There’s a specific disappointment every colorist knows: the mushroom page that was supposed to be the coziest thing in the book comes out flat. The caps read like gray blobs, the gills smear into mud, and the red fly agaric looks painted on instead of grown. After a season of cottagecore pages, I can tell … Read more
Every December, someone colors a gingerbread house that comes out the color of a cardboard box. It is not a talent problem — it is a one-brown problem. Real gingerbread is never one brown: the flat faces bake lighter, the puffed seams and roof joints bake darker, and the whole surface carries a speckle of … Read more
Knit fabric is the most common thing in fall and holiday coloring books — and the most commonly flattened. You pick a nice warm beige, color the whole sweater in, maybe add some darker lines along the pattern, and step back to find a brown rectangle with stripes. It reads as cloth, not yarn. The … Read more