Happy New Year! This begins our 9th year of COLORED PENCIL Magazine. Of course, we wouldn’t be at this point without you so thank you for all your support and contributions.

We are starting 2019 off with a fabulous cover featuring a gorgeous leopard, selected from the collection of our featured artist Samantha Frye. She specializes in drawing felines so for more big cat action – flip to the centerfold!

New this year, is the COLORED PENCIL Awards! All the nominations were selected and voted on by our subscribers. View all the winners and see if your favorites made the list.

Try something new by learning what other mediums you can use successfully with colored pencils in Barb Sotiropoulos’ Q&A. Then, In the Spotlight, learn about the fun multi-colored pencils from Koh-I-Noor.

Last month we asked you to post your Past & Present artwork. It is so inspiring to see how far you’ve come! Since we couldn’t include every entry, visit our Facebook page to view them all. www.facebook.com/coloredpencilmagazine

Continuing our free workshop series is a brilliant Light Bulb by Jacqueline Wuitz, and then, Gemma Duffield helps you build your social media audience with some great tips.

If you have taken all the 2018 Art Challenges on time, be sure to send me a link to your Flickr page by 2/1/19, so we can send you a free 1-year digital subscription. (contact@coloredpencilmag.com) Didn’t do them all? Here is your chance, starting with “Black Birds.” Just create at least 25% of the image, done in at least 80% colored pencil to our Flickr page for a chance at $300 in prizes in 3 categories from Jerry’s Artarama. (See page 35 for details.)

If you are like me, it’s hard to find time to do a large finished piece of art, but you can always take a moment to sketch! Join our new Facebook group “Sketch & Color” to share your art journey, hone your skills, make friends, have fun, and win stuff! It all starts here: www.facebook.com/groups/sketchandcolor

Lastly, a big thank you to Strathmore for including their award winning Bristol paper inside this print issue!