Lady’s Favs (Color Stuff)

Hey y’all hey! Lady’s favs are resources, info, and other helpful things that I’ve found useful in my journey in the arts. Though mostly geared toward comics and digital art, a lot of the resources are universal to creatives in general. I’m in no way the definitive guide for anything besides my own inner workings, BUT I defo don’t mind sharing the things I’ve found helpful on my journey in making & sharing comics and other art in case they may be helpful to you đź’ś!

Colors-colors-colors, I love color and the use of it in my art. There is so much that can be communicated with color. Anything from feelings atmosphere, and even personal preferences can be peeped through usage of color. The same can be said about black and white, but it just hits different. I went to school for Studio Art and Design, but due to my interests, I didn’t get as much out of it as I hoped I would (It wasn’t a complete bust, but not much in the way of visual storytelling). That and thick text books with little visuals have always been hard for me to absorb. Luckily for me, there were tons of resources to explore. Like hundreds of thousands of them. Everything from blogs, to books, to podcasts, videos and classes. Don’t get mw wrong, variety is the spice of life, but stars and garters, it can make your eyes spin and sometimes you just want help narrowing the scope, get a refresher, or maybe learn a new approach.

So here are some of my fav resources on Color stuff!

  1. Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney The link directs to his website where he also has many of the articles he’s compiled in the book on their for free. This book is one of the best comprehensive studies of color and light that I’ve read. It’s visual and the text is digestible. Can’t recommend this one more for artist and any creative that works with color and value.
  2. Lighting Mentor on YT It’s a playlist of videos that go into the importance of color studies and what you can learn from them!
  3. Blender Guru on YT Understanding Colors is an old one but stands the test of time.
  4. Sadies Saves the Day on Skillshare A water color painter with an excellent understanding of painting vibrantly. She also has an inactive youtube channel where she shared her beautiful watercolor portraiture. It’s still up.
  5. A fun extra:
    • Jane Blundell is a watercolor artist that has the most extensive swatch library blog I’ve ever seen for watercolor paints and adjacent materials. It’s incredibly organized and an excellent resource for finding watercolor dupes, but also great for choosing color palettes. I can stay on her site for hours.

Woop woop! hope you found something helpful. And hey, feel free to share any helpful stuff about color in comments you’ve found useful!


Icthyo Mixup Update

Yo Y’all! Icthyo Mixup, the comic for Jamal Turner the fashion photographer with a keen eye and Dylan Seawell, ocean conservationist with a super secret will commence posting in September!
nautical and fish themed background with large 3/4 view of strawberry blond man with large blue eyes sweating with a hand over the right side of his face while he looks at his contemporary fashionable lover Jamal who is black with stylish hair shaved on the sides with long dreads down the middle dyed with red tips looking to the right as he contemplates his boyfriends super secret

Till then, check out my socials (in the sidebar on pc and at the bottom of my page for mobile) for art updates and Patreon for teasers on the two.


What’s Icthyo Mixup even about!? That’s loaded since the story of Dylan and Jamal has grown larger than the initial prompt, but at its core it’s a love story. To quote Treya “The story is a lesson on how to correct making the wrong assumption lol”. That’s what the comic part I drew will focus on.

(First Sketches I did for them)

It’s a labor of love between @treya_barton and I born from a silly prompt I threw out into the world and she ran with. By our powers combined we brought these two to life. Treya with the written word, and Lady T💜 with the artistic flair bringing many late night talks and texts to 2D life. I hope y’all enjoy seeing these two cuties fumbling their way through confessions, affirmations, and of course luvvvv.

For more on Treya’s wondrous words of romance, visit: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treya_barton/pseuds/treya_barton

Favorite Tools of the Trade: Pen Edition

Hi y’all!

It’s freezing down here in the south and I just want to be in bed with a heated blanket. Anyways, I may be cold, but something that helps take my mind off of not feeling the best is looking up and trying new art supplies. One of my fav places to scope out and test new supplies is JetPens. They provide extensive reviews of all the drawing and writing supplies that they have for sale. Not only that, but everything is OPEN STOCK!! That’s such a big deal. You artist know why ;). Just to not be that one for those that don’t get it though, it means you can literally buy 1 of any pen or pencil/accessory. Try before investing!! That’s such a big deal when trying to figure out what materials you even like to use. Not only that but if you run out of one thing from a pack, you can buy just what you need. Ultimate customization!

Pens pens and more pens! Checkout my book pouch too hehe.

I wanted to share some of my favorite Pens that I use for making comics and why I dig them so much.

That tip is nice for being fast and keeping it loose!

For Work

Pentel EnerGel .35mm ball Needle Point pen (black). This pen has become my favorite pen to do quick sketches within my Notebook. It has sharp lines and great for cross-hatching and tiny details. My handwriting isn’t very legible with it. but that’s not what I use it for.

I’ve never had pretty handwriting (barely legible on a good day) but this pen gives me the control I crave!


Zebra Sarasa clip 0.5. For making notes on thumbnails and having legible handwriting I like this baby. It goes down smooth, doesn’t skip, and not as sharp as the Pentel, so delicate details arent really its thing, but makes my chicken scratch look semi-legible and I like the way it feels in my hand.

For Legibiliaty
Zebra Tapli Clip Ballpoint Pen – 1.6 mm. Since I write fast and loose, I’ve found that bigger tipped pens that glide instead of run over paper give me a bit more control. For that most any pen with a tip of at least 1.5mm gives me that.

Every Day
Papermate Inkjoy .7MM. These are pretty easy to find most anywhere locally and I totally recommend them. They have a nice mate body that stays put in your hand, great ink flow, a variety of tip sizes & colors, and they feel nice in the hand. I use these for scheduling and keep spares in all my bags.

An example of what these pens look like. The highlight sparkles were made using the red/black pen .

For Fun

Pentel Hybrid Dual Metallic Gel Pen – 1.0 mm. These pens are purely for being cute. I just like to use them to add a lil pop to a bunch of black ink. Though sometimes they serve as a color block to help me remember I want to color a feature in a unique or cosmic way. They provide such a neat effect and flow out of the pens nicely, so you can get some good coverage area.

Tiny tiny color pops


Pilot Hi-Tec-C Gel Pen .4mm. They aren’t the best gel pens, but I like the colors they have and will do in a pinch for details or notes. I seem to always have one somewhere…

I love this lil sloth with its lil smile!

Just Because

Sloth Pen – I just love this lil pen from Earthbound and it puts a smile on my face while at work (not the comic work, but the 9-5 job haha). They don’t have it on the site anymore, but they have other kinds and they are surprisingly good writing pens. The ink tube is also replaceable so woot! They also have journals that I really want to get my hands on, but that’s a whole other deal.

What are some of your favorite pens and where do you get them?

TLDR: List of my favorite pens and a good place to find open stock supplies. Do you use pens for your comics or writing? If so what kinds and why do you like them? Feel free to leave reviews of your favs and where you can get them for anyone curious to try them out :).