The Team
Ann Kullberg
The head honcho, top dog, lady boss – over the decades, Ann has learned how to put together a team that runs more smoothly than colored pencil on drafting film. These days, she spends more time in her Midwest flower-filled backyard as she does in her office, but she’s always there when needed to heap some praise on her absolutely amazing supporting cast.
Priscilla Cassara
Priscilla is a rock star who works tirelessly and always with a smile to make sure everything from customer service to sales to subscriptions to all our many classes all run without a hitch. Conscientious to a fault, Priscilla takes on anything and everything with humility and determination. She’s a skilled crafter – I just love her painted rocks and ceramics. And did I mention sweet to the core? Priscilla makes honey seem savory!
Rhonda Dicksion
Total dedication, artistic talent up the kazoo, a witty knack for puns – Rhonda heads up our Color magazine publication as Editor in Chief. Whatever she sets her mind to, she goes full force with gusto, integrity and humor. Whether she’s whizzing down the street on her motorized trike, strumming on her ukelele or gathering articles for Color magazine, you can count on her doing her best. Just keep her out of the kitchen. We’ve heard that never goes well…
Garry Dimapilis
Working quietly and without a complaint, missed deadline or excuse, our fabulous graphic designer beautifully lays out Color magazine month after month, year after year. Finding Garry was one of my most lucky moves in life – and I’m ever grateful for his professional, punctual, calm demeanor as he designs everything for us – magazine, books, email and product images. His expertise is priceless.
Bleuie Acosta
Another amazing person I can count on with 100% confidence - Bleuie handles submissions for our books and tutorials, making sure files are in the proper format and images can be displayed at their best. If you’ve been happy with the quality of the artwork in our books and tutorials, it’s all thanks to Bleuie. He also coordinates with our Facebook partner groups to help promote artists and their artworks. With passion for arts and music, he loves creating CP artworks on canvas and playing the piano.
Susan Cottman
Long-time magazine subscribers can remember the day when I was the only force behind Color magazine back in the aughts, which ultimately meant plenty of typos. It's hard to self-edit, I found out... So along came a trusty copy editor. Susan is a colored pencil artist in the local Seattle Chapter of CPSA, and when I found out she would be a whiz at finding all my many mistakes, I asked her to jump on board. Great decision! We now have an error-free issue every single month. Love that! Susan also keeps our books and tutorials error-free. She’s amazing!
Ann Kullberg's Colored Pencil Magazine and website began in 1999...
But the whole story began much, much earlier. When I was 4, my mother wrote a letter to my grandmother, saying, "Ann is always drawing, drawing. That will be her special talent." When we found that letter in the 1990s, you can imagine how surprised we all were at Mom's insight!
Fast-forward 25 years...
I saw my first colored pencil drawing at a relative's home and long story short - I learned a bit about colored pencil, borrowed Bet Borgeson's The Colored Pencil from the library, bought a set of 24 Prismacolors and plunged in. The minute I started drawing with those pencils, I felt "home." I loved the control, the rich colors and the ability to build color by layering. I entered my very first drawing into a small county fair and took First Place! I was off and running!I was accepted to a gallery within a year and in a couple years was steadily receiving portrait commissions. Then my life changed, thanks to my affiliation with CPSA (Colored Pencil Society of America), when North Light asked me to write a book, Colored Pencil Portraits Step by Step, published in 1999.
That's when the real fun began!...
Lots of "fan email" started pouring in from folks who loved the book, including one who asked if I could give online lessons which led to the idea of a colored pencil monthly magazine. I sent email to the 200+ artists who'd emailed me and soon had 50 subscription checks in my mailbox. Thus began Ann Kullberg's COLOR Magazine! (formerly named From My Perspective or FMP). Since 1999, we've steadily added products and website features designed to improve your colored pencil art experience: In-Depth and Jumpstart tutorials, workshops, demos, portrait tools, books, blogs, and more. The website and scope has grown in ways I couldn't imagine all those years ago, but it's all been lots of fun! The team and I love working with and for colored pencil artists!
