And I'm behind...

No big surprise, but dang it, I was going to stay on top of the practice for this class. But life happens and so I'm just now sharing my day 5 practice. We learned about coloring skin and hair, which turned out to be a lot harder than I thought. The hair especially. I'm fine with the sides, but the top section isn't going the way I want - it feels like it's one big blob up there. But I do love the highlighted look I managed for the sides.

Also, I'm feeling like I need other options for skin tones. I made what I have work, but if I'm going to do people on a regular basis, I want different colors. But honestly, I think I'll be coloring more animals and inanimate objects than people so for now, I'm good.

You'll notice I only did the skin on the first girl because of the lack of color options. The hair was what I really wanted to focus on.

Next up is animal fur, which I should have colored today and didn't get to so maybe tomorrow!

Happy creating!

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Hello Friday!

Some weeks Friday can't come soon enough and that was the case this week. Today I worked on my coloring practice earlier, because I'm not sure I can stay awake late tonight :)

This practice was all about lighting and shadows. This was so much fun! Plus, we were practicing on flowers, which I love. I also decided that I like the color combo for leaves on the right flower better - it's more subtle.

I'm going to branch out this weekend and try my own design. I know, living on the edge but I have a donut stamp that's just begging to be colored.

Enjoy your Friday night!

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Day 3 - New paper, new fun

I printed my practice sheets on the new paper and it's working okay. For practice sheets I'm okay with it, but I think I need to invest in the Neenah paper and see if it is different than this version of Neenah I got at Office Depot.

Having said that, I had fun using grays to add shading to my images. I really like it for some colors like red and orange, as well as the lighter colors, because it is hard to keep them light and still have shading.

I also discovered that I really like yesterday's practice images better than the ones for today. I felt much more inspired with the bird and butterfly. But it was easier to practice shading on the mug than the umbrella. No biggie - it's all just for practicing and I definitely look forward to coloring each day and watching the new videos.

Here's today's photo:

And now I'm off to learn new things!

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Copic Coloring Day 2

Today's coloring involved combining two unrelated colors and blending them. There were two different approaches. One was picking up the darker color by touching the tip of the lighter pen to the darker pen and then feathering it onto the colored image to blend the dark with the light. I did this with the blue and yellow bird and it worked pretty well.

The second approach you colored the darker color on an acrylic block (or acetate or another slick surface) and then you pick up the color from the block with the lighter pen and feather it onto the image until it is blended. I used this for the butterfly and the green and brown bird. I LOVED doing it this way. I felt like I had more control and it reminded me of when I watercolor.

Also, I bought new paper today, but didn't get my practice sheets printed on it yet. I'll give it a try tomorrow, but today's coloring was a little easier with what I had.

Can't wait to try today's techniques! Off to watch the videos.

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Copic Coloring for Card Makers class

Who would have thought that taking an online class would get me to blog again? It's a Christmas miracle :)

Each day we have practice sheets to work on after watching videos with coloring tips. I've decided to give myself a break each day at work (during lunch) to color. Today was the first day and I had so much fun! But I also discovered that the paper I printed my practice sheets on are not great quality. The ink didn't blend well and it bled outside the lines (although there are some that I purposely colored outside the lines on).

So, I'm on the hunt for the paper I should have bought in the first place. Unfortunately, my procrastinating caught up with me this time and that's why I used the paper I had on hand. Lesson learned!

Here's my practice sheet from Day 1 - not everything is colored because I got frustrated with the paper, but what I did color has me excited to dive in again!

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