happy Tulips Online Class
Further reading:
Why Artists Do Not Shade - Part 1
Looking for More Blending Combinations?
Elena Cazares is a Vanilla Arts student and a budding online instructor with beautiful sense of color and style. She is a hurricane of positive creative energy.
Elena runs CraftsForPaws.com, a 501(c)(3) non profit animal rescue. C4P’s donates 100% of their profits to rescue and care for worst-case stray dogs and cats in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas.
Shop to benefit Crafts for Paws at their sister site - Violeta Ink. Join Elena’s Copic Coloring Club here for online class announcements and catch her YouTube cardmaking series here.
