I like to dabble in art. And one way I dabble is by coloring other people’s lineart. I have a nice collection of coloring books aimed at adults, and I recently discovered the world of digistamps. For a long time my coloring medium of choice was colored pencils, but I recently discovered the world of alcohol markers and gave myself the present of a starter set of Spectrum Noirs, which are low(er) cost versions of the Copic markers used by manga artists everywhere.

I’ve enjoyed playing with those in a really visceral way: even discovering that I’m not happy with what I can accomplish with them, I still deeply enjoy the process of trying. It reflects what I do when I get access to some new digital art tool: I scribble with brushes. No drawing (even though I can draw, a little, after four years of art classes as a teen) just… splashes of color across a canvas. I like color.

I gave myself another gift: an online coloring class at Kit and Clowder. I wasn’t sure about it at first; would I get anything I couldn’t get on my own? But I like the community I’ve seen on Facebook and I wanted a chance to feel like part of it and this was much cheaper than the markers themselves.

I’ve been working on the first homework sheet tonight and having trouble. It could be the paper, it could be the marker nibs (which are not the ideal COPIC-style brush tips), it could be me, it could be all three. I became quite frustrated a few times! And I think this is a good thing because it means i’m trying harder than I would be without the class, and thus hopefully getting better.

Anyhow, at some point perhaps I’ll post some pictures of what I’m doing. Because hey, I’m always thinking I should blog more.

(The problem there comes down to not wanting to talk in detail about my writing and having all my anecdotes about household and children be microblogs at best, But hey, maybe between arts, crafts and games I can do a better job of looking alive…? or maybe just show off some pictures later….)