Fresh Brew Preclass

Welcome to class!

If you are a coffee lover, you might just want to make a special cup of your favorite before sitting down with any of these lessons – they might just make you crave that taste and warm fuzzy feeling!

Before we start…a little housekeeping

I retain the copyright to the content you are learning in class. That means…

1. Do not sell or give away the concepts from my classes – you may not re-teach my instruction contained or created within these lessons.
2. Do not post a video tutorial or step by step photo tutorial of your own redraw of class content.
3. Do not repost any handouts you receive in class.

However…I love to see students making strides and taking this teaching and personalizing it with your own skills.

1. DO make your own designs and develop your own style! I love that!
2. DO gift your creations made with these techniques, of course!

At the bottom of each lesson you’ll see some ways to share your homework and ask questions, so that’ll be handy for you.

Supplies for class

The demonstrations in this course are in Copic markers, but if you have comparable colors, rock on with any brand! It is primarily a full range of greys, some warm coffee colors, and a desaturated light blue. Hex charts can be helpful so are linked below.

Affiliate links below are provided; your purchase helps support the website at no cost to you:

1. Copic Markers  | Refills | Hex Chart
2. Olo markers and refills  | Hex Chart
3. Sketchmarkers are no longer available but here’s a Hex Chart if you have that brand.
4. Lessons are demonstrated in a Copic sketchbook; most alcohol marker pads have about the same paper. It’s not a cardstock. You might also like Neenah Cardstock, Solar White  which is what I use when making a project that needs to be on something sturdy.

You may want to have a white gel pen on  hand though its not used in this course – my favorite is a Signo Uni-ball Gel Pen (AMZ -or- BLICK ) but there’s something I discovered recently called a Presto Jumbo White that makes thicker snowy blobs. It’s a little hard to squeeze, but it even covers reds without bleeding, so there’s that! (It won’t make tiny lines like a gel pen.)

Image transfer

We’ll be working from photos from Paint My Photo – it’s a nice site where people from all over upload their photos with the intent we’ll use them as art references. No copygright concerns!

You’ll need a free account there, so now is a great time to go sign up. 

To transfer photos to your paper of choice, there are a few methods, using LIGHT pencil pressure so you can easily erase with a kneaded eraser:

1. Trace using a light box. I have an Artgraph – a small one that’s shown in one of the lessons. Put the printed photo under the paper you’ll draw on. (I like to print in black and white, it’s often easier to see.)
2. Trace by taping to a window on a sunny day.
3. Optional but not recommended: Place graphite paper between the photo and paper you’ll work on. This deposits graphite or transfer medium onto the paper, but is challenging to erase.

Colors needed

To download a blank chart for this course that you can color, click here

You may wish to swatch them so you can compare the value (relative light/dark) with what you see in a photo.