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.
Vanilla Undercover: Underpaint with Copic Markers for Beautiful Realism - Chocolate
Real shade is not darker color, real shade is desaturated color. To create the desaturated colors that Copic Marker does not make, Vanilla Arts Company teaches Online Workshops and Livestream Coloring Challenges using the underpainting method. Students learn to layer colors realistically rather than blend. Underpainting creates natural colors found in everyday life.
Layering Technique: Realism Doesn’t Come from Blending (Copic Markers, Colored Pencils)
What are the best colors to use on a duck?
You’ll see this kind question on all the online coloring discussion boards.
The Copic Marker groups all want the best blending combination. What’s the best combo for a fire hydrant? What’s a good G marker trio for grass?
The colored pencil groups ask the same question, but a little more subtle. I’m coloring a shiny Black Lab. Should I be looking at the warm grays plus a black pencil or the cool grays?
Everyone wants to color-by-number.
Using someone else’s color recipe is why your coloring looks fake and flat.
Want to know the artist’s secret to realism? It doesn’t matter which markers or pencils you use…
Tools On My Desk: Favorite Colored Pencils for Creating Depth & Realism (Pulling Pencils)
Do you want to color realistic highlights?
The problem with traditional Copic Marker blending technique and a lot of craft based colored pencil instruction is that they teach students to highlight everything. EVERYTHING.
They treat highlights as if they’re magical.
Add a highlight and voila! Now it looks dimensional!
All this over-highlighting… and your strange addiction to white gel pens?
This is why your projects look fake.
Real highlights are not white. And folks, not everything has a highlight on it!
Realistic depth and dimension do not come from slapping white comma shapes on everything.