Learn the Flick stroke for Copic Markers

Everybody talks about the flick stroke…

You can’t spend 10 minutes looking at Copic on the Internet without stumbling across a reference to flicking.

But here’s the problem - instructors and bloggers don’t seem to agree on what a flick is and how to do it.

Really?

Really. It's likely in the top ten things that marker bloggers blog about and if I had a Twinkie for every different explanation, I've seen...

Well, I'm not sure what I'd do with a three-story high pile of Twinkies... but you get the idea.

Join me for a deep dive look at the Marker Painting flick technique

What a flick is, what it looks like, how to do it, when to do it...

This isn't just a passing glance at flicking! I even get into maximizing your wrist anatomy to make the best flick possible.

This online course is perfect for:

• complete beginners

• self taught colorers who feel as if they've accidentally missed key information

• long time colorers who still encounter problems with blending, shading, or developing convincing depth

Marker Painting Workshops:

Learn to color with confidence

Because you can't color artistically if you're always worrying about the basics.

This course includes:

• 15 minute break-down of flicking- not just the how but the why

• 45 minute color-along style video, fully narrated walk through of "Oopsie Daisy"

• Hi-res "Oopsie Daisy" PNG digital stamp (also PDF and JPG alternate formats)

• full color sample

• guide to shading

• color map

• bonus supplement on Push & Pull technique for floral images

Anytime access, entire class is immediately available upon registration.

Join the class, join the fun! I can't wait to color with you.

Select Supplies used in “Satin Gift”

(contains affiliate links to Amazon and Dick Blick)

**complete, printable supply list available with class purchase

12 Pages: "In One Acorn" a Kit-Based Art Journaling Class

Join us for a Twelve Pages class in November!

Twelve Pages is perfect for crafters, cardmakers, stampers, and scrapbookers. If you've thought about dipping your toes into the world of expressive art journaling, this class is perfect for you!

NO DRAWING SKILLS REQUIRED!

Beginner to advanced students welcome.

Students work side-by-side with me as we play with color, line, and texture.

The lettering and other important details are included in the kit. Every student leaves with a slightly different and wonderfully unique project!

Thursday, November 3rd, 2016 from 6-8:30pm

Lesson: more color charging, this time we'll use colored pencil to give life to our charged color areas.

Quote: "The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Class fee includes both instruction and the kit. Students must supply their own paints, brushes, and surface protection. Please see supply list for required materials.

SUPPLY LIST EXPIRED

Palette Detective: Watercolor Mixes for "Nasturtium" Botanical

Colorers tend to use color names as a security blanket

What colors did you use on this project?

What's the marker list for that image?

What's your favorite red blending combination?

Admittedly, this has always been a hard thing for me to wrap my brain around.

I totally understand that using the same exact marker or pencil colors as the instructor increases the odds that a student will be able to duplicate the look of a class project... but it seems to me that holding the same supplies in your hand is only about 20% of the necessary information.

This is especially hard for crafters, people who are used to working with detailed supply lists and step by step tutorials. 

I get it. You want specifics, lots and lots and lots of specifics.

But I'm warning you. The next time I'm up in the bell tower ranting at the top of my voice, this is what I'll be yelling-

It's not the colors you use, it's how you use them!

Write that down and tack it on your craft room cork board. Tie a string around your finger to remember it. Tattoo it onto your dog's forehead so that you see it multiple times daily.

I can tell you every single color that I use on a project. I can list all minute details right down to the UPC code and link to the best price on the internet. And yet that tells you virtually nothing.

It's especially true with paint

Very few painters use color straight out of the tube.

For my watercolor classes, it's not enough for me to tell you what brands and what color paints I used. If you want to duplicate my look, you need to understand the mixes I make and their concentration levels.

Yes, I want Beans!

I saw a photo on instagram a few weeks ago

The watercolorist had captioned it something along the lines of "Isn't my palette almost as pretty as the painting?"

And she was right. Her palette was absolutely beautiful. But the more I stared at it, the more I understood her painting. Her palette told me what colors she was mixing and I could trace the mixes on her palette right back to specific areas of her project.

Her palette was a road map to recreating her artwork.

And that idea has been brewing in the back of my mind for weeks now.

Here's "Nasturtium":

And here's my palette, which was clean when I started:

Now be a palette detective

The greens are mixes of:

• OH Sap Green

• DS Hansa Light

• MG Prussian Blue

The oranges* are mixes of:

• DS Hansa Light

• DS Pyrrol Scarlet

• DS Carbazole Violet

• sometimes I instinctively grab bits of MG Quin Red or Rose to brighten things

* remember that I shade last, so some of these oranges have now been neutralized by the violet. They appear dirtier than they did when I made my original passes on the petals.

We can make palette shots a regular thing

If you think it helps.

Thoughts?

Can't wait to paint with you tonight!!!

Nasturtium

Designed for watercolor but perfect for Copic or colored pencil.

This full page digital image is an original stamp used in my H2Oh! watercoloring classes in 2016. It was designed as a full page stamp (8.5" x 11") but can be scaled down if desired.

"Nasturtium" has wide open areas with no texture marks and is perfect for colored pencil, alcohol markers, watercolor... your options are endless!

Lettering is not included in the digital stamp as it was hand lettered by me after the project was completed.

This stamp was taught as a watercolor class, therefore I do not have a recipe guide to include in the stamp package. You can view my “work in progress” photos for this project on Instagram here.

Royal Iris: a Copic and Colored Pencil Vanilla Arts Digi Stamp

Water control = color control

H2Oh! classes approach watercolor from a rather unique perspective.

I learned to watercolor first. And my watercolor mindset has greatly influenced the way I use and teach Copic marker classes.

H2Oh! flips that on its head. I teach my intermediate level coloring students to use their Copic skills with watercolor.

The two mediums are very similar. With one exception...

Water control.

In marker, if you want a lighter color, you switch to a lighter marker. In watercolor, you dilute your paint.

How much to dilute... now that's the hard part.

This month we're limiting our color palette in order to concentrate on the strength of our paint. Light green, dark green, light violet, dark violet. It's good practice to see how many colors we can get from just a few tubes of paint.

**Taught as a local class in 2016.**

Yes, I want Beans!