When I purchased my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, I sent out an email letting my group of stampers know I would be providing classes on how to use these wonderful markers. The only requirement was they needed to purchase their own markers to use in class. I had four ladies sign up, and they went ahead and purchased all 168 markers through Consumer Crafts (they have the BEST price on these markers AND they offer 25% site wide regularly – just saying). We have had two classes so far, and I wanted to give a quick update about the progress of our Spectrum Noir alcohol marker colorist group has made as of this past week.

Note: These are NOT Copic markers and quite frankly, some of the YouTube reviews and compairsons do not do the Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers justice. These markers fit into their own category; they are versatile; produce a great colored image; they are VERY affordable; and if you will watch the Spectrum Noir – Crafter’s Companion tutorials, you will have great success and produce outstanding papercraft projects. That being said, you can find Accreditation Coloring Download at www.spectrumnoir.com .  You can print this off on an inkjet printer and follow along with their YouTube tutorials to learn, to practice, and to turn in to them to receive accreditation as a colorist.

My first class was learning some of the basics. We covered Smooth Coloring, Basic Blending, Palette Blending, Dimension, Layers, and Florals. The class had a GREAT time and came away with a lot of hands-on practice (we colored two images).  Here are the two sheets we have completed so far (note: the second class was skin coloring; therefore, the skin on the girl is colored in on the second sheet):

I found it very hard to get a good picture. The heart on the first sheet is a deep purple color and in “real” life, you can see this clearly.

The second class focused on skin tones. I researched Spectrum Noir recipes for skin color on Pinterest and I took those color combinations and either used them, tweaked them, or came up with my own. The cost for classes two and three (skin and hair coloring) included a Fun Stampers Journey stamp called Media Artist (see below).

This image of the girl is a fantastic stamp to practice color combinations for skin and hair. I stamped six images of the girl onto Fun Stamper Journey Whipped Cream cardstock. Note: The quality of paper is important when using any alcohol markers. A lower quality product will increase bleeding of your ink color into areas you don’t want to be colored. Stampin’ Up! Whisper White is a great cardstock to use as well. You can also purchase specialty paper through Consumer Crafts for alcohol marker coloring.

We completed our skin tones, and we all made a few mistakes (that includes me). On my #6 girl, I used the wrong base color (I switched my colors) and she was so dark that her nose couldn’t be seen. I was able to correct this with the blender pen chisel tip and going over and over the image until I pushed some color through the cardstock to lighten up the image. You can tell because the coloring is a little mottled. I found that some of the lighter colors in the combo I chose could pull color out (acting like the blender) instead of creating a smooth blend. You will be able to see this in the next picture. But, that’s o.k. because we are all new to this type of coloring and there is always a learning curve when you learn something new.  I will be gong back and stamping more images and honing my skin coloring techniques to share with my group of colorists. Our next class will feature hair coloring. The image below has the hair colored because I decided to play around after class to see what I could come up with. These are not perfect hair colors, but I just felt the girl’s looked a little naked without hair color. Here is the sheet from class:

Once these classes are finished, our group should be able to scan and upload our accreditation pages to Spectrum Noir and receive their stamp of approval. I will, then, develop YouTube tutorials on how to color with the Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. I hope you decide to look into Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and begin to create outstanding colored papercraft projects.