I’m in overwhelm mode – so this post is the bare minimum! The video has the info, links are below that 🙂

Video: Alcohol marker nature journaling | Copic & Ohuhu

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!

Treemendous Sketches class

Sign up now for a nice big discount through Thursday! Class opens Friday. Tap the image for more info.

Color Mixing Sheet

Try out your own color combos – see how they layer! Tap the image for more info.

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Leaf Circle

New printable alert! Tap the image to go purchase 🙂

This is part 2 of my last Warm & Cozy post – and fleshes out the idea I originally had when drawing this young lady gathering firewood….I saw her in my mind’s eye at night, bringing firewood to throw on a bonfire. 

Tutorial: Warm & Cozy Art (OLO 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!

Are these the colors in my curated OLO set?

There aren’t enough darks in my own set of Olo Markers – but if you have some blacks and greys, my set will work perfectly with those additions! Any reds and yellows can accomplish a drawing like this – but I didn’t include those neutrals in my set when I selected them. 

Drawing fire

A few years ago I had a revelation – I realized I had been drawing fire completely backwards my whole life! I had created the interior hot portion of a flame in reds and transitioned to oranges and yellows then whites as I worked my way out. That must be something done in children’s books to have convinced me that’s what fire looks like. (Can you look through your collections of kids books? Is my theory right?)

I do know that continued through my crafting life – we almost all colored it backwards. Red in the middle and lighter as it got to the edges. 

But in reality, most of the flame is white, and in a bonfire like this, some of the flames bounce around in licks of yellows, oranges, and sometimes edges of oranges and reds before it goes black in the background.

Red firelight at night

When I’ve got a unique lighting situation I want to render, I start with research – I did look around while at my sister’s house around her fire pit at the way everyone was lit. Or not lit. 

But “remembering” what I saw wasn’t enough. I got onto the googles to see if I could find the “right” kind of lighting I was imagining, something that indicated the feeling of the heat in the winter time. Several were absolutely RED! And I mean red for half the face, and everything else went black into silhouette. 

I decided to just use a mix of reds and oranges to make that happen, with more of the darks on the side of the fire that’s further away from the heat, leaving a bit more seen by the viewer. 

Dark trees in the background

I wanted to create a simple background, just indications of something behind where she’s walking from. I decided on the same kinds of trees in the new class but with more dark in them. That led to trying out the RGs (red grays) in the OLO marker line. They’re a little redder than the warm greys. I liked having those darks around the fire to help define the curled edges and shapes with negative drawing. But something seemed not quite right.

Red gravel in the foreground

The ground around the fire definitely needed to be red – lighter near the fire, darker as it stretched out, and more desaturated too. This was a quick sketch (the 12 or so minutes plus a few marker-switching moments) so I didn’t get into massive detail, but did get out that Copic SP Brush Marker to make some ground squiggles to indicate rocks. 

A wee bit more red

The trees, well, they looked too close to the fire! I considered blacking them out entirely, but still liked having something going on back there – so added the dark red instead. It pushed them back a bit, and since I’mjust making up the girl’s bonfire story anyway, I’m going to imagine buckets of water and lots of friends to help if anything catches fire. Ha! All that red really did make the fire just completely light UP!

Girl with firewood

In class, we’ll color her up small for a card, and create a similar but simpler background behind her. And she gets a toasty warm cabin to walk into!

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Warm & Cozy Wishes class

You can read the backstory on how the class came about here.

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.

Glad that’s out of my head now!

Do you ever get an idea that just HAS to be put on paper before you can rest? Yep, that’s this bonfire. For now just a quick sketch worked to get it out of my system. Who knows if it’ll be back or not!

Today’s video is a little different – not exactly a tutorial, but sharing an experience I’ve had in the last couple weeks that vaused me massive DOUBT in myself as an artist. It brought to mind a question I saw someone ask, and the answer from Hank Green….and it helped me reframe how I was looking at my problem. I hope it’ll do the same for you!

Tutorial: ARTIST! Is your vision bigger than your skill?

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!

The “rejected” art

This piece ended up not in the course – and I almost deleted the footage. Glad I didn’t so I could have this to post today, though with a voiceover addressing something I hope helped you!  I really do like how this one came out, but it just wasn’t teaching anything unique in and of itself like the other 10 drawings did.

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Coral Enchantment

If the alcohol marker drawing you just saw in the video intrigued you, consider taking the course!

I should know better than to ask what’s “better.” When it comes to art, there’s not always a “better!” But…..I tried asking AI what I should call this post, and it suggested I start a fight about what’s “better.” Argue away in the comments! ha!

Anyhow – today’s Colorado Craft Company release has two sweet stamps I asked if I could color up – there’s something about shiny metal planes that I love! And since I’m PARTYING LIKE IT’S 2024 (because we have aid going to Ukraine where I have friends anxiously awaiting our help!)…..I made my planes blue and yellow!

Tutorial: What’s better: Black lines or implied lines?

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!

Black lines

For me, black lines are more on the cartoon side – you can still make an image look dimensional, don’t get me wrong. But in real life there’s no black outlines defining the shapes we see! But some benefits:

1. Crisper image
2. Easier for new colorists
3. Less worry about alcohol markers bleeding

What other benefits did I miss?

Implied lines

In my life as an artist I had always heard “implied” rather than “no” lines – no line coloring is a thing in crafting but honestly, it’s often not “no” lines at all. Even for my yellow plane, the top line by the highlight is still there. It’s just softer. Some benefits of implied line art:

1. Lines disappear, so artist can alter the design (adding bolts!)
2. Can appear more realistic
3. Greater challenge to satisfy an intermediate/advanced artist

What else do you find as a benefit? 

Cue the disco lights!

Students at Artventure told me just how hard it was to figure out how to sign up for the new class; and though I sometimes feel the ick of marketing (like I’m always shouting to the world that I’ve got a new class out!)……I really stink at getting the word out!

So bold and proud: Brushstroke Flowers is available – and it’s a card class! Pop over to see a preview video, get yourself a Buddha board and other supplies, and let’s get busy making beautiful flower cards shall we? CLICK HERE!

Colorado Craft Company Bloghop

As always leave a comment to be entered into the drawing! You can comment up until Midnight (ET) April 30th. CCC will announce the winners on May 2nd on their blog.

1. CCC will give away one free clear stamp to a commenter on this post.
2. If you use my affiliate link to make a purchase you will be entered to win the entire release.

Supplies

1. Colorado Craft Company 
   1. Adventure is in the air
   2. Oceans to Fly 
2. Olo markers 
3. Olo marker hex chart 
4. Neenah Cardstock, Solar White 250pk 
5. Memento Tuxedo Black ink 
6. Inkon3 Fadeout ink 
7. White Signo Uni-ball Gel Pen:  AMZ  • BLICK
8. Caran d’Ache Grafwood Pencils
9. Dimensional adhesive