Challenge # 2: It's All About Men!

Father's Day is coming up in Australia, and I thought it would be a great idea to celebrate the men in our lives for the next COPICOZ challenge!

Here is the card I made! Hopefully it inspires you all to create your own project!


What's the Challenge?: Create a project (card, layout, off the page) using your Copic Markers to colour A FATHER'S DAY CARD OR A MASCULINE CARD FOR A MAN!You can use any colours or images you like to create your masterpiece!

So lets celebrate the men in our lives - and let your imagination run wild!!!
Is there a Prize?: YES!! X-press Graph-X are donating a wonderful prize of a pack of 12 ATYOU SPICA PENS!!!! ( You all know how much I looooove these pens!!!)

Who can play?: This challenge is open to EVERYONE, including international!

How do you enter?: Use the inlinkz below to connect to your blog or online gallery and upload it prior to 6pm Monday 27th September, Australian EST (4am USA EST)!!! Winner will be announced on the COPICOZ blog on TUESDAY 28th SEPTEMBER 2010.

Come play along with me! I can't wait to see what you create!

Happy Colouring!....Mandi
xxx

Challenge Winner!!!

A BIG Thank You to everyone one who participated in our very first CopicOz challenge!!!  We've had a wonderful time looking at all the floral beauties you've created!!!  

The winner of a 10 Pack of X-press It Blending Card and a 24 Copic Wallet is......

#13 Marg Mortimer

CONGRATULATIONS Marg!!!  Please Email me with your postal details so we can send your prize to you!!!

Honorable Mentions go to.....

#7 Kylie

#9 Edna Morrisedie

#8 Debbie Pamment

Don't forget, the next CopicOz challenge starts TOMORROW and is hosted by the lovely Mandi!!!  Hope you play along with us!!!

Hugs
Kathy  :)

Monochromatic Colouring

What is Monochromatic Colouring?

A monochromatic colour is all the hues, tints/tones and shades of a single colour and gives a subtle and peaceful look due to the lack of contrast and uses variations of lightness and saturation of a single colour. Most people usually think it refers to greyscale/ black and white colouring but we can use other combinations using only tones of a single colour group.

Colour plays a strong role in all our emotions and how we feel about something we see, when choosing colours think about what you want to be the main focus of your card.

When we choose Warm colours-: such as Red, Pink or Orange they provide excitement, energy and passion. When we view something coloured with warm colours, they move forward in our line of vision and will grab your attention because of the intensity of the colour.

When we choose Cold colours-; such as Blue and Green this gives us more of a feeling of tranquillity and a sense of peacefulness. Cool colours move away from our line of vision and recede into the background.

Sepia colouring is using colours of a Light Brown to a Darker Brown  and is neither Warm nor Cool but gives us a feeling of warmth as in what we feel when looking at old aged vintage photos.

I have included some examples of Monochromatic colouring using Warm, Cool and Sepia Colouring. Don’t be afraid to experiment with this colouring, the effects can be wonderful to view and look so effective on your card.

The image I have used is “LYLAH”,Fashionette Lil’ Lolita from Tickled Pink Stamps and has been stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black onto X-press It Blending Card.

 Friendly reminder. All of us here at CopicOz have a fabulous challenge for you to enter this month,

"BOTANICALS" and there is a wonderful prize up for grabs !!!
Thanks for Stopping by , Debra, xxxxx

X-Press It Blending Card

People often tell me that when they apply too much ink during the blending process the ink starts to feather out beyond the stamped line. The first question I ask them is, "What paper are you using?"

If you are using the wrong type of paper with your Copics, you are going to get very frustrated with the outcome!


Here is an example of a teddy bear that I stamped using Neenah Cardstock, and as you can see the browns have moved and made a mess of the image. I also couldn't get a smooth blend and as such would have needed to keep adding a lot more ink to achieve a blend that I am happy with.














Here is another example using Pinks. Again I have marked the area where the Copics have feathered out of the image. I am definitely NOT happy with this quality of work!



The paper that I use ALL the time is X-Press It Blending Card. This paper has been available for some time in Australia, but has just been released at CHA in America. This paper is taking the Copic World by storm! If you have not yet used it ... RUN ... as fast as you can to your Copic stockist, and pick up a pack for yourself! I am no longer frustrated with the outcome of my work. Instead I love the Copic Colours as they are bright and vibrant on this paper. As you can see in the example below, I am able to achieve a brilliantly smooth blend between my colours, but most importantly the ink stays where it is meant to be. I am able to use a lot of ink to really saturate the fibers of the paper and still my colours wont feather out!

Don't forget to enter Kathy's Flower Challenge. You still have time to create something remarkable. This is such a fun challenge .... and the prize is great too!!!

You can also join me at Paperific on the (27th, 28th and 29th August) for a 2 Hour Colouring with Copic Class. Click Here for more information or to book your spot!

Happy Colouring....Mandi xxx

Colouring Black!

Hello Everyone!!  Recently I made this snowman card and had quite a lot of emails about how I coloured his hat - so I thought it would make a great tutorial!!  As we know, the beauty of Copics is that you can blend colours so that you can get shading - but black is such a flat colour that you can't really shade with it, so instead of using black, you use a range of greys - in this case, I used the Cool Greys, C3, C5 and C7.

This snowman image is from JustRite Stampers' Groovy Snowman set and has been stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black onto X-press It Blending Card.  For Australian and New Zealand customers, you will be able to order this through your local Copic Stockist.  The BIG news announced last week at CHA is that the USA is now importing the X-press It Blending Card (along with the Mask It and High Tack Tape) and our friends in North America should be able to order this wherever you buy your Copic Markers!!

 

To begin with, I coloured the first part of the snowman's hat in C3 - at this point it doesn't need to be too smooth as we'll be going over it a bit.

Next I decide where my highlight is going to be on the hat - to make it easier I've put a couple of arrows so you can see.  I take my C5 marker and feather in from the edges to roughly where my arrows are.  (For more information on Feathering - please see THIS post.)

Next I take the C7 Marker and also feather this in from the side but not quite as far.  Keep feathering with both the C5 and C7 Markers until you get the look you want and if the line is a little heavy where the highlight is, feather a little C3 back in. 

Remember the more you go over your colour the darker it will get, so by the time you finish, the edges of your hat will be black!  Do the same to the bottom rim of your hat and finish colouring your image.

Don't forget that the first CopicOz Challenge is now on and can be found HERE!!!  Use your Copic Markers to colour FLOWERS!!!  It doesn't matter what size, shape or colour, we'd just love to see your beautiful botanicals!!!

Hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial and thanks for stopping by!!
Hugs
Kathy  :)