Improve your Coloring: How Research Leads to More Creativity (Copic Markers, Colored Pencils)

Improve your Coloring: How Research Leads to More Creativity (Copic Markers, Colored Pencils)

New stamp, no ideas?

Yep, this happens a lot.

You found the cutest digital stamp. You couldn’t wait to color it. Now that you’ve finally found a bit of spare time to sneak off with your Copic Markers and colored pencils… and the house is all quiet with no one bugging you?

You’re just sitting there staring at the stamp.

You have no idea what to do with it.

Artistic Coloring: 3 Mistakes Everyone Makes with Stamps (Copic Markers, Colored Pencils)

Artistic Coloring: 3 Mistakes Everyone Makes with Stamps (Copic Markers, Colored Pencils)

Are your coloring projects pretty but boring? You find a wonderful stamp. You can’t wait to color it with your Copic Markers, colored pencils, or maybe you’ll use watercolor. So you color it really well. And yet the finished project is just a little… Boring? Even worse is when you stumble across sixteen other people who colored the stamp exactly like you did. Why is it so hard to color a jaw-dropping stamp in an eye-popping way? Let’s look closer at why great stamps go mediocre during the coloring process.

Be a Smart Artist: 5 Things to Think About While Coloring (Copic Markers, Colored Pencils)

Be a Smart Artist: 5 Things to Think About While Coloring (Copic Markers, Colored Pencils)

What do professional artists think about as they work?

Well, it’s not what you see in the movies.

Turning the stereo up to eleven, chugging whiskey, and waiving a paintbrush around in the air like you’re swatting flies? That’s how artists work on television. It looks romantic on camera.

But in real life?

All that distraction is a good way to make bad art.

If you’re moving from craft-level stamp coloring to artistic coloring with Copic Markers, colored pencils, watercolor… well, it’s easy to feel like a misfit.

Dimensional vs. Realistic Coloring: What's the Difference? (Copic Markers, Colored Pencils)

Dimensional vs. Realistic Coloring: What's the Difference? (Copic Markers, Colored Pencils)

The downside of dimensional coloring

So you have colored with Copic Markers and colored pencils for a long time now. You’ve got lots of beautiful coloring projects under your belt. You are NOT inexperienced!

And yet when you look at this fox, you are blown away…

Because this is sooooo not the same kind of coloring that you do.

But why not?

Why can’t YOU color with realism?