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?

May 18, 2020

Amy Shulke

Creativity, Power Poppy, Realism

Artist's Notebook: It Doesn’t Take a Lot of Color to Create a Rainbow (Copic Marker, Colored Pencil)

May 18, 2020

Amy Shulke

Creativity, Power Poppy, Realism

Artist's Notebook: It Doesn’t Take a Lot of Color to Create a Rainbow (Copic Marker, Colored Pencil)

I love color.

You love color.

Color, color, color. It’s all about the color. The more, the better!

But I’m always a little sad when I see Copic Marker tutorials or colored pencil classes that use a mile long list of supplies. And I’m even sadder when I read online posts from people who sincerely want to start coloring but they’ve talked themselves out of it, because they don’t have enough colors yet.

Folks, you don’t need to own the whole rainbow.

In fact, it’s better if you don’t.

April 6, 2020

Amy Shulke

Creativity, Power Poppy, Realism

Artist's Notebook: 4 Tips For No-Line Coloring (Copic Marker, Colored Pencil)

April 6, 2020

Amy Shulke

Creativity, Power Poppy, Realism

Artist's Notebook: 4 Tips For No-Line Coloring (Copic Marker, Colored Pencil)

I love to color Power Poppy digital stamps with Copic Markers and colored pencils. But I’m a coloring instructor so I draw and color daily. Your hobby is my day job.

My hobby? I l bake bread. I’m nerdy, so when I bake bread, I geek-out. Old recipes, odd ingredients... I’ve even cultured my own yeast. I enjoy baking the same way you enjoy coloring. It’s relaxing fun.

But here’s the difference: when I make bread, I don’t staple the recipe to every single slice. I don’t announce with a bullhorn “Hey everybody, before you take a bite of my bread, please note that I used Gold Medal Flour and Morton's Salt!”

But in coloring? You advertise your supplies all the time.

And you don’t even realize it.