Garden Dirt: Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher, a Swatch for Underpainting with Copic Marker

 

Green is bursting everywhere!

We're still a bit early in the season to have many flowers blooming here in my small corner of the world, but the green spouts and buds are out.

Tulips are one of my favorite flowers and I thought I'd force a few bulbs (artistically) for this segment of The Garden Dirt. Let's get ready to talk about green!

Hello, my name is Amy Shulke and I'm the illustrator and art instructor over at VanillaArts.com. Welcome to another edition of my color swatch series here at Power Poppy.

If you're new to my lessons, you're probably wondering why I'd name a beautiful flower coloring series after dirt. We want to think about pretty colors right? Certainly not dirt. But we're talking dirt because every garden needs dirt, it's the foundation for life. We need dirt for coloring too, dirty colors are the foundation for realism.

You can read more from my Garden Dirt series here.

Think about the parts of a flower...

Most people don't think deeply about flower anatomy. You've got a general idea about leaves, stems, petals, and the funny things in the center that the bees all like.

Close your eyes and picture your favorite flower. No cheating, don't go sneak a peek at one, let's just think about a flower you know really well... Now tell me about how the flower petals connect to the stem.

Hmmm. This is harder than you expected, right?

We're so used to thinking about the blossoms and leaves that we rarely think about the stems. When we do think about stems, they're just some random tube shapes coming from somewhere under the blossom.

Admit it. Right now, you're not really sure how flower petals connect to the stem. Most of you are thinking about silk flowers where you can pop the whole flower head right off the plastic stick.

Ahhhhhh, grasshopper-- you're missing the most astoundingly beautiful part of a flower!

Real flowers are not like silk flowers!

With silk flowers, you have a green plastic stem and pretty colorful petals glued on top.

But with real flowers, the petals grow out of the stem. With some flowers, it's actually hard to tell where the stem stops and the petal starts.

We all remember chlorophyll from elementary school science class, that's the stuff which makes leaves look green. And if you think about it, chlorophyll makes the stem green too.

But here's the cool part... chlorophyll doesn't just stop dead at the top of a stem.

If you look closely at the base of a petal, you'll see green chlorophyll climbing up from the stem into the flower petal. Look even closer and you'll see the pretty pink, yellow, or red color from the petal leaking down into the stem.

Colorful petals and green stems are connected; they're part of the same system. The color from one body part oozes into the next body part.

Which means that even on the most brilliantly colored blossoms, you'll see green seeping up on the underside of many petals.

That green blend is beautiful!

For more realistic flower petals, add green to your Copic Marker blending combination

I know this idea frightens you. Green blended with red makes blech! Green blended with yellow ruins the yellow. Green blended with orange makes vomit...

I know. I can see you getting squirmy in your seat. The laws of color mixing strictly prohibit mixing light red and green together.

Uh... what exactly is it that happens if you mix light red and green? Does it explode? Does fire rain from the sky? Plagues of frogs, locusts, or IRS agents?

Relax.

Nothing bad will happen if you add G43 to your pretty red blending combination.

I did it in my tulip project here and I'm still alive enough to tell you about it.

Go ahead and try it. Tell the cops that Amy said it was okay. You'll be fine.

It's pretty.

Very, very pretty. And isn't that why we color?

Let's color tulips together!

The tulips shown here are a small portion of Power Poppy's Tulips and Hobnail Pitcher digital stamp but my color recipe will work with any tulip image. Try it on the tulips in Springtime Love Roundel, Spring Border, or Love One Another. This recipe even works with other flowers.

I started by bringing the G43 from the stem up and into the base of each petal. Then I softened the G43 with a few flicks of G40. Then I continued on with R21 up to the middle of each petal and softened it with R00. I left the edge of each tulip as clean white paper. 

G43 to G40 to R21 to R00. Sounds weird, looks stunning!

And hey, we're coloring tulips over at Vanilla Arts this month. My Tulip Wreath project uses a very similar blending combination. Join us there for a little bit of advanced artistic coloring.

All Vanilla Workshop classes are immediate access. Work at your ow pace, color it as many times as you want!

Have fun adding green ink to all your blending combinations!

Happy Coloring!

Garden Dirt: Flowering Clover, a Swatch for Underpainting with Copic Marker

 

Need a quick bit o' luck?

Saint Patrick's Day is almost upon us.

Uh oh... so soon? Already? Wait, what month is it anyway?

If you're anything like me, you've totally lost track of days and months. Luckily, I've got a quick coloring project for you today, just in case you need to pop a card into the mail, pronto!

Hello, my name is Amy Shulke and I'm the illustrator and art instructor over at VanillaArts.com. Welcome to another edition of my color swatch series here at Power Poppy-- The Garden Dirt.

Are you wondering why I'd name a collection of beautiful color combinations after dirty ol' dirt? It's because in realistic coloring, we take pretty colors and cover them with other pretty colors to make muddy colors. The real color of shade and shadow is always a little yucky, a little muddy, and a little dirty.

You can read more from my Garden Dirt series here.

Sometimes I color for realism. Other times, I color for fun.

If you're a fan of Marcella's stamps and digis, you're pretty darned used to coloring leaves.

So even though shamrocks and clover are cute as the dickens, they're still... ho hum... sigh... just another green leaf using the same old green Copic Markers and colored pencils.

Unless we have a little fun with the underpaint.

Check out the shady spots on my green clover leaves here. See that funky shade color? What is that weird color?

Would you believe it's the same color as the clover blossom?

Pink under Green makes a shady green

I know it sounds weird but weird color is what we're after.

Last month I shared with you about layering green under pink. This month we're reversing the combo because this magic trick works both ways. Green and magenta sit opposite of each other on the color wheel and when opposites cross paths, the color get a little wild and funky. 

To color the Shamrock n' Roll digital stamp, I started with RV55 and layered two leafy green markers over the top. I have no idea what to call this new color. Gink? Preen? I don't know but it sure is fun to make.

And guess what?

This same marker combination can be used on several of Marcella's clover-ish shamrocky floral images. Try it on Clover and Pansies, Wish You Luck, Asters Abuzz, or the magnificent Lumious Bouquet with its oversized Japanese Peony blossom and clover.

Green, pink, gink, or preen, it comes out a little different every time. I color with gink and preen a lot. When I'm working with a pink blossom, it's really hard to resist the ginky temptation.

Try it, you might be a ginky kind a person too.

Let's color Flowering Clover together!

I've got a special treat for you today. 

Head on over to my site at VanillaArts.com to download the FREE Flowering Clover recipe guide. I've included a few photos of the process plus a couple of tips to help you make the most of this odd blending combination.

Download the FREE Flowering Clover recipe guide here.

And if you're looking for an online class to really explore pink and green, you're in luck!

My Verdant Spring class uses a similar color palette on Power Poppy's Bowl of Beauty digital stamp. We layer green under pink and then green over pink with beautiful results.

All Vanilla Workshop classes are immediate access. Work at your own pace, color it as many times as you want with no expiration date. 

Have fun playing with gink and preen! 

And I'll meet you back here next month with another colorful swatch of Garden Dirt.

Garden Dirt: Bleeding Hearts, a Swatch for Underpainting with Copic Marker

 

Let's color one more heart project!

I know Valentine's Day is technically over but honestly, I'd color heart shapes all year if students would let me.

Last month, I shared with you the Vital Rose digital stamp, colored with red Copic Markers and die-cut into a heart shape. This month, let's tackle hot pink and one of the sweetest species of flowers I've ever seen.

Hello, my name is Amy Shulke and I'm the illustrator and art instructor over at VanillaArts.com. Welcome to another article in my color swatch blending combination series here at Power Poppy-- The Garden Dirt.

Why dirt? I know it's not the most attractive name but that's what we do in realistic coloring. We take beautiful colors of Copic Marker and colored pencil and blend them together to make yucky, dirty colors. You can't grow flowers without a bit of dirt and you can't color realistic flowers without dirty color.

I've got a whole series of artistic coloring articles here at the Power Poppy blog. Here's a link to read more.

Bleeding Hearts are one of my favorite flowers!

Actually, at my house, we call them weeds.

My yard is tree covered and almost full shade everywhere; I can barely grow grass. For years, we had nothing but Hosta, random ferns, and scattered Lily of the Valley but then a little pinkish-greenish scrawny looking weed popped up, out of nowhere. 

If something's brave enough to try living in my near-night conditions, I'm certainly not going to tell it no, so I let the weird little guy grow a while. Eventually the stalk bent over and sprouted the cutest little heart shapes. 

BEST WEED EVER!!!!

When I found myself looking for something to color for this month's Dirt article, I thought of my beautiful little weeds and wondered if Marcella had ever drawn them.

I'm a digital stamp girl, so I isolated the Bleeding Hearts from the Spring Meadow Bouquet to share with you today. 

She also has a few Bleeding Hearts tucked into the Springtime Love Roundel stamp here. 

Today's swatch will work with either version.

Green under Red Violet makes a shady pink

Remember, realistic shady colors are not usually beauty contest winners.

Go ahead, look around you right now. Find something pretty on your desk or in the room beyond and really look at the color of the shady side. Surprised? The color of real shade is always a bit ugly. In art, we call shady colors "neutralized" or "desaturated". They're not the vibrant, gorgeous colors you see in traditional Copic Marker blending combinations.

Green sits opposite of magenta on the color wheel which makes the G marker family a natural choice to underpaint RV markers. I was shocked at how little green I needed to add murkiness to RV29. 

G02 was a bit strong, so I ended up using G00 but I really wish Copic made a G01.

In the Bleeding Hearts here, I added G00 where one heart overlaps another heart, where the stem inserts at the top, and down at the bottom where the heart cinches inward. Then I layered RV29, R35, and RV25 over the top of the green to complete the blend.

I printed my hearts large, the smallest heart is almost 1 inch wide. If you color a smaller version, you can skip the R35 in the blend.

Green under magenta sounds weird but it's what makes my Bleeding Hearts look rounded, layered, and pretty darned cute.

Let's color flowers together

I love coloring Power Poppy bouquets! Today's Bleeding Hearts project uses the same techniques I demonstrate in this class using Marcella's Bowl of Beauty stamp and in this class using Marcella's Daffodil Bouquet stamp. 

We use different blending combinations and colors in each class but we always underpaint for depth and dimension.

All Vanilla Workshop classes are immediate access. Work at your own pace, color it as many times as you want, with no expiration date. The techniques are great for any Power Poppy digital stamp.

Have fun experimenting with green under magenta and I'll meet you back here next month with another colorful bit of Garden Dirt.

Garden Dirt: Copic Marker Swatches for Power Poppy Stamps, Red Rose

 

Are you coloring hearts and flowers yet?

Yes, it's that time of year when our thoughts turn to roses, bouquets, and heart shaped boxes full of treats.

It's also the time when I pull out my red Copic Markers and colored pencils.

Valentine's Day is when Power Poppy stamps really shine! So many blossoms to choose from, perfect for declarations of love, devotion, or even simple friendship.

Hello, my name is Amy Shulke and I'm the illustrator and art instructor over at VanillaArts.com. Welcome to another article in my blending combination series here at Power Poppy-- The Garden Dirt.

Why dirt? I know, it sounds like gardening tips or gossip-- but really, it's about dirty color. I layer odd colors underneath bright and happy colors to make the murky, muddy colors necessary for realistic depth and dimension.

I've got a whole series of artistic coloring articles here at the Power Poppy Blog. Here's a quick link to read more.

I love red Copic Markers!

Not just for Valentine's Day; I'll take any excuse to pull out and play with my favorite colors.

I happen to really love red and turquoise color palettes. Red and blue-green sit opposite of each other on the color wheel which makes them "complementary". It's a yin-yang thing, red makes turquoise feel turquoisier and vice versa.

This same complementary relationship doesn't just work for color palettes, it also works for underpainting. Mixing red with turquoise sounds strange but together, they create the wonderful neutral color you'll see in the shady recesses of rose blossoms.

By the way, the image here is Power Poppy's Vital Rose digital stamp which I've printed nice and large, then die cut the fully colored rose into a crisp heart shape.

Power Poppy has several rose images available and many will work as a die-cut. I recommend the digital version so that you can size it precisely to fit your unique heart die.

But back to the color swatch here, I started with BG05, placing it into the shadiest, darkest crevices of the rose, then layered warm reds on top. The golden color isn't just on the petal undersides, you'll also see it kissing just the edges of each red petal.

Red over turquoise sounds yucky but wowzers! It makes for a gorgeous rose!

Let's color roses together!

Today's cut-heart rose project was the class sample from one of my online Marker Painting Workshops. Rosie Gets the Blues is a beginner's challenge level online class.

This class is available now with no wait. Work at your own pace, color it as many times as you want, no expiration.

Rosie Gets the Blues uses Power Poppy’s stunning Vital Rose digital stamp. We use a combination of Copic Markers plus Prismacolor Soft Core colored pencils to underpaint the red rose with gorgeous turquoise.

You can find out more about my Rosie Gets the Blues class here.

And I'll meet you back here on the blog next month with another colorful bit of Garden Dirt.

Garden Dirt: Merriest Berries, Copic Marker Swatches for Power Poppy Stamps

 

Deck the Halls with Copic Coloring!

Way back in 2017, I taught a little local Copic Marker and colored pencil class using Power Poppy's Merriest Berries stamp. 

I remember it fondly because the class fell smack-dab in the midst of the Christmas crazy time and everyone came to class completely frazzled. Who still has gifts to buy? Who really should be home baking right now? Who still doesn't even have their tree decorated?

Coloring can be very calming. While it won't decorate the tree for you, color can soothe your cares away.

So this month, when the tasks feel overwhelming, tell that creepy elf on the shelf to go bug someone else. 

Sit down and color for a while. You'll be glad you did!

By the way, my name is Amy Shulke and I'm the illustrator and art instructor over at VanillaArts.com. You can check out some of my previous articles on the Power Poppy blog here.

My specialty is hiding secret special colors underneath my Copic blending combinations in a process called Underpainting. This is how I create extra depth, dimension, and realism in my coloring projects and class samples.

Let's color festive & dimensional holly leaves!

Today I'm sharing that original version of Merriest Berries with you. Even though I colored it long ago, it's still a project that makes me smile.

You can find the Merriest Berries digital stamp in the Power Poppy shop here but don't over look all the other beautiful holly images Marcella has created. My Garden Dirt recipe can be used on any of them but if you're looking for a quick, last-minute Christmas project try the digital version of Hollyberries. It's sweet and simple!

Garden Dirt? Yep, that's how I think of the secret colors I use to make Power Poppy images really pop. It's the secret underpainting that you'd never know was there if I didn't share the secret here each month.

Under-painting and over-painting?

Hang on, this holly recipe is much easier than it sounds!

Now keep in mind, I always color dark to light. ALWAYS!

Start with Copic B34 and lay that color into your deepest holly zones. Any place that something overlaps a holly leaf or where the leaf is coming out of the cluster? Those are great candidate zones for the magic blue marker.

Then use YG67 to flick over the top of the blue, coming out slightly beyond. You're only 2 steps into the underpainting process and already you should be seeing two distinct greens. The blue under YG makes a deep and shady green. It's a shade of green Copic doesn't even make!

Then finish the blend with YG63 using it to smooth everything out.

Once dried, I kiss the points of each holly leaf with a bit of Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencil in PC1030 Raspberrry. This hint of deep red adds interest and complexity to an otherwise standard looking green leaf. Red draws your eyes and makes the leaves something special.

So that's the Garden Dirt for December:

• B34 as underpaint for YG greens
• Raspberry pencil as overpaint, decorating the edges

Together this four color blending combination will make your holly very festive!

Want to color Merriest Berries with me?

As I mentioned, I colored this image quite a while ago. I don't even have a recorded class version to share with you.

But I didn't want to leave you hanging without some help!

I've put together a super-helpful Merriest Berries coloring guide for Copic Marker at a beginner to intermediate level range. This booklet has an easy to follow recipe guide, a color map, the original photo references, plus lots of step by step info.

It's everything but the stamp... which you can instant download here.

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays too. 

I know it's standard and almost trite to wish each other peace and joy during this season... but this year? Boy, we really need it. I hope you have the best celebrations possible.

And I'll see you back here on the Power Poppy blog in January for another Garden Dirt color tip!

Garden Dirt: Copic Marker Swatches for Christmas Corgi

 

Dashing through the snow...

Well, it's a Corgi, so it's more like wiggle-butting through the snow. They're so darned cute but those wee legs just don't do much dashing through deep snowbanks.

I'm a dog person, so I just love the Corgi Christmas sets from Power Poppy.

Today, I've got an easy Copic Marker underpaint recipe for giving these fellows the kind of thick, dense fur that is so typical of spitz doggies.

Hello, my name is Amy Shulke and I'm the illustrator and art instructor over at VanillaArts.com. Welcome to another article in my blending combination series here at Power Poppy-- The Garden Dirt.

Why dirt? I know, it's weird to name anything after dirty old dirt. But that's exactly the point of this series. I layer odd colors underneath bright and happy colors to make the dirty, murky, or downright muddy colors necessary for realistic depth and dimension.

I've got a whole series of artistic coloring articles here at the Power Poppy Blog. Here's a quick link to read more.

Let's color a corgi!

Today, I'm showing you the Christmas Corgis digital stamp, one of several dog themed stamps from Marcella.

You can find the whole series of holiday Corgis here and this underpainting plus colored pencil technique will work for them all.

The secret to fur is to start by ignoring the fur.


I know this sounds strange but hear me out.

Underneath all that fur is a dog body. In the case of a Corgi, you've got a barrel body with short stocky legs. They've also got a bit of that junk-in-da-trunk thing going on.

It's not the fur that makes a Corgi look like a Corgi and not an Afghan Hound, it's the body!

For my blonde doggie here, I started with a gray Copic Marker. I used the gray to carve out the armpits, belly, under the chest, under the tail, under the chin, behind the ears... all the places that are shady.

Then I added the actual blonde marker colors over the gray. It's not the E33 that makes the shade look shady, it's the C1 underneath the brown. Real shade is desaturated and murky, E33 is much too clean.

So my Corgi started to look very Corgi-ish long before I added a single hair with colored pencil.

The gray underpaint sets the depth before we add the details.

Gray under brown is what pops the head forward from the neck. The hidden gray is what brings those short little legs out and towards us. Gray is the secret dirt, down under the fur making the dog look three-dimensional.

Don't be afraid to add a little dirt to your next doggie. It gives them life!

Want to color Power Poppy’s dogs with me?


Santa's Backup Plan is part of the my Marker Painting Workshops series of online classes for intermediate Copic colorers.


This class is available now with no wait. Work at your own pace, color it as many times as you want, no expiration.

Santa's Backup Plan uses Power Poppy’s beautiful Christmas Corgis digital stamp set. We use a combination of Copic Markers, and Prismacolor Soft Core colored pencils, with a splatter background of Distress Ink.

You can find out more about the Santa's Backup Plan online class here.

Garden Dirt: Copic Marker Swatches for Power Poppy Stamps, Pumpkins

It's pumpkin spice season!

Pumpkins and Pears is one of my all-time favorite stamps from Power Poppy.

Today, I've got an unusual underpaint recipe for coloring an heirloom ghost-pumpkin variety with both Copic Markers and Prismacolor colored pencils. 

Hello, my name is Amy Shulke and I’m the illustrator and art instructor at VanillaArts.com. Welcome to another edition of my blending combination series here at Power Poppy-- The Garden Dirt. 

Why dirt? Because underpainting is a method that relies on layering clean bright colors over the top of contrasting or complementary colors. We're making the dirty colors necessary for realistic looking depth and dimension.

I’ve got a whole series of artistic coloring articles here at the Power Poppy blog; here’s a quick link to a bunch of my previous articles.

Let's color a speckled pumpkin

Today I’m showing you a close-up of one lumpy, bumpy pumpkin. Yes, I was the strange kid who always picked out the misshapen, un-perfect pumpkins with weird tinges of green at the top or funky warts on the side. It drove my mother nuts! 

Marcella's Pumpkins & Pears stamp has three pumpkins to color but you can see that just this one fellow makes a really nice composition for a harvest card. It also wouldn't be hard to add a Jack o' Lantern face to it!

You can find other Power Poppy pumpkin stamps here. This recipe would work on any of them!

The secret to my dimensional pumpkin is the gray marker... and then a green pencil

Where’s the gray? Where's the green?

The gray marker is UNDER the red, orange, and yellow pencils in the deepest valleys between each lobe of the pumpkin. You can kinda see a bit of the gray peeking out up top near the stem but that same gray Copic marker runs all the way down each valley.

The gray desaturates the bright colored pencils, toning them down and making them shady.

Its dirty color and this dingy, slightly unappealing color is what our brains interpret as shade. If this pumpkin were bright orange, bright red, and bright yellow, it would look terribly flat.

Real shade is really dirty.

Then to amplify some of the deep crevices, I came back with a Kelp Green pencil. You can see a little bit of the green up by the stem too but where the green really kicks into overdrive is in the valleys at the very bottom of the pumpkin as well as behind the pears.

Green over red over orange over yellow over gray?

Yep. It sounds like madness but it looks amazing!

Underpainting and desaturated color takes a bit of getting used to. The technique feels weird at first and the color looks even weirder… let’s call realistic shade an acquired taste. 

But once you get used to the color of real shade, you start to see it everywhere, all around you! Your entire life, you’ve been surrounded by murky colors, you just never noticed them.

Don't be afraid to add a little dirt to your next project. It's fantastic!

Want to color Power Poppy’s “Pumpkins and Pears” with me? 

Silvered Pumpkins is part of the my Marker Painting Workshops series of online classes for intermediate to advanced Copic colorers. 

This class is available now with no wait. Work at your own pace, color it as many times as you want, no expiration.

Silvered Pumpkins uses Power Poppy’s beautiful Pumpkins and Pears digital stamp set.

We use a combination of Copic Markers, and Prismacolor Soft Core colored pencils, with accents and splatters of Finetec Metallic Watercolors for an antique mercury glass feel.

You can find out more about the Silvered Pumpkin online class here.

And I’ll see you back here next month for another fun color swatch!

Garden Dirt: Copic Marker Swatches for Power Poppy Stamps

Ready for a Citrus Punch?

Aloe and Oranges is a brand new digital stamp arriving this week at Power Poppy.

I’m here today with a bright, zesty, and totally unconventional Copic Marker blending combination to help you color it.

Hello, my name is Amy Shulke and I’m the illustrator and art instructor at VanillaArts.com. Welcome to my new feature series here at the blog; I’m calling this The Garden Dirt. 

Why dirt? We’ll get to that in a minute.

But first, I’ve got a whole series of artistic coloring articles here at the Power Poppy blog; here’s a quick link to a bunch of my previous articles.

Let's color an orange!

Today I’m showing you a close-up, tight shot of just one glorious orange. The entire Aloe and Oranges stamp has a lot more to color. This digital image will be available in the Power Poppy shop soon!

Confession time: I ate at least a half box of clementines during the week I worked on the full digital image. 

Fun fact: a trash can full of clementine peels makes your craft room smell divine!

I think this is the best orange in the digital stamp, it’s a juicy cut cross-section showing off the cute orange segments. It's perfect for fun texture details. I’ve colored the orange with a combination of Copic Markers and Prismacolor Premier Pencils.

So why would I name my color swatches after yucky dirty dirt?

Take a closer look. This isn’t just any old Copic color swatch.

In my freelance illustration work, I use a shading technique called Underpainting. I teach Copic Marker classes using this same technique. Instead of using a light, medium, and dark orange marker to color oranges or clementines, I deliberately throw in a clashing color to create a more realistic shade color.

The secret to my very dimensional orange rind is the green marker.

Where’s the green?

It’s UNDER the orange. That’s why we call this method underpainting. We’re using green to create the muddy, neutralized shade color that you’ll see on real oranges in real life.

Garden Dirt? Yep, we’re making dirty color!

Now to make this swatch work, you need to work dark to light. 

I know, I do everything backwards!

Start by adding YG63 with very light strokes to the shadiest areas of the orange rind. Don’t press too hard; you don’t need a lot of green to make this work. We want a little mud, not a swampy mess!

Then go over the YG63 with YR68, hiding the green completely. Let your orange strokes come out beyond the green strikes to create 2 colors— a dirty orange and a clean orange. Remember, no green is left uncoated! No-one should ever know it’s there. The rest of the world will think you used an ugly brick colored marker.

Now blend with the Y38 and Y35 just as you normally would.

Underpainting takes a bit of getting used to. The technique feels weird at first and the color looks even weirder… let’s call realistic shade an acquired taste. 

The funny thing is that once you get used to the color of real shade, you start to see it everywhere, all around you! Your entire life, you’ve been surrounded by murky colors, you just never noticed them.

Want to color Power Poppy’s “Aloe and Oranges” with me? 

Citrus Punch is part of the my Marker Painting Workshops series of online classes for intermediate to advanced Copic colorers. We broadcast the class live to show you real coloring in real time. I also take questions from the student audience. After the broadcast, you can watch and rewatch the class as many times as you want.

Can’t make the live session? No problem! We record and lightly edit every class. Purchase recorded Workshops at your convenience and enjoy anytime access.

Citrus Punch uses Power Poppy’s beautiful Aloe and Oranges digital stamp set.

You can find out more about Marker Painting Workshops here.

And I’ll see you back here next month for another fun color swatch!

Fresh-Squeezed Scents Mini Digital Release - Healing Bouquet

Welcome back, everybody — and thank you for stopping by for the second day of our mini release of two digital downloads. I hope that these images will bring a sense of happiness and peace to your crafting experience. I know that dreaming them up and drawing them did that very thing for my wellbeing. It seems we could all use some healing, you know what I mean?

Presenting: Healing Bouquet | Digital Download

Healing Bouquet is a digital download, with gentle vibes of good health for yourself and others.

A calming combination of florals and fruit that promote healing vibes and serenity, the ideal image to color as a balm for our times. I’ve intertwined a Lotus blossom, symbol of peace and tranquility, with Lavender, the storied scent of purity, grace, and calm. A lively Lemon, with its precious healing qualities and vitamin C, is tucked in among leaves of purifying, scented Eucalyptus. Elderberries, known to tame stress and inflammation, punctuate the bouquet with pops of purple. Enjoy coloring this one, the yellows and violets (complementary on the color wheel) are calming by their very nature! Includes two sentiments to promote peace and healing.

DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY HERE

Lavender with honeybee, photo by Lulu Hawley

Let’s see some wonderful, imaginative cardmaking, shall we?

Allison Cope

Barbara Campbell

Broni Holcombe

Catherine Anderson

Cheryl Scrivens » Oh joy! She is back!

Christine Okken

Gloria Stengel

Jenny Colacicco

Julie Koerber

Leslie Miller

Lisa Johansen

Sathya Kala Sankaran

Stacy Morgan

I sure hope you’ve enjoyed this two-day mini release. It’s been a thrill to get back into the swing of things. I have lots more images coming in both digital and clear polymer, along with a brand new class with Kit & Clowder for September ... stay tuned!

SHOP HEALING BOUQUET

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New Coloring Class from Vanilla Arts

Get an intensive coloring lesson using Aloe and Oranges that launches tomorrow, Sat. Aug 29. Check out Amy Shulke | Vanilla Arts’ Citrus Punch class for markers and colored pencils. Gain incredible skills and rule over your craft table with ease!