Playing with Markers

Hey, you guys,
I have something special for you.  This little lady is one of Saturated Canary's images.  Cutie, huh?  What's special about her, besides some really good coloring, is that she is not at all what I intended her to be but soooo pretty. The reason I can put this beautiful image before you is not something that you can read in a book, not something you can learn from a video, not even something you could learn in a class. It's because I play with my markers.

My little crafting buddy says she doesn't think we use enough greens. So I pulled greens. Things didn't quite go well almost from the start. I didn't want to scrap it, so I just played with it. There is ink on top of ink, colors on top of colors, blending, and all sorts of oopsies made to look not like an oopsie. The only way I could have pulled it off is because while I play with my markers, I learn things about the ink, paper, drying time, layering, what a blender can and cannot do...

 







What I did with this image would probably make some folks cringe. What I did to it is not something I could tell you how to do because the "techniques" evolved as I went along. What started as a practice session could now be used on a project.

You have to get your markers out and play with them.  If you wait until you want to color something for a project, there are so many things you will never learn, and it's too much pressure.  You have to play with the markers.  That is how you develop your own style.  That is how you learn to color like the "pros".   Same goes for colored pencils, crayons, chalks, watercolors, and paints. 

I've often heard on the videos "This is how I do it.  I'm not sure if it's some sort of technique or whether it's right or wrong.  It's what works for me.  So this is how I do it."  Isn't that where we really want to be?   Having our own style and getting terrific results.  Even Suzanne Dean says she's not trying to create copies of herself.  She wants you to find your own style.  There's only so much you can be taught.  The rest comes from actually doing what it is you're trying to learn.  Hands on.

I try to color something every day.  Most of what I color will not end up on a project, but the valuable information I learn while playing makes my next project better and much more my own.

As always,

Thanks for stopping by!