Copic in the Craft Room: The Flick

Copic in the Craft Room: 3-Shade Blending

Copic in the Craft Room: Coloring Gold with Copic Markers

http://www.copicmarker.com/shading-with-red-copic-markers

Great "Red" tutorial from Kristy of Some Odd Girl stamps...http://someoddgirl.com

Copic in the Craft Room: Copic Coloring with a Limited Color Palette

Did you know there are 4 different color families for Copic grays? 

Cool Gray has a blue tone.
Neutral Gray is neutral. 
Toner Gray has a slightly brown tone.
Warm Gray has a very brown tone.

Snow (Straight from Copic)..."What colors do you use when you color snow?" One of our favorite "snow" colors is a cool gray-purple... so BV31/BV20 and/or BV23 are perfect! 

All Dressed up Challenge blog: Colouring with rich and heavy colours Tutorial fro...

All Dressed up Challenge blog: Colouring with rich and heavy colours Tutorial fro...: I have been asked by some crafters to publish a tutorial on colouring with rich/heavy colours, which can sometimes, be a little intimidatin...

Some great copic coloring tutorials...

http://www.ipalamountain.com/category/lets-copic/

Tutorial - How to color with copics: coloring with elegance

Todd Nauck Speed Drawing: Spider-Man Part 3 of 3

This is part 3 which is the Copic portion.  Parts 1 & 2 were the actual drawing and inking of Spiderman.

http://www.cardmakermagazine.com/blog/?p=8012

Here is a great, step by step from my instructor Colleen Schaan.

Great instruction from Jackson Root on the Copic website...

 March 5, 2013

Follow along as Jackson Root, a talented illustrator and Copic fine art instructor, explains the Copic color system:

At first glance, the Copic color chart can seem pretty intimidating – a vast array of colors, currently totaling 358, with the latest addition of another 12 colors just last February. Glancing at the end of your Copic Sketch marker, you may have noticed that in addition a the color name, each Copic color has its own 3 or 4-digit identifying color number, located on the marker itself and centered on each end cap (with the exception of Ciao). Believe it or not, these numbers not only describe the color, but also can act as a guide for navigating the Copic Color system and for picking other colors that will correspond and blend nicely in tone, saturation and hue!

Did you know that in addition to a number of extremely helpful and handy tutorialsand guides, the ability to create your own Copic Artist profile and Art Gallery viaCopicColor.com, and a convenient way to order all of your Copic markers and accessories, Copic also provides you with a multitude of official Copic guides and resources? If you’ve never checked out the Resources page of the Copic site, it’s worth a look. I recommend downloading the color wheel and color chart and printing yourself a copy – I’ll be using it for much of the following guide!

So what is the Copic Color System?

The Copic Color System is a system in which each Copic color is identified and labeled, based on the color’s individual Color Family, Saturation Number, andBrightness Number.

• The Color Family indicates what sort of color, i.e. red, blue-green, orange, etc.

• The Saturation Number indicates how “rich” or how “dull” the color will appear (higher number = more dull)

• The Brightness Number indicates how “dark” the color will appear (Higher number = darker)

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How can this help me to navigate the Copic Color Library?

Just by glancing at the digits on the cap of a Copic Sketch marker can quickly tell you what color (hue), how brilliant or dull (saturation), and how bright or dark (tone) just by understanding the numbers involved!

You may be asking yourself, “so my beloved Baby Blue B Twenty-One is really B Two-One?” All semantics aside, it’s true. Knowing that the numbers are to be read individually can really help to understand how the color will appear and where it will sit on the Copic Color Wheel.

Copic Color Wheel?
The Copic Color Wheel is an extremely handy piece of literature to help understand and explore the Copic Color library.

I’ve highlighted two main areas of the close up version of the color wheel.

• The colors within the yellow lines are all of the same saturation, but with varyingdarkness.

• The colors within the red lines are all of the same darkness, but with varyingsaturation.

As you look at the greater picture of the Copic Color Wheel, you can see that as colors approach the center of the wheel, they become more gray, and as they approach the clockwise end of their respective color region, they become darker.  The only exception to this rule is saturation for the earth tones, as they incorporate a number of colors, from reds to oranges, yellows and greens; you can see that they have their own system goin’ on!

But wait, is that 4 gray families I see? 

Copic has 4 gray families, ranging in warmth from Cool Gray being the coolest, Neutral Gray being a little bit warmer, Toner Gray a tad bit warmer than Neutral, followed by Warm Gray, which when used in conjunction with Cool Gray can almost appear red, which can be handy for gray-tone drawings when you want to indicate skin tone versus metallic surfaces!

What to look for when buying my next batch of colors?

If you want colors in your collection that will blend nicely without looking muddy, I recommend picking at least 3 colors in a Color Family that have the same Saturation Number (the first number). These colors will all have the same “grayness” and will play nicely together on paper. The same rule applies for blending across color families. For example, a BG13 will blend nicely with a B14 and G17, but I would avoid blending a BG34 with a B16 and so forth.

 

Closing Thoughts

When I learned to read the Copic Color System, it greatly helped me in my understanding of how the colors will appear when dried. To an extent, understanding how to read the digits on the cap is a better way to anticipate the color than the color of the cap itself! Also on the resources page is a downloadable “hand color chart” that you can use your own colors to make your very own Copic color swatch chart! The next time you visit your local art supplies store that sells Copic, ask them if you can test a few colors on your chart, and fill your collection of swatches. It’s the best way to see exactly how a color will appear in your artwork!

Find Jackson on the web:
Web Site: http://www.jacksonroot.com
Copic Color: http://www.copiccolor.com/Jackson

Copic Design Team member Sharon Harnist is back this week to share some tips for coloring with red Copic markers. Enjoy!

It’s the beginning of the winter holiday season, which usually brings about a lot of iconic red images to color, so today I’ll be giving you a few pointers on how to color reds with your Copic markers. Since they are so highly pigmented, you may experience a little difficulty in coloring and/or blending reds.

Before I get started on my tutorial, I wanted to share with you a few tips from some of the other Copic instruction and design team members:

Debbie Olson (U.S. North Central & Upper Midwest Papercrafting & Fine Arts Instructor):Use less ink, try a more absorbent surface/paper, stay back from the edges of stamped lines/drawing/other colors. Use feathering strokes instead of saturating in circles.

Michele Boyer (U.S. Design Team Member):
Color surrounding areas first, even the background, leaving the reds for last.

Bianca Mandity (U.S. Midwest Fine Arts Instructor):
I often do the darkest shading in a brown instead of red since they bleed less and I have more control over them. As long as you pick a shade that works with the red it will look fine. I’ve done that with purples too.

Colleen Schaan (Copic Education Director & U.S. East Coast Papercrafting & Fine Arts Instructor):
1. Have absorbent paper underneath (paper toweling).
2. Try working from darkest colors to light (this is not normally suggested, but it doesn’t saturate the paper as much; although this may make the colors a little more difficult to blend).
3. Use less ink . . . work with a flicking motion instead of coloring in circles.
4. Leave highlight areas white until the very end (gives the ink somewhere to go).
5. Stay away from the edges of your stamped or drawn image.
6. DON’T use the colorless blender!
7. Color all reds first – if the other areas are wet from being colored, the reds may tend to “bleed” into those areas.
8. Have some fun when shading reds . . . try using complimentary colors of green or blue, or use RV or E color families.

Thanks so much for sharing, ladies!

As you see by all of the individual preferences above, just try experimenting to find out what works best with your personal combination of paper, ink and environmental conditions. What works well for one person may not work the same for another, simply due to environmental conditions (more humidity vs. dryer weather, etc.).

All that being said, here are my personal preferences:

1. I usually color the reds in my images first, so that if some bleeding/wicking of the color occurs, it can be corrected a little easier.

2. I always color with a pad of paper underneath, to help absorb any extra color soak/bleed through to the back of the paper.

3. I use feather strokes, instead of blending in circles, to help avoid over-saturating the paper. If the paper becomes over-saturated, the color won’t have anywhere to go and it will just build up on top of your paper, leaving a glop of unblended color.

4. Don’t color all the way to the edge of the image at first, to see how the paper I’m using reacts.

5. I usually stick to the basic Copic blending suggestions of coloring from lightest color to darkest and prefer usingX-Press It Blending Card – I think this cardstock really helps to make blending reds easier.

I started by base coating the entire poinsettia in this Memory Box Believe Poinsettia Collage stamp with R20:

Next, I shaded with R22, leaving some areas of the lighter R20 as a highlight and using light feathering strokes:

Then I went back with my lighter R20 to blend:

Next, I added in some darker R24 shading to some of the lower petals (those petals more towards the back of the flower), leaving the smaller petals in the center (which would be closer to you) the lightest:

 You can also use your lighter R20 marker to pick up some color from your darker R22 marker and use that to help blend the edges of the lighter colors into the R24:

Next, I used R22 to pull some of the R29 color from the darkest areas, to blend out onto the previous R24.

Notice at this point, the back of my paper is still not very saturated (not much is bleeding through to the back of the paper) because I’m using those softer, lighter feather strokes:

To finish the poinsettia, I used R39 (because it has a complimentary purple undertone) for my darkest shading:

To finish the flower, I base coated the leaves with YG91 and did my mid-tone shading with YG93:

YG95 finishes the darkest shading for the leaves:

Here’s my project with the flower coloring finished:

But the entire project isn’t finished yet… I’ll be back next month to show you how I finished it with some other fantastic Copic products! ~ Sharon

Products Used:
Copic Markers: R20, R22, R24, R29, R39, YG91, YG93, YG95, YR21
Cardstock: X-Press It Blending Card; Memory Box Dill Notecard
Stamp: Memory Box Believe Poinsettia Collage
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black