I didn't like my coloring style

Here's how I'm learning a new one ✨

Reflecting on style over the past 3 years

I scrolled to the bottom of my art instagram earlier today, and I saw that my first post was from April 2021. I’ve been drawing consistently for 3 years now, which I can’t believe. It seems like forever but also like I just started! I still have the same profile picture that I drew 3 years ago, but it really needs an update… my style has changed so much!

Style is the topic of today’s newsletter, but more specifically: coloring style. I’ve been reflecting on coloring style over the past year as I’ve experimented with painting more and more. When I started drawing, I don’t remember thinking about style in terms of drawing + sketching versus coloring. I did a lot of work deciding what eye shapes to draw and how I like the proportions in my human characters, or how I draw trees or dogs or buildings. But I never really experimented much with different ways of coloring.

About a year ago, I was pretty happy with the sketches I was drawing, but I was still trying to figure out how to add color in a way that made me happy. I would really like a sketch, but when I colored it as final art, I felt it lost something. I made some custom Procreate brushes from watercolor brushstrokes, and that made me a bit happier with my art. But something still felt like it was missing.