Herd of Turtles
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The geese spend most of the day on the pond, dabbling in the mud for tender roots and tadpoles.
The giant flight feathers are now poking through the skin and one little girl’s wings were turning outward from the weight. It’s a condition called Angel Wing which is correctable if caught early. You can see in the photo where we’ve wraped what is basically her wrist to let the bones strengthen before supporting the full weight of what will be 8-12” feathers.
I’ve seen countless videos where the poor things are swaddled tight from chest to tail. But our geese are free range— she’d be defenseless outside and miserable in the house.
What I like about this small wrap method is that I can’t even tell in the swimming video which gosling is Angel. She’s living her best life instead of wrapped up like a mummy watching the Food Network.
We take the athletic wrap off on Sunday. Let’s hope it works.
I take a Beans Break every year from Memorial to Labor Day. During that time, I dig into the newsletter archives for some golden oldies.
We’re doing major website work, so I need all the time I can get.
Anyway, we finished the Color Cube series and there was only today’s issue left before my break. Might as well start early, eh?
I’ve been writing weekly Vanilla Beans for a decade now and many readers would never know I was sending updated re-runs. But if today’s article gives you deja vu vibes, you’re not crazy.
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HERD OF TURTLES
You know the old story— a tortoise and a hare have a race.
The hare zips around, high-fiving the spectators, does a load of laundry, and signs autographs along the race route.
Meanwhile the tortoise slowly plods along.
By the way, who approved this race bracket???
We're supposed to admire the tortoise. He's dogged. He's deliberate. He's determined. He gets the job done.
The tortoise is the perfect hero because he just keeps chugging along.
But that turtle attitude?
Oh my gosh!!! It doesn’t work with alcohol markers!
Beginners and intermediates take it slow.
If I go slow, I can’t mess anything up. Nice… and… slow.
A lot of colorists also double back.
I'll blend the turtle shell one more time. Let’s make sure everything is smooth and even...
Pssttt… All that extra care can kill your coloring!
Now I don't know about you, but there are no dials, switches or on/off buttons on my markers.
Copics do one thing— they spread ink.
Your marker doesn’t care if you're zooming across the page or if you're inching around.
Copics have one job and that's all they do. They spread ink.
A good Copic blend is all about ink management.
You take a little BG15 and you overlap it with some BG13. Then you smooth it out with a bit of BG11 and voila, you've got a really nice blend.
Did you notice I said "a little BG15", "some BG13", and "a bit of BG11"?
Little. Some. Bits.
Slow and steady may win the race but it also floods the field with entirely too much ink.
The problem is, you can't turn down your Copic marker.
It's gushing ink while you’re putzing around trying to get the corners sharp. It’s gushing ink while you’re cleaning up that edge. It’s gushing ink while you’re sweating the details.
You may be a tortoise, moving slowly and deliberately… but your marker? It’s pushing out ink at the same jackrabbit speed as always.
Turtles over-ink their images.
It makes for very dark coloring but here’s the worst part— it also makes blending harder.
If you super-saturate the paper with the first ink, how well will you blend now that there’s no room left in the paper for more color?
We’re human.
When we encounter something new or difficult, we slow down and make careful moves.
But while you're shilly-shallying, your marker is leaking Lake Erie onto the paper.
One of the reasons why our coloring improves over time and with practice…
It’s not the time spent. It’s not about the practice.
It's because we're moving faster than than we used to.
We gradually start to feel like we know what we’re doing. We stop overthinking. We don’t labor over every nook and cranny quite so much.
A flick is a flick is a flick.
Odds are that of my flick strokes look a lot like your flick strokes. The difference is our speed and thus the ink control.
So the next time you sit down to color, admire the tortoise but be the hare.
The tortoise may have won the race but the hare had brighter blends.
IF YOU LIKED TODAY’S ARTICLE, SUPPORT FUTURE FREE LESSONS
This month a group of us have been studying yellow and I've been watching something strange happen...
Colorists assume yellow is simple until they actually try choosing their own yellow markers and pencils. Suddenly everyone realizes they've been treating yellow like a happy-go-lucky color instead of noticing the mischief yellow makes on paper.
Yellow is sneaky.
I'll report back after the color detectives finish gathering evidence.
Several readers have asked about the line art in the Cube series.
The PNG files are available in the FREE Download Library below.
For years colorists have been taught to treat purple like… purple.
One bucket. One color. End of story.
But violet and purple don't behave the same way.
And once you notice the difference, you start seeing it everywhere.
This week's Sweet Lilac lesson begins with a flower project but turns into one of those strange color conversations where your brain suddenly goes:
"...wait a second."
Apparently lilacs have opinions.
CURRENT PASSWORD: RubberDuckie
MY MOST-USED PENCIL COLORS
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Universal shading color
Universal shading for light colors
Opaque and sticks to anything
