Today’s video is a little more vloggy than art-y, but I think you’ll find it interesting! A few weeks ago while the leaves were still pretty and we had a sunny day, I filmed driving around town. Pardon the dirty windshield, yikes!

Tutorial: 2 things and a Mom rant – fall leaves, wishlists, and a new chart

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Wishlist updates

It works again! My technical prowess is crowing, and I won’t bore you with that, but….

I will tell you to update your wishlist to save yourself some moolah! I can now “see” the most wishlisted items, which means the top ones will make it into the Black Friday sale with a deeper discount. 

Go ahead and rig this vote – get your friends to update theirs and add YOUR fave to their list – and you do the same. Maybe you’ll get your most wanted course on a deal!

I’ll be using that list more often in the future for sales too, so…..keep up on your wishlist!

Do you even need this insane chart?

To be honest, I don’t know. I’m perhaps too close to it to give you an honest answer. 

If you’re someone who’s got BOTH sets, or most of them, and you’ve got the means to purchase the chart, I’d love for a few of you to test it out and give me your honest opinion. Would you actually reference it beyond trying to find a color to use when following a tutorial every two months? Is it more or less helpful in finding colors for day to day art? Do you even use both brands at the same time?

If Mom really is proven right and this chart is helpful, I’ll make some others too. I want to do Olo/Copic, as well as some pencil brands. I’m hoping Santa brings me a full set of Pablos, but I’m not sure if inflation has cut his budget for my gifts or not, LOL! 

Anyhoooooo – know that this chart is here, and I’ll do more of a video with it in a few weeks after getting some feedback, likely in December after I get back from Mom’s burial. And if I get no feedback and nobody bought it, well I’ll report that! 

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Sometimes while I’m working on my art, things come up that change the plan – and this is one of them. I had started off just working on ideas for the inktober prompt today, which happens to be “Camp.” I got out a Copic SP Multiliner brush pen and some marker paper – a fun surface and pen to create a large drawing with big and varied lines….and got started.

Partway through the process of the first drawing, an idea for a second came up. I almost abandoned the first to chase the second, but decided no, stick with it, there’s time for another once I get this done. (Anyone else suffer from this!?!?) And, well, watch the video and hear how that went!

Tutorial: Warm & Cozy Art (Ohuhu 48 marker set)

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Pair that with having received a surprise Ohuhu package forwarded from a fellow artist – she’s a pencil person but somehow had been sent a pack of markers. She doesn’t like them….but she thought of me. She didn’t know I’d had the full set and gave it away since I didn’t really like them. But I’m SO thankful she had me in mind (who doesn’t like having friends like that??)  – and decided if the Ohuhu were making their way back to me again, maybe I should do something with them. 

The owl

I loved this little guy – a simple image with fun parts to color – eyes, scarf, lighting around the lantern. I even had a backstory in my head for his wing positioning! I could “see” this in a night scene, and knew I would create that even if just for myself later….

Girl with firewood

This drawing is the second one – that came into my brain while the first was being created by my hands, and oh does it get hard to draw while that happens! But once I colored up the owl, I dove in on this one and colored HER too. But again, she was going to need a night scene, that’s how I “saw” her in my head.

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And then….ArtBot intervened!

While working on the second drawing, my little AI ArtBot (now gone) had a conversation with a potential student. 

Artist: I’ve taken Alcohol Marker Jumpstart and want to sign up for some scene classes in Level 3. Are there Level 2 classes that will help me get my skills to that level?

ArtBot: When you are learning, it’s best to build your skills step by step. Classes here are assigned a level, so after finishing level one, try a level 2 course. You can read more about them here. https://art-classes.com/alcohol-marker-classes-2/

Artist: I know that. I’ve looked. Those don’t seem to be growing my skills to make scenes. Do you have other recommendations?

ArtBot: Please rephrase the question to provide more information regarding your inquiry so I better understand what you require.

It went on like that for some time, and I had to email the student and have a sane conversation! Gosh did AI prove itself TERRIBLE at answering art questions! (It has since been deleted from the site; it was at times an interesting or hilarious diversion, but was more of an annoyance than anything!)

But ArtBot gave us a new class!

The short experiment with a chatbot DID was show me some questions people have that are not well explained on the website. And that I need to find more quick or friendly ways to invite those questions – more on that as I work on it this week.

And that student’s question got me to LOOK at the level 2 classes and realize that she was correct. There’s no logical get-you-from-starting-coloring-to-making-scenes track. 

That’s now solved, at least partly!

The new Warm & Cozy Wishes class teaches:

1. coloring both of these drawings large size, real time
2. coloring them small with scenes that only require the ability to draw rectangles

What else you get:

1. The two printable images are free inside the class, as their separate jpgs to be sized as desired, but also in PDF format at size
2. An hour of realtime video taught in the Ohuhu markers, with a little treasure–color numbers are on the screen.
3. Sentiments for inside and outside to print out, trim, and finish the cards.

So thank you, ArtBot.

I didn’t like you much. I don’t like AI around art. You got a bunch of questions about art DEAD wrong all week, even with great answers to SOME questions.

But you did teach me a little something that I hadn’t learned without you, so I’m still grateful for our short time together.

But bye, Felicia. 

First let me say a hearfelt thank you for all your kind thoughts and prayers in light of my mother’s passing. I am truly humbled and overwhelmed by all the love. Bless you all.

In my quest to spruce up one of my oldest courses, I found something fun! In one lesson on shading, we color a swatch practice sheet of a graphic similar to this….but I really wanted to see it as a card. So now it is!

Tutorial: Color a Rainbow Candy Hexagon

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Want to color one?

Three ways….

1. If you’re already a student in the class, just log in and scroll to the final bonus lesson, and you’ll find it there. 
2. If you aren’t a student, how about signing up? It’s on sale!
3. And if you’re not a marker user and would like to color this up in pencils or another medium, you can pick one up here!

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Winners of classes!

Random.org helped me pick winners – it took me time to go make sure everyone did all the things….but let’s see who was selected!

First: four winners of one of these two courses! Email and let me know which of the two courses below you’d like and I’ll add it to  your account!

1. Bettina Kelson
2. Janet Trapp
3. Lucinda Hughes
4. Karen Bean

If you didn’t win, I have good news for you too – I extended the sale price. So if you were waiting to see if you won first, you didn’t miss out on the discount. 🙂

Winner of OLO gift certificate!

Drumroll please….the winner is lisa.newman.560 !!! Please email me and I’ll connect you with the good people at Olo. 🙂

This month at Artventure

If you haven’t joined Artventure, what’s holding you back? This month I’ll be creating some art in alcohol markers that won’t be elsewhere. Some stamped, some sketched, who knows what’s comin. Might use some other mediums, depending on what the daily prompts below inspires. Pop in, share your work, cheer on others. Let’s build some community!

Snacks, anyone?

This is an older pic of me – I lost my sunglasses (prescription!) and  haven’t been able to justify paying for another pair since then. But – the ice cream is the important thing here!

I created a new page on Art-Classes for ARTVENTURE SNACKS! A number of you just aren’t game for joining our community (you’re missing out!)….but I don’t want you to miss out on the learning TOO. So I’ve made copies of some of the courses on Artventure over at Art-classes. That means you can try out a very small/short/inexpensive snack of a course, to see if that shows you a bigger course is calling your name too! Head over to the snacks page!

 (It’s in the menu bar, but you can also click on the link in the purple bar at the bottom.)

Supplies

1. Sandy’s Olo Marker Set 
2. Neenah Solar White 
3. ATG Tape gun 
4. ATG Tape roll refills 

Today’s quick little video will show how to deal with replenishing inks in markers – at least the 2 brands I have here in the studio. There are some pros and cons I’ll list out later in the post.

Ever wonder what the inside of an alcohol marker looks like? Olo sent me this “demonstrator marker” with my set of replacement inks (I kinda used up all my ink in all my coloring for months now!)….see the video to see that pretty purple ink slosh around!  I have some clear fountain pens and have often wondered why nobody makes clear markers. I’d love to know how much ink is still in there.

Tutorial: Replenishing inks in alcohol markers

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Olo replenishing: pros and cons

Pros: 

1. Super easy to do – take off the cap of the replacement body, move the nib, done.
2. Much less expensive per ounce.
3. Not in the least messy as long as you use tweezers. They can be regular ones not my grippy ones with teeth, but the teeth work great.

Cons:

1. Pens run out of color without warning; no bottle of ink means I can’t finish a project unless I keep a replacement on hand.
2. Numbers are listed on the cap and the body but there’s no color indication to grab one fast.
3. I need to work out a storage system to figure out which replacements I have and which I need.

Copic replenishing: pros and cons

Pros:

1. Bottles kept on hand make refilling mid-project a breeze.
2. Caps have the color so you know what you’ve got.
3. For those who use the weight method, the pens can be “perfectly” filled vs my crazy guessing method.

Cons:

1. More expensive per ounce.
2. New bottles are hard to squeeze.
3. Bigger items to store, unlike Olo.

Demo drawing

While I was DYING to get out other colors to do some color adjusting, I stuck with a BG blending group for a quick sketch. You can hardly tell the difference. Color match is near perfect; Olo is just a little more pigmented so watching how much is used can make both matches work well. 

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The two newest courses

Though demonstrated in Olo, it’s very easy to follow in other brands; I didn’t use any color numbers as I said which marker to choose, just “select the midtone bluegreen” so you can just adapt that to your own brand! Tap on either class for more info.

Upcoming events

This Saturday, we’re having a zoom call – and its free! Bring some summer themed artwork to work on, get out your Hawaiian shirt finery, a drink with an umbrella….let’s cheer me up!

And through September I’ll be working on alcohol marker pieces throughout the month at Artventure. A little on YouTube but more in the background, answering questions, demonstrating things. Let’s color together!

Supplies

1. Copic Tweezers Blick – AMZ 
2. My Olo marker set 

It’s still World Watercolor month….but I won’t be painting today! Instead, I’ll show you a cool technique for coloring water. Get it? Coloring water during World Watercolor month? 🙂 It’ll be on Yupo paper!

Tutorial: How to draw reflective water

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Process

Cover the surface with reinker color (Copic B16), adding a little isopropyl alcohol for texture using a cotton ball while the ink is still wet. (If using direct markers, scribble a bunch then before it dries, move it with the cotton.)

OPTIONAL: darken some areas with a marker and negative drawing (Copic B18). Leave light areas where you’d like to add the white reflections.

Add thin lines as desired with a gel pen, and use gouache for thicker spots. Then soften the edges of the white with a baby wipe!

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Want to learn more?

This month it’s World Watercolor Month. If you’re a painter there are MANY options for you to get a deal, because all watercolor classes are covered by this month’s discount code. AND if not a painter, there are some courses for you too – scroll to the bottom of the page. There’s some underwater fun there! Tap to get the code and see the options.

Could you help?

It’s awkward asking, but….I need to. This year is again brutal for artists like myself; I just did some calculations this week and saw just how much expenses have skyrocketed in the first half of this year compared to last. Two huge things that have hit me are my affiliate links, which has dropped to about 1/10th of what it usually is because Shareasale no longer tracks your purchases properly; only a few payments come through. And the other is the cost of the website which has shot up by $3000 more than the first half of last year. It is bonkers! 

I know it’s a tough time for everyone, I get that! But I bet you have a friend who’d like to learn some art who hasn’t been tapped out yet. Maybe share on your social media. Post your own homework from a class and tell people what you learned and how art helps you.

People LOVE a recommendation. Could you share the link to art-classes with them? If everyone encouraged one friend to invest in themselves and learn something, I would breathe a lot easier. 

Supplies

1. Copic Markers 
   1. Copic Hex Chart 
   2. Copic marker refill B16
   3. Copic sketch marker B18
2. Olo markers 
   1. Olo marker hex chart
3. Yupo paper, medium weight: Amazon  \ Blick 
4. White mediums:
   1. White Signo Uni-ball Gel Pen  Amazon \ Blick
   2. Daniel smith Titanium White gouache