Artist’s Notebook: Don’t Be Afraid of Oversized Coloring Projects

I love to color big projects using Copic Markers and colored pencils. To work at 8.5" x 11” or larger, I expand the size of my digital stamps to just barely fit on the largest paper my printer can handle. An oversized project allows me space to color the same way I would paint, with lots of detail and realism.

This is what I call Artistic Coloring and it’s extremely rewarding.

But what I notice when I first introduce students to oversized projects is oversized nervousness.

“Oh my, it’s gigantic! How am I supposed to color all that space? This will take forever!”

Relax, artistic coloring does require more time than quick and easy card fronts.

But that’s not a bad thing!

Hello, my name is Amy Shulke and I’m the illustrator and art instructor over at VanillaArts.com. Today I’d like to give you a few tips to make large size projects feel less intimidating.

In the past few months, we’ve explored how Artistic Coloring differs from traditional coloring for cards and how to take the first step to adding artistry to your projects.

But there’s still a time hurdle that discourages people from using their Power Poppy digital stamps for large scale realistic & artistic marker paintings.

Let’s eliminate the fear of time.

Because often, it’s not the size of the project that’s scaring you away, it’s your mental misconceptions about Artistic Coloring.

1. Working slow is good for your soul

We live in a world of overnight shipping, pocket internet, and instant texts.

Fast, fast, fast.

And because most colorers come to coloring from the card making world, you’re used to cranking out a handful of handmade cards on a Saturday afternoon.

C’mon, you know you’re a sucker for tuts marked Quick & Easy, Simple, and One Layer.

But there is joy in deeper coloring.

Coloring becomes less a hobby and more of personal journey when you take your time. When you explore your coloring images deeper, you also start to explore the depths of your heart and mind. Artistic coloring is introspective, soothing, and even zen. It’s yoga for your hands and restorative for your brain.

Discovery and self exploration are what’s missing from Tuesday Tut-a-thons and the lack of meaning is why most colorers quit coloring when a new crafty fad hits.

If you never dig deeper into the coloring process, you’re going to find yourself tying macrame’ or tole painting pepper shakers this time next year. Think back and count the crafts you did before you found your way to stamp coloring. It’s a lot, right? You must have something more valuable than trio-blending a pink piglet in a party hat to keep you coloring long term.

Speed techniques and 20 minute cards burn you out quickly.

Slow coloring feeds you for a lifetime.

2. The joy of detail

One of the reasons why I love working with Power Poppy is the same reason why you’re a fan of Power Poppy too:

We love detail.

Power Poppy florals are chock-full of petals, leaves, berries, birds, butterflies, and little hidden details that make us smile. We’re definitely not the kind of people that refuse to color any stamp with more than three shapes in it.

But let’s be honest: far too often you stamp in black and let Marcella handle all the pesky bits for you.

Maybe you put a pretty watercolor wash behind the petals. Or you hit only the important items with a pop of color. But most of the time, if someone were to erase the black stamp lines leaving just your color on the page, it would look like a wonky color blob.

Which is strange to me, because the joy you get from letting your eye wander across a beautifully detailed stamp is less than a tenth of the pride you feel when you color all of those details yourself.

“I did that!” is an amazing feeling!

For my Annabella’s Heart online artistic coloring class, we use the new expansion pack for the Follow Your Heart set. There are now three new heart challenges to choose from and each one is perfect for detail coloring.

Marcella draws shapes clearly and then gives you tons of little clues for texture and shadow within the shapes. Power Poppy stamps are an easy, stress-free way to savor the detail coloring process.

But you won't have room for the magical details if you don't print the digital stamps larger than card size and we won't see your details unless you print the digi in pale gray.

Trust yourself.

Some people don’t have the patience for small detail but for those of us who love little bugs on little leaves… we were born to color long and slow!

3. Complex doesn’t have to be hard

Okay, I’ll admit that I lost count somewhere after the 50th petal. There are a lot of petals here to color.

But as I said in the last point, we’re here at Power Poppy because we love this kind of complex stamp. Most people would take one look at it and bleep. “I can’t do that!”

That’s where you’re wrong. This is NOT an advanced project.

One petal.

If you can color one petal, you can color this stamp. It’s the same petal over and over and over and over and over and…

There’s a difference between complex and difficult.

When something is difficult, you physically have problems completing the task. You can’t perform at the level demanded; you’re unable to complete the project.

That’s different than a job with lots of simple little things to do.

Don’t let your first impression of a stamp turn you off. Don’t let the petal count dissuade you from trying something that’s actually a ton of fun.

Lots of easy looks complicated but it’s never hard.

4. Watch your style evolve

We’ve been marking our kid’s height inside a kitchen doorway since they were old enough to stand upright without tumbling over. My 6 foot tall son doesn’t remember being short, but we have proof.

Long slow projects like this hydrangea heart are growth charts. I’m not the same artist I was when I started and I can see that here.

I started coloring at the point of the heart. I worked my way counterclockwise around the outside edge. I did the interior large florets last.

And there’s an obvious difference between my first petal and my last.

As you color big images, you get more efficient. You also discover things that look great, you stop repeating mistakes, and you learn to color better and better.

Repetitive images are strangely addicting. It’s fun to make your way back to the beginning and see how your coloring has evolved, grown, and improved.

I don’t remember being clumsy but I was.

Long slow coloring images are practice exercises but they’re far more rewarding than a page full of practice strokes. Don’t ask me to blend a row of squares and then shade a row of circles; I’d quit after two of each.

But I could color flower petals for years and still find new things to explore.

5. It’s okay to get bored

A lot of people look at large coloring images or the ones with lots of fiddly components and think: “how am I supposed to get that done this afternoon?”

Whoa. Back up there, lil' doggie.

Who says you’re supposed start and finish today?

I worked on Annabelle’s Heart over five days. The background in one sitting, shadows in another session. Then the florets over the next four days. A little bit here, a little bit there. Do some now, come back later…

Otherwise, I’d go nuts.

I know the romantic version of an artist is someone locked in their Paris flat painting for six days straight.

But seriously, that’s crazy. Marathons are for runners, not artists. There’s no prize for finishing it all in one sitting.

Take your time, take breaks, go do something else, live your life!

When your mind starts to wander, that’s natures little way of encouraging you to take a walk, grab lunch, and go be normal for a while.

It’s natural to get bored after the 10th petal. It’s good to stop and come back later.

The good stuff? It takes more time to color. That’s how it gets good.

So here’s my Artist’s Notebook challenge for you this month...

Try coloring a Power Poppy stamp that has previously scared you.

Maybe it’s a complex stamp with six different kinds of flowers in it.

Or maybe it’s one of the simpler, single blossom images but you’ve always wanted to try it larger and color the details yourself.

Long slow coloring is a great way to learn and grow PLUS expanded length projects also feed your spirit and allow you to express your unique self.

Set aside the artificial deadlines and stop talking yourself out of big projects.

You can do this!

Want to color Power Poppy’s Follow Your Heart with me? 

Remember, this Hydrangea version is part of the new update to the original stamp pack, don't miss it!

My Annabelle’s Heart class is part of the Vanilla Livestream series for intermediate to advanced Copic colorers. This lesson covers the visual planes concept and shows you how to maximize dimension on three different levels using just our beginner level Push & Pull technique.

You can find out more about Vanilla Livestream classes here.

And I’ll see you back here next month for another glance into my Artist’s Notebook!

Previous Artist's Notebook articles:

The Secret to Eye Popping Color Palettes

Blessed with Color!

What is Artistic Coloring?
Add Realistic Texture

The Artist's Notebook: What is Artistic Coloring?

Psssttt… Confession time: I spend a lot of time doing something without a name.

Yep, I spend hours coloring highly detailed projects with Copic Markers and colored pencils. They’re little paintings. Lots of other people do it too— some working with digital stamps and others with their own original line art.

You’d think there’d be a name for this… Hobby? Pastime? Obsession?

When I tell people I teach coloring classes, it doesn’t feel right. Strangers assume I mean card making or coloring books. But I’ve never made a card in my life and I haven’t owned a coloring book since grade school.

So I started telling people I teach painting classes, which feels a lot more accurate, except that it started freaking out the students. "Who, me? I’m doing what?”

For want of a better term, I call it: Artistic Coloring.

Hello, my name is Amy Shulke and I’m the illustrator and art instructor over at VanillaArts.com. Today I’d like to show you behind the scenes of my latest coloring project, All is Bright.

Hopefully, we can better define Artistic Coloring. It’s a sub-niche of something fine-artsy, almost like watercolor but crossed with illustration, the step-child of paper crafting, and cousins to card makers and art journaling… whew!

What would you call it?

See? We’re the Duckbilled Platypus of the coloring world. And hey, maybe you’ll want to join us!

1. Artistic Coloring is larger than most coloring projects.

As I said, I’m not a card maker. Die cuts and glitter powders? That’s some strange voodoo stuff.  When I do see cards, I’m always amazed at how people color such cute little itty-bitty teeny-tiny stamps.

We work large.

For All is Bright, I printed Power Poppy’s Snowy Church digital stamp large enough to fill a full sheet of 8.5 x 11” Bazzill cardstock. If I was teaching this for a retreat, I would use my oversized printer to fill a sheet of 18 x 24” Cryogen Cardstock. In artistic coloring, the size of your project is limited only by the size of your printer.

We use digital stamps or original line drawings because cling and clear stamps are not large enough to accommodate the shaping and details we add. Power Poppy digis are perfect for us!

We go big.

2. Artistic Coloring relies on photo references and observation

I've noticed that Copic fans enjoy the marker techniques-- blending, smooshing, pointillism. They're in love the physical process.

Meanwhile Artistic Colorers are in it for something a little harder to describe.

They notice more nuanced color when they look at the world around them. More than shaded edges and single light sources. They want to incorporate what they see into their coloring projects.

They’re flirting with the concepts of realism.

So we use photo references rather than tutorials. Students learn to color what they observe rather than following step by step instructions.

The cool thing about using photo references is that you can color Snowy Church many times in hundreds of variations. It wouldn’t be hard to remove the snow and add a glorious burst of apple blossoms and green grass to the image. Add a northern lakeshore or a field of sleeping sheep. It could be sunrise or sunset if we wanted.

With photo references to guide your coloring, you can color anything!

3. Artistic Coloring takes longer

If you'll allow a little snark, I’d say Artistic Coloring is basically overthinking the simple stuff and taking hours to color what most people do in five minutes.

But it’s fun!

The images are larger, so they take longer to color. And we add lots of detail which slows us down even more.

All is Bright took me about six hours to color, spread out over four days. I also spent a couple hours in the pre-planning stages, hunting down a great photo reference and testing out possible color palettes.

But it was fun.

So much fun!

4. Artistic Coloring uses mixed media

• Copic Markers provide intense and vibrant color, but it’s hard to color thin window frames with a big fat marker.

• Technical pens are great for crisp texture and moderate detail but they’re too small to color a whole pine tree.

• Colored pencils make beautiful highlights and subtle color gradations but they’re painfully slow, especially on nighttime backgrounds.

• Colorful paper can add a beautiful smooth background but that same color can dampen the vibrancy of your markers, pens, and pencils. It's hard to glow on cool colored paper!

There isn’t one medium that works best for everything. Artistic Colorers don’t mind. We pick and choose based upon the needs of the day.

5. Artistic Colorers blend but they don’t use blending combinations

Remember when I said that Artistic Colorers view color differently than most colorers?

A traditional Copic Marker tutorial might instruct you to use three different piney greens on the trees here— a light, medium, and dark green. That’s a standard Copic blending combination.

But Artistic Colorers look at shaded green and we don’t see more green in the recesses and niches, we see less green. Most of the time, Copic doesn’t even make the murky shady colors we see. We’re the group that says “G99 isn’t dark enough!”

The trees here were colored with a magenta marker layered with a green marker. The unusual mix of pink under green is called Complimentary Underpainting. Pink and green are opposites on the color wheel and together, they make the realistic muddy color that you’ll find in the shady crevices of a pine tree.

To see more unusual Copic underpaint colors, see the Vanilla Undercover series here.

6. Here’s the best part - Artistic Coloring does not require special skills to start!

I’ve mentioned many artsy words today like scale, value, and underpainting but the really cool thing about Artistic Coloring is that unlike a lot of drawing and painting classes, you don’t need any skills or talent before you start.

We use digital stamps, so there’s no drawing involved.

Most students start Artistic Coloring classes with little more than a few Copics and the desire to use them differently. It's strange, but if you walk in the door with years of coloring experience, you spend a lot of time unlearning before you start learning.

I'll be honest, my All is Bright online class is an advanced coloring lesson. It's not an entry level project. But every student in the Vanilla Livestream system started as a beginner and within a year worked their way up to this kind of challenge.

This is totally doable. You can learn to do this!

So here’s my Artist’s Notebook challenge for you this month...

But maybe it’s something you’ll want to think about into the upcoming new year.

Artistic Coloring is something that you absolutely, positively can do.

You must be willing to work larger, on projects that take longer, and with less supervision and demonstration to guide your way.

But for detail oriented people who dream of coloring digital stamps with a completely unique style and voice… whatever we call this Duckbill Platypus coloring hobby… this is the art-form for you!

Want to color Power Poppy’s Snowy Church with me? 

My All is Bright class is part of the Vanilla Livestream series for intermediate to advanced Copic colorers. This lesson covers how to use white sparingly and intelligently for maximum depth and impact. The overuse of white gel pens and white colored pencil flattens your projects, so let’s learn how to highlight the classical way.

You can find out more about Vanilla Livestream classes here.

And hey, I’ll see you next month for another glance into my Artist’s Notebook!

Previous Artist Notebook articles:

Eye Popping Color Palettes
You Are Blessed!

The Artist's Notebook: The Secret to Eye-Popping Color Palettes

Have you ever found yourself half-heartedly scrolling through Pinterest, only to hit upon a coloring project that made you slam on the brakes and hold your breath? Once you look closer at the project, you’re blown away by the Copic Marker technique or maybe the texture created by colored pencils or watercolor…

As coloring fanatics, we’d like to think we're drawn to the technical skill and amazing technique. We know great coloring when we see it.

But honestly, what grabs your attention in the first two seconds has nothing to do with skill, technique, or even artistry.

It’s the color palette.

A good color palette is essential to creating an amazing coloring project. Without an attractive and cohesive color palette, no amount of talent or nifty coloring tricks can push your project from mediocre to WOW!

Hello, my name is Amy Shulke and I’m the illustrator and art instructor over at VanillaArts.com. Today I’d like to show you behind the scenes of my latest coloring project, Painted Fox.

Let’s look closer at the color decisions I made for my Painted Fox project. These are things that fine artists do all the time because of training and experience, but they’re easy little concepts! No magic skills required; all it takes is a little extra thinking time. You can apply the same tricks to improve your next coloring project!

Every great project starts with a great color palette.

Even though I draw my own digital stamps, one of the reasons why I teach an advanced class every month using Power Poppy stamps is because Marcella’s illustrations are full of interesting and accurate details which inspire great color palettes.

When you look closely at Power Poppy's The Fox & The Moth digital stamp, you’ll spot real flora and fauna. If you don’t know what species of flower or animal she’s drawn, Marcella often lists the names in the stamp description in her shop. A quick internet search will turn up tons of great photo references that match the items in her drawing.

Photo hunting is the first thing I do when I get my hands on a new Power Poppy stamp. For The Fox & The Moth, I looked for red foxes, oak leaves, any kind of round capped mushrooms, and even shelf fungus.

Here’s the fox photograph which set the color story for my Painted Fox project. Yes, color tells a story. Every color I use in this project helps to describe the feeling of a crisp autumn day. I didn’t invent these colors myself, I didn’t use a color palette website, and I certainly didn’t pick the markers randomly from my Copic caddy. The colors I use came directly from the photograph here.

If a photograph makes you stop and stare, then it’s wise to borrow the colors for your own project.

When a stamp is this lovingly detailed, you don’t need a fancy background to spice it up. What I noticed about the various fox photos I found is that while we think of foxes as being orange, they’re actually golden and russet tones. I’ve chosen a very pale version of the fox fur color and smooshed it into the background. I’ll repeat this golden tint again whenever I encounter a white object in the stamp.

Repeating the same colors makes your coloring look orderly, cohesive, and professional.

I spend most of my time working on the fox. He is the star of the show, so he deserves the most attention and detail. But as I add the greenery around him, I pick up foxy golds and reds with the nib of my green marker and paint that into the leaves. With Copics, painted color can sometimes take a few minutes to develop and become more obvious. I know it sounds strange but adding red and russet into green can look spectacular. Mother Nature does it every autumn and you can do it too!

I continue telling the color story with colored pencils. 

Each of my foxy pencils is a bit lighter or a smidge darker than one of my Copic Markers. And notice that everything in the digital stamp stays within the color story. If I suddenly introduced a hot pink flower to the image, that would shatter the spell we’re casting.

Now wait a minute.

Before you write this off as way-too-hard… 

“Sure, this works for Amy because she’s artistic. Meanwhile I can barely blend two markers without cussing.”

Don’t think like that!

I may be using advanced coloring techniques here but that’s not why this image sings. Skill has nothing to do with it!

The reason why this project grabs your attention is the color palette.

You could color the fox in simple three-color blends with barely any detail. The color would still attract viewers. Remember, you don’t see skill until you pause and look closer. It’s the color palette which initially grabs your attention and it’s the color that makes the heart go pitter patter.

Technique is always secondary to the color palette.

An eye catching color palette can make the worst coloring look better. And no amount of talent can rescue an unattractive palette.

That’s what makes color the great equalizer. Even the newest of newbies can find and use a great color palette!

So here’s my Artist’s Notebook challenge for you this month:

All it takes is a little extra web-surfing before you start your next project.

Find and use a stunning photo reference to set a color story for your next coloring project.

Don’t just be generally inspired by the photograph. Actually let the photo determine the colors you use. And remember, don’t add to it! Save the random purple flower or pink mushroom idea for a different project with a pink or purple color story.

Do you want to color Power Poppy’s The Fox & The Moth with me? 

My Painted Fox class is part of the Vanilla Livestream series for intermediate to advanced Copic colorers.

The Painted Fox lesson covers how to actually use your big binder full of techniques and tutorials that you’ve been keeping for years. Let’s apply these tips wisely, to enhance projects the artist’s way. You can find out more about Vanilla Livestream classes here.

For more articles on artistic coloring and lots of free resources, check out VanillaArts.com. You can watch free coloring demonstrations on my YouTube channel.

And hey, I’ll see you back here next month for another glance into my Artist’s Notebook!

Inspire Me Monday: Hitting a Home Run with Depth & Dimension

 

Hello everyone! Amy Shulke here from Vanilla Arts. Thanks for joining me for Inspire Me Monday. 

Do you get bogged down by the color selection process? Do you question those Copic blending combinations that other stampers swear by because they don't seem to deliver the realism you're looking for? Today, I am going to tell you a little bit about what it takes to create that depth and dimension -- especially when it comes to monochromatic coloring. 

Take a look at the finished piece before we get started. 

And now, let's delve into the image, starting with that warm, antique background. I used Power Poppy's Baseball Vignette for this creation. 

Tip 1: Antique Linen is a very subtle color and when applied with a Lifechanging Brush, the application is flawless. I’ve tried to get these faded backgrounds for years and my success rate was really low. The brush (which looks kind of like a makeup brush) makes it so simple to fade color seamlessly to white paper. 

Tip 2: I can already tell I’m going to have problems between the bats and the glove. It’s a lot of the same value range (W4, W6 & W8 Copics), so separating them will be tricky. That’s the challenge of monochromatic coloring, it’s easy to separate something when you can make it a brighter color. I’ll be doing some subtle bat adjustments later with my pencils.

Tip 3: Don’t let a stereotype ruin the realism! When I squint my eyes at real grass, I see small patches of color. So many people think “oh, it’s grass, I should make long grassy strokes”. But long marker strokes would be way out of scale for the image here. It’s grass, not a bamboo jungle. I’m doing the grass in two phases. Right now, I’m working on that patchy color. Later, I can add correctly scaled blades of grass with a finely sharpened pencil. 

Tip 4: Honesty time- I colored all the peanuts light but it just felt too boring. Then I realized peanut skins are darker. So I colored two dark. Luckily, I took a break and when I returned to color another one dark I realize that two was enough. Be willing to let the drawing change your mind. It will tell you what it needs if you listen.

Tip 5: I still haven’t used a white pencil yet. Why not? Because nothing I’ve colored here is white. Again, stop falling for coloring stereotypes, highlights are rarely white. They’re lighter but lighter is not white.

Tip 6: I’ve tried my hardest to keep that darned baseball round but man, it’s impossible. I’ve used a 90% French gray pencil to recarve the shape. The ball is smaller than when I started and I still don’t think it’s totally round, but it’s better than it was. But be honest, I can see the ball is off-round but if I hadn’t said anything, would you have noticed? Often the things that bug us the most are minor or even invisible to viewers.

 

Tip 7: Finally the grass. I don’t try to draw every single blade of grass. Of everything in this image, the grass might be the least important, so it doesn’t really deserve a ton of time. My strokes are short, about the same length that the grass would naturally be. Be sure to overlap a bit of the main image BUT ONLY if the object is actually sitting IN the grass. The bat is not in the grass, it’s hovering over the grass, so no overlapping grass on the bat.

You can see, I only used a few markers and a few colored pencils but the result is full of depth and dimension. The key is choosing those shades wisely and then accenting areas with highlights and shadows to bring those images to the foreground or background. 

I hope seeing this vintage image in action helps you to "see" things in a new light in your own crafting spaces. If you enjoyed these little tidbits, you can join me over at Vanilla Arts for a complete lesson on creating depth and dimension when looking at your marker's values. I taught the class live last Friday but, as always, it will be available in the Vanilla Arts archives for several months to enjoy repeatedly. Just click HERE to learn how to tap into these classes. 

Thanks so much for joining me. Hopefully, I will see you again over at Vanilla Arts!

Inspire Me Monday: Coloring Glass!

Have you ever wondered how you can bring out that texture and transparency in your colored creations? Have you wondered how you can do that with Copic Markers and Colored Pencils? Sit back, relax and let me give you a few tips and tricks today. If this whets your appetite for adding a little extra realism to your coloring, the good news is.... I have a class on the topic that you can fully immerse yourself in. Let's take a peek at my finished image so you can see where we are traveling today!

Now, let's get to the tips. For my little project today, I printed off Power Poppy's Seaside Sweetness digital stamp on kraft card stock. It's a gorgeous glass cloche that just screams summer and all things beachy. It also is the perfect backdrop for stunning glass effects and a handful of ways to add texture. After all, sand is not smooth, coral is not smooth and starfish are never smooth. 

TIP 1: Glass may be transparent but it still has weight and presence. It transmits light but it also reflects and refracts light. Glass also casts a shadow. If all you ever do is outline glass objects with a B01 Copic and then slap a comma of white gel pen in one corner, you’re missing out on an amazing coloring adventure. Our lives are full of glass objects, so unlike zebras or rainbows, it’s easy to observe real glass in real life. Start paying attention at the dinner table. Light on glass is fascinating!

TIP 2: I work with limited color palettes, choosing 4-5 colors and repeating them throughout the image. So instead of coloring the starfish one color, finding a new trio for the sand, and a third combination for the coral, instead I’m repeating the same blending combination in a dark, medium, and pale version. By limiting the palette, the focus becomes the stamp and the story it tells.

TIP 3: OH NO!!! One of the risks of printing the stamp in the palest gray is that I occasionally lose my way. I accidentally made the teapot far too wide on the right side. I’m pointing to the mistake with the nib of the colorless blender. I’m slowly using the 0 marker to force the mistake ink back into the side of the teapot. I’ve moistened it four times now and it’ll likely take at least four more but slowly, I’ll fix this. Wet and wait, wet and wait, wet and wait. Patience pays off!

TIP 4: At this point, we’re faced with a choice. You can make this look like real glass or you can protect the items inside the dome. You can’t do both. Too many people purchase beautiful snow globe, canning jar, or aquarium stamps and then chicken out when it comes to making the glass look like glass. If I don’t add these highlights, the shells and teapot will never look like they’re inside the glass. Isn’t the glass the whole point? Isn’t the dome what makes this look interesting? Don’t sacrifice the beauty of glass to protect the contents of the glass!

TIP 5: I’m using Indigo Blue to sculpt the various layers of the enamel Biggun pot and then Light Aqua to add bits of highlight. It’s important not to make the highlights too strong because remember, the teapot is inside the glass. A strong sharp highlight will shatter the depth.

TIP 6: Still trying to keep each element subtle. So instead of highlighting the starfish and coral with white, I use cream. On the shell, I highlight with a medium blue. This keeps all the objects inside the cloche dome.

TIP 7: It would have been far too easy to leave the background untouched but one trick I developed when doing portraiture on mid-tone paper is that it looks cool to add a bit of glowing color along the sides where the object is darkest. Cream here provides a subtle glow next to the deeper blue-gray of the glass dome but it also nicely ties in with the sand.

And, my friends, let's take one last look at the overall finished project....

So, if you want to dip your feet in a little deeper and take a step-by-step class looking coloring glass and adding that texture to objects you color, join me this coming Friday for a LIVE BROADCAST at 11 AM EDT. Can't make it that day? Don't worry, if you sign up, there is a replay immediately after the broadcast ends, allowing you to watch as many times as you like until December of 2019. As an added bonus, all students receive 20% off the digital Seaside Sweetness stamp set! 

Want to know more? Just click on over HERE to find out all the details!

Thanks for stopping by and joining me for this Inspire Me Monday!

Inspire Me Monday:

Hi all and welcome to another Inspire Me Monday with yours truly, Amy Shulke. Let me ask you a question Power Poppy fans. Do you want to improve your colored pencil technique? Have you tried a few colored pencil projects only to walk away feeling like you never really got the hang of it? I mean, it looked so simple after all. Let me tell you, colored pencil is deceiving. Those little wax-laden pencils are sneaky! Since this guest post is all about colored pencil, let me share my first six tips to help you get off on the right finger with this craft. You need to get a grip! If you want to read my step-by-step approach on improving your pencil grip, just click HERE for a post I wrote on the topic.

Now let's get to the heart of this post and some additional tips that I wanted to share to light up your world -- literally. I took Power Poppy's Cuppa Cupcake and wanted to do a little experiment with this sparkler-laden delight. I wanted to print and color it up all aglow on black. Let me share the finished project, then I'll get to some tips on how I got the job done thanks to the help of not only a few photos but some key tools as well. (Stay tuned to the end because I'll have details on an upcoming class where I guide you through the entire process.)

Tip 1: To start, the realism here is created by all those folds and shadows. So, tip one is to use a photo reference to help your eye see that detail. The purpose of photo references doesn’t have to be to match color. Here, I’m using the photo to guide me into more realistic folds and waves for the frosting. I’m looking at lights and darks here. It’s not about blue, it’s about shape and shade.

Tip 2: Next comes the pleats and making sure they really stand out on that dark paper. In my experience, tutorials for pleats don’t really work. If you think about it, objects like skirts and cupcake wrappers are wrapped around a body/cake. That changes the perspective of the pleats. In the center of the cupcake, you see into the pleats. From the sides of the cupcake, you see the sides of the pleats. So it doesn’t work to simply color every other line. Stop trying to hack the shape with a technique. Just pull out a photo reference and color what you see. It’s so much easier and the pleats will have an accurate structure.

Tip 3: This next tip is all about having success on dark colored papers. Unlike many tutorials for coloring on colored paper, I don’t recommend basecoating everything with white before adding layers of color. You’ll fill up the tooth too quickly that way. Instead, choose pencils that have opaque cores. By picking your pencils wisely, you’ll get glowing color but also lots of layering potential!

Tip 4: What you see, is not always what you get. Many times, we see a highlight and assume “Hey, it’s a highlight, it must be white!” But that’s not often true. The polka dots on my red cup are very white but the highlights are not. I’m using layers of red and white pencil to create light red highlights which feel crisp in some spots and soft in others, but they are never pure white, anywhere. Also, resist pulling out that white gel pen. You just don't need it!

Tip 5: I'm sure many of you feel you fail at colored pencils simply because these coloring tools shed colored bits of dust. It’s heartbreaking to brush it away with the side of your hand and accidentally leave colorful streaks. That's why I use a small hake brush to frequently dust my project but any soft clean brush will work. In travel situations, a well-cleaned makeup brush from an old blush compact will often do the trick. 

Tip 6: So, you're done coloring. You've just worked your way through a cardio version of coloring. You step away and love what you've accomplished.  Please, oh please, oh please oh please, do not use hairspray to seal your work. Colored pencil projects require a sealant coat to preserve the color and help bond the pigments to the paper. That’s what artist grade fixative does. It preserves the life of your artwork. There are some online who swear by hairspray. I am here to tell you that the only result you'll get with this spray is bouncy, beautiful windproof goddess locks. Trust me. Hairspray is NOT for art!

So, now that you've witnessed a few of my tried and trusted colored pencil tips, who's ready to celebrate? Join me on Saturday, July 13th as we ditch the markers and focus solely on the pencils. As you've just seen, dark paper adds drama and intensity to your coloring projects but if you've ever tried coloring on intense colored paper, you know how dull and dingy the colors can look. I'm here to help you make sure your colors stay crisp and true. It's more than just technique. It's matching your supplies and making sure they are up for the challenge. Keep in mind, this Power Poppy Live Stream lesson will work for black, navy, deep purple, pine green, chocolate brown and even some deep grays. 

Oh, did I hear you're not a fan of pencils? Well, I say why not give it a try! Improving your pencil technique will help your Copic coloring since these mediums together equal beautiful results.

Just click HERE  to learn all about the upcoming class, sign up and grab that supply list! All class participants receive 20% off the Cuppa Cupcake digital stamp!   Can't make the live class? No worries! This Cuppa Cupcake lesson will be available until December 2019!

Thanks so much for stopping by and joining me this Monday. Hope to see you for my colored pencil challenge a.k.a. my next Power Poppy Livestream class this coming Saturday!