Tools On My Desk: Best White Pencils, Pens, and Markers (for Copic Marker, Colored Pencil)
Best White Pens for Coloring?
Everyone loves a good white gel pen.
C’mon, you know you do. You whip out your white pen at the end of every Copic Marker or colored pencil project, to add realistic highlights and shine to everything.
Hold on there…
Does white gel pen actually look realistic?
But what else is there? What do artists use to color white?
Control Freak Tips: How to Color with Loose Artistic Style (Copic Marker, Colored Pencil)
Do you micro-manage your markers?
You’re not alone. There’s something about Copic Marker and especially colored pencil that seems to attract persnickety people. We like control and we want to regulate our colors, so we choose the most controlled version of all art mediums.
Because really, who trusts a drippy paintbrush and all those weird little tubes? That stuff gets messy! Markers and pencils are safe.
And yet we dream of painting. Painting with wild abandon.
Today, let’s look at tips for coloring with passion and freedom.
Artistic Coloring: Add Life to Cast Shadows to with Beautiful Color (Copic Marker)
People sign up for Copic Marker classes and read tons of tutorials, desperately wanting to blend better. Smoother blends, easier blends, prettier blends.
They think blending will make their coloring look more realistic. Then when it doesn’t work, they sign up for shading classes. The merry-go-round starts all over again.
Let me ask, how lifelike are my butterflies here? Do they look like they’re fluttering on the page?
Now let me tell you a secret…
Student Success Story: Lori's Independent Coloring- On the Rocks (Copic Markers)
More Than Pretty Projects
You take a lot of classes. You color a lot of Copic Marker projects. You begin adding details and artistry with colored pencils. But are you really learning anything useful?
Coloring classes teach you how to color a specific project. Art classes teach you how to apply new skills to OTHER projects.
Our goal at Vanilla Arts Company is to develop skills rather than a pile of pretty projects. This week we look at how Lori is applying what she’s learned in classes to this amazing independent project!