What is Color Wonk?
Color Wonk is an online artistic coloring school founded by professional illustrator Amy Shulke in January 2024.
Color Wonk offers monthly and annual subscriptions to over 12 years of Amy’s mixed media coloring and marker underpainting lessons. Student members have instant access to a growing library of classic and new lessons.
Using alcohol markers and colored pencils, Amy teaches students basic art principles, allowing hobby colorists to grow their artistic skills and instincts rather than rely on step-by-step tutorials. Students learn to use markers the way artists use paint, working independently and creatively.
Because of her fine art training and science background, Amy takes a more analytical approach to teaching marker and colored pencil art. Her students learn about the chemistry of their art supplies and the physics of art techniques. Color Wonk students learn more than just how to color a specific object, they’re given the knowledge and tools to become artists themselves.
Students call it the Why. Most coloring tutorials tell you what to do, Amy explains Why.
Learn more about Amy’s approach to coloring in her extensive writings at VanillaArts.com
Who is Amy Shulke?
Amy is a Technical Illustrator with a BFA in Graphic Arts & Illustration with a minor focus in Human Anatomy & Physiology and Biology. She has studied at College for Creative Studies (Detroit, Michigan) and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan), with further training at Oakland University (Rochester Hills, Michigan), and Kendall College of Art & Design at Ferris State University (Grand Rapids, Michigan).
Amy has illustrated for several medical colleges and teaching hospitals. Her work can also be found in educational literature from major pharmaceutical and medical technology companies. Her professional work has always focused on education— assisting authors and instructors who teach physicians, surgeons, medical students, and other health care workers.
Amy enjoys teaching art and has taught a range of fine art classes in local adult education art programs in Michigan. In 2012, she began transitioning from illustration to full time art instruction. She now runs the Color Wonk school and manages several art and marker education websites, plus a popular marker art channel at YouTube, and she writes a weekly newsletter teaching color theory and artistic mindset to hobby colorists.
Amy is considered a pioneer of Marker Underpainting, a technique for realistic illustration which Amy developed during her years in medical and technical illustration.