What’s Next?

After all the Copic Marker and colored pencil classes… after all the tutorials, articles, and skill building projects…

You’ve learned how to color beautiful projects with skill.

What comes next?

It’s time to become an artist.

We stop treating our markers and pencils as colors.

They become tools for self expression.

We stop following the trends and latest product releases.

We follow our imagination and instincts.

We stop looking to others to tell us how-to and where.

We test, we swatch, and we blaze new paths.

After coloring comes artistry.

You have the supplies. You have the techniques.

Now you need the process.

Box of Colors, an online Marker Painting Workshop for advanced students. To move from Copic Marker coloring projects to expressive original art, you need more than blending technique. Learn to choose underpaint for color sculpting and read photo references— coloring with independence & confidence.

Online Art School?

I meet a lot of students who could have gone to art school.

Who should have gone to art school.

For whatever reason, they took a different career path, made different life decisions. Now they find themselves yearning to make and create.

Online learning is a wonderful resource for the could’a should’a would’a artists out there. There are many amazing classes and tutorials out there… so you might think it’s like going to art school without actually going to art school.

Uhm…

Not really.

Look, I teach online art classes, so I’m not knocking the format. You can learn a lot of great stuff online.

But it’s not art school.

If you’re taking project classes or reading project tutorials…

You are NOT getting an art education.

“How to Color a Parrot with Copic Markers” is fun, except it leaves you with the impression that you also need to learn “How to Color an Elephant” and “How to Color a Teacup”.

Sure, you’re coloring fun projects that feel artistic, but there’s a hidden danger. You’re also learning to rely heavily on the instructor for their wisdom and their detailed instructions.

That’s the exact opposite of art school.

To become an artist, you must learn to work independently.

It can’t happen if you’re playing Follow-the-Leader with a video.

Marker Painting Foundations set a new standard for Copic Marker education

When I created Marker Painting Foundations back in 2016, I didn’t fully realize what I was doing.

My students were asking for a comprehensive Copic Marker course, so I dumped as much beginner information as I could into the first 6 weeks. Then I spent the second 6 weeks challenging people to use what they learned.

MPF was different because it focused on how to color rather than coaching you step-by-step through a bunch of cute projects.

I gave students the techniques and concepts. Then in a completely strange turn, I asked them to think and practice until they became proficient.

It’s the art school approach rather than the I’m gonna sell you lots of project instructions approach.

Twelve weeks after I introduced MPF, people started asking for MPF2.

Now it’s here.

And this time, we’re working on the steps to independent artistry.

What’s holding you back?

What’s keeping you from coloring independent projects?

MPF gave you the techniques and concepts to develop amazing coloring skills.

Now with Box of Colors, we’re developing your artistic process.

We’re focusing on one challenge-level image and all the steps it takes to go from white paper to photo-realism.

I don’t know how to pick underpaint colors…

Underpaint selection is an issue for many students.

After a few Vanilla Arts classes, you get comfortable laying weird colors on top of each other to create shade and desaturation.

But choosing original underpaint colors is hard for many students.

Which colors work with which other colors?

Why do some colors work and others look invisible or awful?

Plus, you always feel like you need a second, third, or fourth opinion. “Does this look right? Or does this look better?”

Box of Colors breaks down the underpaint selection process, using color theory and logic to build your color instincts.

I’ll show you the exact process I go through for every single project. We’ll choose underpaints for every flavor of hue possible, including some of the most avant garde color combinations imaginable.

Color confidence is easier than you think!

I look at photo references but I don’t understand them…

I hear this from many students.

We use photo references in all my classes but inexperienced students don’t always know what they’re looking at. They see things like light, texture, or detail after I point them out… but to start out fresh with a reference and no instruction? That’s hard!

It’s so much easier to cheat a little, following the demonstration rather than looking for details on your own.

Photographs and real life references don’t have to be intimidating.

Learn to select great photo references for your next coloring project.

Then understand how to unlock the special secrets in every photo…

What to look for.

What to filter.

What to simplify.

What to ignore.

I’ll show you my reference research & reading process. Looking at the details and secrets photos contain and how to translate them in to your coloring projects.

Realistic representation is at your fingertips.

I’ll show you how to make it happen.

I understand “warm” and “cool” colors, but I honestly don’t get why it matters…

Some bending combinations make mud and you’re not sure what you did wrong.

And sometimes, you make a combination see that looks amazing, but darned if you can explain why.

In Box of Colors we’ll work our way from one end of the color spectrum to the other, discussing the pitfalls and pratfalls that happen when you mix colors.

We’re NOT coloring a set of watercolor paints because they’re pretty…

We’re using these colors because we’re building a visual reference of every kind of color you might encounter in the future.

We’re practicing every possible color you could ever dream of.

Your Box of Colors project becomes a roadmap for your Lifetime of Colors.

Warm colors, cool colors, warm colors that lean cool, and cool colors that shift warm. Neutrals that aren’t very neutral and neutrals so neutral they’re snooze-worthy.

Box of Colors gives you a taste of everything.

So that you can do it again on your own later.

Photorealistic Coloring

Think you can’t do it? Think again.

Realism. Artistry. Independence.

You are ready for more than coloring classes.

How do you step away from follow-the-leader style demo classes?

How do you color what’s in your head rather than novelty techniques and crafty trends?

How can you color less like the instructor and more like YOU?

You don’t need more projects.

You need the process.

Color Artistically With Independence & Confidence!

Join Amy for a vibrant Copic + Colored Pencil lesson

Marker Painting Workshop Series - online!

Box of Colors: a Copic Marker Course for artistic & realistic coloring

Box of Colors is an online Marker Painting Workshop Series for advanced students. To move from Copic Marker coloring projects to expressive original art, you need more than blending technique. Learn to choose underpaint for color sculpting and read photo references— coloring with independence & confidence.

Advanced Copic Marker + Colored Pencil

OPEN ENROLLMENT. JOIN ANYTIME.

Live Workshops are unscripted demonstrations, recorded live. This provides students with a real look into the authentic coloring process. You’ll see mistakes being made and corrected. It’s just like visiting Amy in her home studio.

Log in and color with Amy at your convenience. Anytime access, no expiration dates.

Class was recorded in October and November 2020 and featured a live student audience. Amy answers questions from the students and offers many tips for better colored pencil art.

Select supplies used in Box of Colors:

Vanilla Arts Company is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for use to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com.