A simple place to begin

Printing and coloring your free samples.

You do not need a large supply collection. A printed page and a few colored pencils are enough to explore a scene.

Print one page first.

Open the sample PDF and check the page preview. Select the coloring pages, print on one side, and use a size setting that keeps the entire border on the sheet. Try one page before printing more. Choose paper your printer can handle.

Choose a small palette.

For a Lanternwild scene, try warm gold for the light, a soft green for the leaves, and a blue-gray for the shadows. For a fae castle, try midnight blue, lavender, and a warm amber accent. These are suggestions; your world can look completely different.

Start with a small corner.

A window, a leaf, or a single stone is a manageable place to start. Build colored-pencil layers gently and leave some white paper for highlights. You can finish one detail without committing to the whole scene.

Protect the next page.

Marker ink can travel through paper, including pages with blank backs. Put a protective sheet behind your work and test your tools first. A home-printed sample can help you explore the design, but it cannot demonstrate the paperback's paper quality.