About Amy Shulke

Realistic coloring. Realistic advice.

Tired of banging your head against the wall when the latest free tutorial or marker recipe doesn't turn out the way it looks online?

Looking for something beyond blend, blend, blend?

Frustrated because everything you color looks flat?

Realism isn't difficult... but it is downright impossible if you stick to crafty coloring shortcuts and standard blending techniques.

Real life is full of texture, pattern, contrast, and desaturation. Life is so much more than light-medium-dark blending combinations.

Let's add some life to your coloring!

You can do this!

Studio Journal Articles:

Blog

Copic Marker + Colored Pencil: Vibrancy & Translucency, a Halloween coloring lesson

Keep Coloring: 5 Tips to Deal With Ugly Duckling Art Projects (Copic Markers, Colored Pencils)

Inspire Me Monday: Home Run Depth & Dimension (Copic Marker, colored pencil)

Spotlight Cards: Advanced Copic Marker Coloring on a Shaker Card (Hugs & Kisses)

Vanilla Undercover: Underpainting with Copic Markers for Beautiful Realism - Deep pearl

Artistic Coloring: 10 Tools that Never Leave my Desk (Copic Marker & Colored Pencil)

Spotlight Cards: Showcase Your Advanced Copic Marker Coloring (Dewy Rose)

Copic Coloring Videos: The Limitations of Online Learning (Copic Marker, Colored Pencil)

Vanilla Undercover: Underpaint with Copic Markers for Beautiful Realism - Slow Burn

Spotlight Cards: Showcase Your Advanced Copic Marker Coloring (Romantic Waves)

Vanilla Undercover: Underpainting with Copic Markers for Beautiful Realism - Canary Song

Copic Marker & Colored Pencil Mixed Media: Less Pencil Than You Think

Spotlight Cards: Showcase Your Advanced Copic Marker Coloring

Computers for Colorers: How to Alter Digital Stamps. Improve your Copic Coloring with Customized Images

Spotlight Cards: Your Copic Coloring Is THE Focus, not the scrapbook paper! (Puzzled Pears)

Vanilla Undercover: Underpaint with Copic Markers for Beautiful Realism - Pink Meringue

Be More Creative! 4 Tips to develop original & artistic coloring ideas

Spotlight Cards: Creative Uses for advanced Copic Marker projects (Cut Tulips)

Troubleshooting & Tips - Studio Journal Archives

Beginner - Intermediate - Advanced - what level are you?

ABOUT TOOLS & TIPS LIBRARY NEW TO COLORING? STARTER COPIC RECOMMENDATION ONLINE MARKER COURSES

join the free Vanilla community

Amy's Favorite Art Supplies + most used colors

Free Copic Marker tips, advice, and demonstrations at YouTube. | VanillaArts.com | #copicmarker #coloredpencil #howtocolor

Latest Video:

This one’s all about realistic food texture

…stop trying to blend everything smooth! Real life is not smooth and your coloring should not be super smooth either!

"Realistic Food Texture" at YouTube

Latest Livestream:

Lesson: The Value of Values

Depth & Realism are not about color

Too many colorers get bogged down by the color selection process!

Because you've been taught to color with blending combinations, you've likely developed the idea that depth, dimension, and realism are the result of using the perfect marker colors.

But that's not true.

Depth and dimension come from values, not color.

So how do we learn to choose and use our values wisely?

Simple. Strip away the color and start focusing on nothing but value.

Join Amy for an entertaining yet valuable lesson on how to visualize and use accurate values in all your coloring projects. This lesson will not only improve the depth of your projects but it will simplify the color selection process for you in the future.

Plus Amy will throw in her favorite method for coloring realistic grass. Stop coloring grass that looks like fur or forests. Grassy grass is simple but you've got to think it through!

Saturday, September 14th at 11am EDT

Replay available for those who can't attend or want to watch it again!

Vanilla Livestream classes- challenges for intermediate to advanced colorers using Copic Markers and colored pencils. Every month you'll learn a new artistic technique to take your coloring to the next level! | Marker Painting.com | #copicmarker #coloredpencil #realisticcoloring

More Info on Vanilla Livestream

Monthly challenge projects for intermediate colorers. Copic, colored pencil, pens & novelty inks. Every month a fresh lesson using a new Power Poppy digital stamp. | VanillaArts.com | #copicmarker #coloredpencil #realisticcoloring

"Strawberry Trio" the week 12 project in Marker Painting Foundations

From beginner to wow!

Marker Painting Foundations is a beginner level class and a new approach to adult coloring.

Learn to use your Copic Markers the way artists use paint- with style, originality, and amazing depth & dimension. MPF is a drastic change from adult coloring tutorials which lock you into using specific recipes and follow-the-leader style demonstrations.

No more copy-catting!

You can color independently with confidence. You can get realism and artistic flair from your Copics

You can learn to paint with markers!

Marker Painting Foundations - learn more Here -

Latest Workshop Class:

Forever Access!

Marker Painting Workshops provide challenges for colorers who want to do more than blend!

Scarlet Geranium is over 2 hours of video based instruction which includes an interesting sidebar discussion on how to build fences to increase your coloring accuracy.

Scarlet Geranium is the perfect companion to Sakura Blossoms where Amy explores the importance of coloring with the correct values for depth in floral images. She outlines her method to avoid projects that turn out paler than you expected.

Scarlet Geranium includes a Technique Deep Dive video where Amy shows you why good fences make great neighbors. Learn how to build fences to increase your coloring accuracy!

Helpful lesson aids including photo references and color guides help you color on your own. Technique instructional handouts guide you through the process.

More "Scarlet Geranium" info Here

Marker Painting Workshop classes offer artistic challenges for intermediate to advanced colorers. Learn how to enhance depth and dimension by controlling the temperature of your colors. | MarkerPainting.com | #copicmarker #coloredpencil #coloring #howtocolor

FREE Daily coloring Tips on Instagram!

Coloring Tip of the Day: Finally, the dew drops! So many tutorials have you color the drops separately, as if water droplets are magically a different color than the petals. That’s not what I see in photo references. Dew drops carry the same color as their base item, it may be shaded or highlighted but it’s still the same orange! And yes, I’ll be drawing dew drops for hours, there’s a lot more to come.⁣
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⁣"Autumn Dew" WIP 8, a challenge level coloring lesson for my local classes at Remember When in Macomb, Michigan. ⁣⁣.⁣⁣
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⁣⁣Supplies: "Rose Friend" stamp by @stampendous #Copicmarkers #Prismacolor #coloredpencils #rangerwatercolorbrushpen @poscaoficial #poscapaintpen White Fine Tip @tombowusa #monozeroeraser #CryogenCuriousMetallicWhite. ⁣
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Coloring Tip of the Day: So many people use Copics to color smoothly. Why not change it up a bit and be original? I dabbed my blue and turquoise Copic brush nibs across the background and now I’m emphasizing the dabbed shapes with pencils. It looks like loose oil paint brush strokes and it’s a beautiful change from boring smoothness.⁣
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⁣"Autumn Dew" WIP 7, a challenge level coloring lesson for my local classes at Remember When in Macomb, Michigan. ⁣⁣.⁣⁣
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⁣⁣Supplies: "Rose Friend" stamp by @stampendous #Copicmarkers #Prismacolor #coloredpencils #rangerwatercolorbrushpen @poscaoficial #poscapaintpen White Fine Tip @tombowusa #monozeroeraser #CryogenCuriousMetallicWhite. ⁣
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Coloring Tip of the Day: Prismacolor Greyed Lavender is one of my most used pencils. It’s called Violet Grey in Luminance sets and it’s Sea Fog in Holbein. Whenever I encounter a new set of pencils, I look for this color first. Why? Because you can try to shade pale pinks, light orange, yellow, and chartreuse with a darker version of that color but it will never bring you realism. Shady yellow is not orange! Shade is a dirtier version of the same exact color. Every wave, fold, and crevice in this rose is created with either violet marker underneath the orange or violet pencil over the top of it. Violet + orange = realistic shady orange.⁣
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⁣"Autumn Dew" WIP 6, a challenge level coloring lesson for my local classes at Remember When in Macomb, Michigan. ⁣⁣.⁣⁣
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⁣⁣Supplies: "Rose Friend" stamp by @stampendous #Copicmarkers #Prismacolor #coloredpencils #rangerwatercolorbrushpen @poscaoficial #poscapaintpen White Fine Tip @tombowusa #monozeroeraser #CryogenCuriousMetallicWhite. ⁣
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Coloring Tip of the Day: Pencil can enhance the existing dimension on petals but not if you use an orange pencil on orange areas. There’s no point in coloring with a pencil no one will see. Prismacolor Dark Purple is a fairly transparent pencil which allows the orange to shine through. It creates a shady dark orange when you use it softly.⁣
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⁣"Autumn Dew" WIP 5, a challenge level coloring lesson for my local classes at Remember When in Macomb, Michigan. ⁣⁣.⁣⁣
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⁣⁣Supplies: "Rose Friend" stamp by @stampendous #Copicmarkers #Prismacolor #coloredpencils #rangerwatercolorbrushpen @poscaoficial #poscapaintpen White Fine Tip @tombowusa #monozeroeraser #CryogenCuriousMetallicWhite. ⁣
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Click above or find me on your Instagram App at Vanilla.Arts.Co