CopicArt – Illustrating with Markers

Archive for the ‘Tips’ Category

   Up to this date, there was really no planning with my illustrations, except for the colors used.  Sure, I always create a test image, but there is one area that it is just weak, and overlooked. Shadows have always been my worst enemy, especially since they were done on the fly, never planned.

   I have to admit that sometimes they were in the wrong place, and since it is markers we are talking about, fixing is out of the question. So after hearing a good advice, here is how I tried to solve my problem. I made an extra copy of the image to illustrate, and with a pencil (easy to erase) added the outline of how I wanted my shadows to appear. Not only I got better looking shadows, but also got a better handle of the light source.

   So here are the first two images of my fairy illustration. 

* Original Illustration *

* Planned Shadows *

On my previous post I talked about what I found to be the strong and weak points of the Digital Stamps. As my first complete project I decided to use this image from Dustin Pike (http://dustinpike.blogspot.com/), he’s offering this and other images free of charge, so if you like it please visit his site, and leave him a comment or two.

While taking a look at my local Michael’s, I saw that they had a 40% discount on some Prismacolor sets, and although I have a few color pencils, none of them are prisma. So, despite been a marker (Copic) guy I bought a 48 colors set, it was now or never for me as the special ended today.

So what to do with this two items, one choice was to color the stamp completely in markers, and forget the prisma for today, other choice was to go full force with the pencils. Going full marker will just make another image (no challenge), coloring entirely with prismas wasn’t a true option, I have almost zero experience with pencils, so using them for such a big image wouldn’t look good.

So after weighting options A and B, I decided for option C , coloring the image with markers, and use the pencils for the shadows. Combining media like pencils and markers can save you some money as pencils are less expensive, and the results are quite good.

Here are the pictures I took from this project.

Now, I did a mistake on the kite, I forgot about the pencils and shaded it with markers, not a big deal, but I have to mention it

The rest of the image was colored as planned, basic color with Copics, the shades were colored with the Prismas.

Up to this point we have our image fully colored, but there is one more steep needed to make it a complete illustration. No matter how careful I color my images, there is times when my color just bleeds out of the outline, and using the colorless blender may not be an option. A few weeks ago, I mentioned my purchase of a Copic Opaque White, and that is the product we will use for our final touches.

            First let me explain a little bit better what the Opaque White is. The Copic Opaque White is a water based pigment ink, used to add details or to correct mistakes on an illustration. One important thing to take in consideration is that you should use it only as a final product, as you may ruin your tip if you try to color over it, remember that it is a water based product, and the Copic ink is alcohol based. It comes in a small container, and is really thick, so much that it looks like a paste instead of ink; don’t worry as that is how it’s supposed to look.

            For some weird reason I haven’t been able to find much information on how to use it, so it was trial and error learning on my part. First thing I found out is that you need a really small brush to properly use it (I bought a round 3/0 and a flat 0), using big brushes will result on wasting, and you will end up with a mess. Second thing, you need to work slowly on small areas at a time, remember this is not a marker, trying to cover a large area may result in a mess. Third, have a container with clean water and a rag next to you, as you will need them to clean your brush.

Here is an image of the opaque white and the brushes I used to do my corrections on my anime girl.

            On this close-up of her head, you can notice how my coloring went outside the lines on her hair, and more noticeable on the eyes. As you can guess, it is too late to use the colorless blender (especially in the eyes), so it is time to use the Opaque White.

            Now, how much do you use at a time, not a lot as you can see in the following image, and remember this is a really fine brush I’m using.

            And here is the result of using the Opaque White to correct my mistakes, and to add a little reflection on her eyes. She does look much better, right?

            Here are more images of the areas that needed correction and how they look once the Opaque white was used.

            Final image, my project was finally completed.

Note: Opaque White may not be one of the must-have products on your list, but it is worth a consideration I you want to add special touches to your images.

 I hope the visual addition I made to my posts is noticeable, and the button adds a little bit more professional look to my blog. We are almost done with this drawing. The two earlier posts handled what I think are the two more important visual elements of my image, now it is time to add some skin and boots.

            Now it’s time to work on the bottom of the image, the boots to be exact. I picked four colors for the boots, “100” for the Sole, E29 for the hard shadows, E57 as my base color, and E39 for my soft shadows. As in the previous posts, the first thing to color was the E57 base color, and while still wet, add the E39 for soft shadows, and finally colored the sole and hard shadows of the boots.

             The hair was colored by using the following colors, E13, and E35. This was made quite simple, as I didn’t want to draw too much attention to the hair. The skin and eyes were colored with the following colors: Skin E00-E02, Eyes 100-YG03-G17. The following images illustrate how I colored the hair, skin, and eyes.

            At this point the image was near completion, I colored the Copic on her hand with an YG17, T0, and W5 colors. And then I decided to add some glitter to the image, by coloring her nails and the shoulder straps with my pink Atyou Spica pen.

            And now we can happily call this image finished, right? Wrong! There is one more step that needs to be done to call this image a complete work.  But that will be told on the next post.

There is a couple more basic effects that can be achieved with the colorless blender, both quite simple and fast. Now, I have to mention that the results will vary, depending on the paper used, and the color as well.

Let’s make a Wall

If you think that the chisel tip of your colorless blender is useless, think again. One cool effect that can be achieved with that side is the creation of a brick wall. Just color your area with the base color, then start touching it with the longest part of the chisel tip. Each time you do this, you will create a brick on your wall, so continue doing it until your wall is complete.

Stone-like texture

Another texture can be achieved with the brush tip of your Sketch or Ciao markers. Just tap your colored area randomly with the brush tip of your colorless blender. This will create a kind of stone /ground texture.

As I mention earlier, the results of these two technique will vary depending on your paper. Here are the same technique, with different paper, and colors.

     Well, a few days ago I went to my local swap met just to kill time, and found a lot of 20+ stamps on a plastic bag, I asked the lady how much she wanted for it, and said 50 cents apiece.  She was a little bit surprised to see a big and bearded man purchasing all of them, especially when I told her; I would be the one using them.

     One of those stamps is the one that I will use for this project; it is called “A Bounty of Beautiful eggs,” by Laurie Campbell.  The paper used is Georgia Pacific card stock. Colors: G21, BV00, Y17, B24, YG06, YR24, YR07, RV11, B21, R29, YR04, Y13, E00, RV34, and E02. That’s a lot of colors.

My first step was to color the bunny. I did this for a reason; to have a texture on the bunny’s fur only, and not in the eggs. So I colored the bunny, and then applied my color less blender with a rag to give it that furry texture.

Once that part was done, it was time to color the rest of the image, kind of a pain, because of all the small details and shapes.  For some of the shadows I used the same color, I only layered the area where I wanted my shadow once the first coat was dry (One of the wonders of Copic markers is that you can make your colors darker by layering over and over the same area).

And here is the finished piece, and my first time coloring Easter eggs.

I didn’t forgot to make a post about hand sanitizer, just got a little busy at work.

One big advantage of using Copic markers for our projects is that we can easily go beyond simple blending, and apply textures to our coloring. The Copic pigments react to any alcohol based product, and that is the foundation for our most basic texture.

Ideally I would recommend you to buy a big bottle of color less blender ink, but you can get away without one for this technique. For my early easter project, I stamped, colored, and shaded an easter bunny (Cute). The final image looked flat, and nothing out of the ordinary.

I tough that my Bunny would look better if it had some texture, so I grabbed an old kitchen rag (clean of course), and sprayed it with my color less blender liquid with a perfume atomizer that I had laying around (DO NOT soak the rag, make sure it’s just barely wet), then padded my image with the wet rag. And, presto! My Bunny has a furry texture.

Note: The texture on the left side was created with color less blender, and the one in the right side with Hand sanitizer.

TIP: Hand sanitizer will get you almost the same results. It’s alcohol concentration is less than the color less blender, so it will react a little bit slower, and your project will be 99% germ free. Also, you can use it to clean your markers, or any non-porous area that was stained with Copic ink.

Of course that was my test image, I will post my real project next.

There’s no secret about my favorite coloring tools. The use of Copic markers is either a love or hate relationship. Many people love them as the best thing in the whole paper crafting world, and many would rater have a root canal, than to use Copic Markers.

Although my Copic relationship is of love, there is times when another product catches my attention as potentially useful. Usually, those products are inexpensive (compared to my Copics), and are meant to be a complement of the Copics I already own, this is what I’m calling my infidelity.

Recently I went to my local WalMart, and found a set of Martha Stewart Markers, the 24-color set cost me about $18.00USD. I decided to test it with the same paper and image as my previous post. I liked the colors, and found out that they can indeed be mixed/blended, but the tip is kind of rough, so much that they actually teared my paper. So unless I can find a paper that can resist those tips, my MS markers will be on storage.

Also, a friend gave me three Neopiko markers; much to my surprise I like them as they are the closest ones to my beloved sketch markers, they have boot a chisel tip, and a brush one. They are disposable, and slimmer than the Copic Ciao, but they cost a lot less than any Copic.

And so it was my affair with other products.

This is an image I made a few weeks back, but never got a chance to work on it (writing my previous post was to blame). The sketch was made on a regular copy-paper sheet, and then it was computer outlined. As it can be seen, some colors don’t match, and that it’s the purpose of this test page.

My selection of colors for the final image are: Hair – V09 BV08 100, Hair Ribbon – Y15 Y17, Hair – E13 E57, Skin – E51 E31, Dress – V12 RV21, Socks – E07 R24 B45, Shirt – B45 B41, and the Copics – B45 W1.

As a rule there is two things I never do, coloring an original sketch (either pencil or inked), and coloring without making a test image first.

A test image is a photocopy of the work that’s ready to be colored, and will help to select the final colors of your image, as well as the blending techniques that you may want to use. The coloring doesn’t need to be precise, as this image is just a guideline for the finished work.

     These are good practices even for Stampers, it is a real pain to spend hours making a card only to find out the color don’t match, or that your blending needs improvement. With a test image you did that beforehand.

On this post I want to expand a little more the way a Wet on Wet blending works. Before I just showed a finished illustration, but not the steps followed to get that result, and for that I felt it wasn’t 100% useful.

To start I will say that the image I’m coloring it’s an ice cream stamp I bought at Michaels, and I have to admit that stamping is not my forte, but I keep practicing. The colors used on this project are the following E35, E39, R29, R39, RV21, and V12.

 I first colored the ice cream part of my image with the E35 marker, making sure to really saturate it so it won’t dry on me. The saturation can be achieved by coating the area with several passes of the same color.

Right after the basic color has been applied, and I mean right after it was applied (you will have some seconds before it dries), I added the shadows with the darker color E39. You will see the darker color flowing through the base color, without sharp edges.

My next step was to use the earth colors to illustrate the cone, I used the same technique as in the ice cream part: I did the base color first, making sure it was well saturated, then colored the shadow while it still was wet.

Not looking that bad isn’t, my final step was to use my two shades of red to color the cherry, again with the same method. Here is my finished work.

And that is the basic way of Wet on Wet blending, not that hard isn’t. For my next post on blending I will talk about the opposite method, named Dry.