Christmas Crab Coloring

Christmas Crab Coloring

A super quick post to wish  you a Merry Christmas – with a little crabby art included!

Tutorial: Christmas Cute Crab Coloring

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!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

Coloring book by Amy Grainger: Animals, Mammals and Fish

Ohuhu 48 marker set 

Have a merry Christmas…see you in 2025!

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Complex Christmas scene shading – in alcohol markers

Complex Christmas scene shading – in alcohol markers

Personal story

 

Tutorial: Complex Christmas scene shading 

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!

SUPPLIES

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

COLORING BOOK

MARKERS

PENS

  1. Copic Acrea Paint Markers 
  2. Uniball Signo White Gel Pen UM153 BLICK |  AMZ |  JACKSONS

Shading first

Creating all the shadows can come easily if you think of the warm fire – the closer you stand to the flames the hotter you are and the more light shines on you. Your front side is warm and bright,  but your backside is chilly, right? Follow that principle around the room and the shading should start to get obvious. With practice, of course!

Add color

Once that basic shading is done, just adding color flatly onto objects is the easy part! No extra blending is needed for this, though you could select some objects for extra TLC.

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About the Ohuhu markers

Quite a while ago I did a first look at this brand and didn’t like them much. The color system is insane, the naming convention makes no sense, cap colors don’t match….these are dealbreakers for me. I’m not one to judge anything SOLELY on its price – especially with art supplies, they have to be usable. So I didn’t recommend them. And oh did folks get mad.

(It’s one reason why I rarely publicly review anything I do not like; people don’t like hearing that someone doesn’t like the thing they like. And I don’t like getting mean comments.)

I made a quick hex chart with them though, because I still care about the people using products I don’t like – if I had the set in the studio, I would use it to help others. So I did that, then gave away that set of markers to a school, and figured I was done with them.

But since they’re “back,” I figured I’d explain how that happened.

First, an artist friend forwarded me a set of 48 Ohuhus that she had received from a partner she works with. She didn’t like them one bit (doesn’t like alcohol markers) and thought she’d delight me with a surprise package. I was of course sweet about it and thanked her but thought, dang, I thought I was done with these. ha! I created one video using them, and a tiny class, as my offering of gratitude to my friend. And THAT was to be the end.

Until, well, a local artist friend and I had lunch. We were talking about supplies, and she didn’t know a thing about alcohol markers and wanted me to ‘splain. So I did. Even mentioned there are a lot of companies now using the same Chinese markers under different brand names, and she’d seen Ohuhu on Amazon. I recommended she not get those, that I’d lend her some Copics and Olos to try out if she wanted to get into them.

We talked a bit about hex charts too – and I told her I was thinking about making some combo hex charts with two brands on them. I was considering doing that with Olo. And she asked why not the Ohuhu? And….I explained I was not about to drop hundreds of dollars on markers I didn’t like just for a chart, LOL. 

A little time went by and we had lunch again. At which she showed up with…..a full set of Ohuhu Honolulu markers.

“What are you doing with those?”

“Oh I’m lending them to  you,” she said with a grin.

“You’re what?”

“You wanted to make a combo chart. I wanted to play with markers. So you get first dibs to make a combo chart, then I get to learn to draw with these.”

“But I wanted to do that with OLO markers, not Ohuhu.”

Okay, they both start with O. She was a little mortified about misunderstanding – but in all honesty, she wasn’t familiar with any of them. So….I accepted her offer to lend me the pens, which turned into the combo hex chart. 

She was then a sounding board for me when I fully freaked out over someone posting the Ohuhu chart all across facebook for the whole world to download for free. (GAH) As I worked through getting it taken down all over, I also started looking at the posts in these groups, answering art questions for them….and my friend suggested a coloring book class for these folks. 

So she lent me the pens. Again.

I swear these pens are stalking me.

But….I just finished prepping all the lessons for the Coloring Book Basics+ class, and am tickled that I can now return them PERMANENTLY this time to their rightful owner. And I hope I didn’t use up any of her fave colors, ha!

So below you’ll find the regular hex chart, combo hex chart, Warm & Cozy class, and Coloring book class, and I hope this is all. You can always complete any alcohol marker course in any brand – but I want to get back to Olos – I have a fun project to work on coming up in the new year!

Peek inside a class!

Peek inside a class!

Ohhhhh goodness what a week it has been! busy month as well…since we’ve been planning a large event at my church. One part of it, my part, is teaching some watercolor—so I’ve been busy planning the project, working out the supplies and ordering it all, managing how I’ll do my presentation with talking and painting at once (more on that in a minute!) and as of this week, setting up. Yeesh! I could have done without any work to get done aside from this volunteer project, but….that wasn’t to be.

I wanted to do something different for today’s video but…..with the time i had left this week, that just wasn’t possible. I attempted it, but needed more time for research and ‘mulling” before something was going to come of my idea. So I decided I’d turn the extra work I did for the new Imaginary Creatures class into a video and share a tip or two from class with you – and invite you to join me for the course!

Tutorial: Peek inside class

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!

Today’s teaching…..comin’ up!

The tables are filled with other supplies than mine; we’ll have someone teaching how to make fancy mocktails, someone else a charcuterie board, and someone else scones! It’s a hospitality theme. And then….ME! Gah. Me and some watercoloring a Bible journaling page. 

The project is an easy one, but I only have 45 minutes to talk about what Bible journaling is, how to paint it, give them time to paint it, and explain trimming it out and gluing it as a tip-in. Yeeep! I tried writing down all my remarks to see how long just talking through it would take – I was over an hour. I edited ruthlessly. Got it to 45 minutes but with no painting time. We planned originally on having me live on stage with a camera on my hands – and I KNEW there was no way I was going to keep pace talking while also painting!

So this week I shot videos for each step, and I hope that me introducing the videos won’t be too weird/awkward without painting it – but the videos do explain it well, and guess what?

NOTE: I’ll be turning this and the pages for a followup series of four weeks at the  meetup I’m hosting into a little class, too! Why not since I have all this video?  Keep an eye out for it soon!

And wish me luck – we’ll kick the event off about 6 hours from when this post goes live, and I’ll be so happy to be on the other side of it. Ha!

Imaginary Creatures

The one-pager for Imaginary Creatures is doable – but for my old and failing eyeballs, tough! In the class I teach each lesson on images about twice the size of those on this sheet, and in Olo markers. But you have lots of options: either size image, a blank template for  you to draw the shapes along with me in the lesson, or print the one with sketches and use that for a guideline. Make it as easy or challenging as you’re ready for!

Pssst there’s a colored pencil version too, that came out in 2021!

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And a little fun

My friend Alyse and I sketched together last weekend. And we drew in each others sketchbooks. Which one do you think is mine? 🙂

I’ll have my brain back next week!

I just need some rest! 🙂

Supplies

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

  1. Copic Markers 
  2. Copic Hex Chart 
  3. Neenah Cardstock, Solar White 250pk 
  4. Olo markers Use coupon code “sandy” if asked!
  5. Olo marker hex chart 
  6. White gel pen
    1. White Signo Uni-ball Gel Pen:  AMZ – BLICK
  7. Black alcohol-marker friendly pen:
    1. Copic Multiliner
    2. Copic Multiliner SP

Copic Feathering Techniques (Disco Chicken part 1)

Copic Feathering Techniques (Disco Chicken part 1)

Oh, the crazy things my art makes me do. 🙂  BRACE FOR SILLINESS. As well as learning.

A little behind the scenes: I almost always have chickens/roosters on the brain. I collected anything with chickens on them for a long time (De Colores! iykyk!) Last year this time, I was in the middle of a giant PURGE and renovation of my home and got rid of a lot of chickens. But….I still have a lot. And when a chicken related holiday crops up….I gotta do SOMEthing.

Thus I bring you….Dance Like A Chicken Day. Today!

 

National Dance Like a Chicken Day is celebrated on May 14, and encourages people to dance like chickens. The holiday has been celebrated since the 1970s as an alternative to May Day. It’s a day to express oneself by flapping wings and strutting around like chickens. 

 

-some guy on the internet

Tutorial: Copic Feathering (Disco Chicken part 1)

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!

When you don’t need feathering

If adding a lot of texture, say on the comb of the rooster or some detailed feathers, blending doesn’t matter. It’s underneath all that detail and isn’t required to be “beautiful” blending. It’ll give an overall feeling of transition from light to dark, but the line work covers it.

Also note that my coloring isn’t “perfect” when your nose is right up against the paper. Or, er, the jpg. Maybe there are some people who strive for that and achieve it, but I find it overrated! Step back from your work and look at it as if someone else made it. I guarantee you’re doing better than your close-staring will tell you.

APOLOGIES!

If you came by last weekend and my blog had blown up – please feel free to go back and check out the sweet kitties now. All is fixed, as you can see…..I tell ya, I’m tired of html kicking my butt!

Long vs short runways of feathering

The shorter the space that you’re filling, the harder it’ll be to create a soft, feathered edge, whether in one marker hue or multiples. It’s just too tiny a space to expect perfection! 

But in long feathers, you’ve got a lonnnnng runway to get from a marker’s darkest value to taking off like a plane into the atmosphere. It doesn’t mean you can slow down, especially with a juicy marker—a nice consistent, speedy motion will give you the best results but it takes practice!

It’s all about value

Looking at where the chicken ended up—excuse me, the rooster-—you can see the value differences that give him dimension. I had in my head where that disco light or spotlight will be cast on him, and I did opt to go lighter, just so I have “room” to get darker if needed when adding the background.

By the way, he practiced a LONG TIME on that toe-point. Roosters can’t normally bend their feet like that, so, ya know…

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“What good is this if I don’t draw?”

Well for one, you clicked on this post or video. And if you showed enough interest to click to see what’s going on and how the magic happened, well, you could get here. I don’t know your current level of experience, but I promise you can do so much more than you think you already can.

And secondly, you can apply this in much simpler coloring projects! If you’re coloring a bird that has no detail drawn into the outline, you can add a few feathers. Even a hint at them is better than a blobby shape that doesn’t look like a bird!

You can also use feathering to blend colors in anything! Remember to match the value of the two colors: if you’re blending a midtone yellow and midtone purple, it’ll be easier than blending colors with vast value (dark/light) differences!  Light, pale colors are easier when you’re starting out – and more practiced colorists can learn a lot from blending strong colors into each other.

Send me good wishes!

I’m elbow deep in studying my disco ball and figuring out how to render it realistically. Come back Saturday to see if I did it! Also – pop into the Zoom Open Studio at Artventure….log in and go to the events tab to see what time it’ll be in your zone.

Supplies

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

  1. Copic Markers – https://bit.ly/31g1FYN
  2. Copic Hex Chart – https://bit.ly/3rq3AEX
  3. Neenah Cardstock, Solar White; I found a 12″x18″ pack of the 110lb at my local Kelly Paper but it’s the same as this smaller size that’s more affordable/available
    My normal fave paper is the 80# Neenah

Alcohol Marker Comparison Part 2: Unique colors + Human Rainbow

Alcohol Marker Comparison Part 2: Unique colors + Human Rainbow

I promised you I’d tell you about the unique colors in Sketchmarker and Olo, as well as my overall assessment of the three brands….and this is the day. But I’m SUPER excited to also have a new Human Rainbow class ready – scroll on to see more of that, and in the video you’ll see a little peek inside class!

The art demo in this video, in addition to lots of color tests I’ll explain, is this picture of these birds – if you’ve taken the Whimsical Sketching class you might recognize these cuties! I scanned my original and printed it out smaller.

 

Tutorial: Alcohol Marker comparison: Unique Colors + Human Rainbow

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!

Unique colors

I gathered up the colors that were not included in my conversion charts for Sketchmarker and Olo – these colors may still be close to a Copic color, but when I did the assessment I found a color that’s a better match to that color, so that’s why some colors you may recognize are here. But I’ve noted a few colors I find particularly interesting to a Copic user:

Greens

I wish I’d done this little exercise before the previous video – it really would have helped me out! ha. Better late than never though. You can see here the progression of colors – in Copic it shows the relatively regular steps toward desaturation; in Sketchmarker it shows….well, that they call YG green, and they call BG green, and BG is blue gray, and the numbers…well yeah. I’m lost, but it’s not necessary for the numbering systems to make complete sense, it just helps!

The number system for Olo generally-ish seems to jive with Copic’s; they place a dot (.) between the digits, which helps to separate them – because each digit means something different, just like with Copic. Great idea to help us remember that fact.

Grays, grays, and more grays

I’ve always said for the majority of folks, some warm and cool grays are plenty….though some of these new ones are interesting!

Pinks and purples

For those who love these colors, you might be especially excited here! Note that this is marker paper, which shows color more dull-ly than a nice bright cardstock. 

Browns for flesh, hair, animals

I wanted to see how much each brand is “weighted” in their browns, and this was the one way I could figure out how to depict that for myself. What it shows me is there are few light tones in Olo, wayyy lots in Sketchmarker. And for my own liking, since I love my dark colors, I wish everyone had more darks in all the columns (reddish, yellowish, greenish and purplish).

The Human Rainbow!

The browns were a big part of choosing colors for the new course – I’m SO PROUD of Human Rainbow II. The last time I created a class with people drawings in it, they were embarrassingly bad to me given my current skill level – and rather than being down on myself for HRI, I’m just ECSTATIC that I’ve made progress that’s truly visible! My Life Drawing Group as well as a lot of pen and ink practice has really grown me. So even if no one takes this class, I’m still going to puff out my chest a little bit and cheer for me!

But if you WOULD like to take this class, well, I hope you love it as much as me! It comes with the printable images ($30 value, included in the price). You could also purchase just the images and color them without the class. If you do that and change your mind later about class, just email me and I’ll invoice you just for the class fee minus what you paid for the images. All the printables are here.

I’m pooped!

Do you ever bite off more than you can chew, artistically? Does it drain you like the past few weeks/months have done to me? Man, oh man, I even made myself sick! (Might have been norovirus by my symptoms…but they went away as soon as I had everything prepped for today, so I’m thinking it was stress!)

I’m hoping to now return to my more chill artistic self and let go of some of the testing I’ve been inundated with. What would you like to see me playing with next? Either a medium or a subject, lmk if you have a challenge or an idea!

Supplies

Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art

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