Stormy Summer Skies

Hello Everyone!!  Today's tutorial is meant to be Summer themed and yes, usually people reach for things related to the beach, pool, drinks or BBQ type things.......after the last few weeks, the most appropriate thing here in 'sunny' Queensland is Stormy Skies!!  We've had a shocker of a start to Summer, storm after storm not to mention the massive storm that had hail the size of cricket balls pelt the city and caused over $800 million worth of damage.  So on that note, let's go play at creating some stormy skies......

I've used this cute image by Unity from their Hodgepodge of Happiness stamp set, stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black onto X-press It Blending Card and coloured with Copics.
Umbrella/Boots - Y11, Y15, Y17
Bench - E81, E84, E87
Dress - B00, B12, B14, RV11, RV13
Grass - YG11, YG13, YG17, E81, BG93

So far our sky is just white card and that doesn't look very stormy at all!  To create some clouds I've used some X-press It Mask It and Spellbinders Labels 6 Die.  (You could cut your own custom shape if you don't have a cloud shaped die!)

While I have the Mask It out, I've stamped another image (also onto Blending Card because it's nice and smooth and you can reuse the mask), put a piece of Mask It over the top so it's stuck to the white card and then cut the image with a pair of scissors.  You want to cut it nice and tight otherwise you'll have a white line around your image.

Peel off the Mask It and place it over your coloured image.

Because the sky goes a weird green colour when there is hail in a storm, I'm lightly airbrushing the sky with BG93 first.

Then peel off your cloud shape and place it in the sky of your image.  I've used C3 to make my storm clouds.

Once you've lightly airbrushed around the edge, move it around and repeat.  This will give the effect of clouds in the sky.  I've gone a step further and added some C5 to really deepen those clouds.  (Not totally replicating the recent hail storm - they were more like C9!)

I've also gone back and added a little more BG93 as well as an all over C1 to dull the clouds a bit.  I've also taken the BG93 and airbrushed down the the ground - it won't effect the coloured image since she is protected by the Mask It!  Once you are happy with the way your sky looks, peel off your mask and put it back on your original stamped piece and save it for the next time you need it!

Make your card!

Just to note - I would never recommend sitting on a bench under an umbrella in a hail or electrical storm.....in fact I'd be running for cover and unplugging all the electricals in the house!  However, she makes a cute card don't you think?!

I hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial and everyone here at Copic Oz would like to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!  See you in 2015!

Happy Colouring
Kathy  :)

Easy Typography for your Copic Projects

Today I'm going to let you in on a little secret - my lettering isn't always what I'd like it to be, so I CHEAT.  So in an effort to help all those other typographically challenged people out there, I'm going to share my secret formula for creating beautiful lettering on your cards, journals or scrapbook pages.

Two reliable ways to create beautiful typography:

1. Use Word (or similar program) to create desired lettering, choose a outline only font, print this in very light grey using a laser printer.  You can trace straight over this printed word with Copics and if you are neat, no one will ever know you didn't write this yourself!
   NB: test your printer ink to make sure it is Copic safe before trying this, all laser printers are Copic Safe, only some ink jet printers have Copic safe ink.  For information on how to test your ink read this post.
2. You learned this second method in Elementary/Primary School.  Print the word onto paper, flip the paper over and scribble on the back very heavily in soft lead pencil (eg: 2B), turn the paper back over place it over your project and then trace over the word - this transfers the carbon/graphite from the pencil creating a copy onto your card or page.
   NB: Only one thing you need to know here, tracing over pencil with Copic makes the pencil permanent - you can't rub it out later!  So this works best if outlining with black or dark coloured Copics that will hide the pencil lines.

I used the pencil trace method for the lettering on this project, as I knew I would be using black, which would hide the pencil lines.

For today's project, I will be printing directly onto my X-Press It Blending card and tracing over the printed text.

What I Used:

• Copic Multi Liners: 0.3 Black, Turquoise, Pink, BS Cool Gray (Brush Tip)
• Copic Marker: RV09, BG32 & BG49
• AtYou Spica: Turquoise & Pink
• XPress It Blending Card
• Font - Victorian LET

Begin by tracing over your printed outline with a black Copic Multi Liner - I used 0.3

Using your favourite coloured Copic Multi Liners add a little doodling, I started with Turquoise.

Then add a little pink, leaving quite a bit of white space.

Swap to some of those yummy sparkly Spica pens and add a little more doodling.

Finish by adding simple dots to fill the remaining white space - don't make all of your marks doodles, keep some marks simple so your design doesn't look too busy.

To make your design pop off the page,  edge your letters using a cool grey - I used the Copic Brush Tip Multi Liner for this as it has a wondeful precision tip.

To complete my card I needed some ribbon, sadly I didn't have a colour to match the Turquoise, so Copics to the rescue!  I coloured some white ric-rac with my Copic Marker BG32.

I had the same problem with the glitter on my tree, so once again I used my Copic Markers in RV09 & BG49 to recolour the glitter elements on my embellishment.

When you put it all together the finished Christmas card looks like this.

I hope this post has given you a few ideas about how you could incorporate Copics into your Christmas cards and create beautiful lettering on your Copic projects!

Back with more next year and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Kate

Reds and Greens

Hello Everyone!  Welcome back to another Copic Oz Tutorial!  Today we are talking Reds and Greens and of course what could be more perfect for this theme at this time of year than holly?  Holly is a lot of fun to colour and you can get such fabulous effects by focusing on your contrast to really make your image POP!

Today I've used the Heaven and Nature Sing stamp set by Power Poppy and have stamped the image in Memento Tuxedo Black onto X-press It Blending Card.  My FAV reds are R32, R35, R37, R39!  A lot of people do struggle with reds, however I find these blend beautifully and I love the shades of these markers.  For greens - particularly for Christmas themed images - I always reach for G20, G21, G24, G28.  I love the contrast from pale green through to very deep green!

I've started with the holly leaves by laying down a base of G20

I've used the shading on the stamp as a guide to where to deepen the colour with G21

Deepen this shading again with G24

Then I've added the darkest colour (use a light hand), G28.  Remember you can always add a little bit more, it's much harder to lighten something that is too dark.

Lightly blend your colours, always using your NEXT lightest colour!  I blended a *little* bit of G24, then a *little* bit of G21 and finally some G20.  You don't have to go over all the leave, the parts that you leave will be lighter and be the highlight to contrast with your shadows.  If you want to deepen your shadow areas, add a little grey or a deep blue-green!

To make the berries luscious and pop of the page - I start with R32

Then darken with R35 - remember you don't have to add much and it's only on the edge.

For a little more contrast, add some R37

Now you could stay with these three colours and lightly blend to finish your berries - or you could darken them some more for greater contrast.  Below, I've left the bottom one with the above three colours, the middle berry I've added a little R39 and the top one I've added a touch of RV99 to really darken it up! 

It's up to you how bright or dark you want to go.....I decided to darken all mine!  :)

You don't have to stop your reds and greens there!  I've finished my image off with lighter reds for my peachy-toned flowers and different greens for their leaves.
Flowers - R11, R12, R14
Leaves - G40, G82, G85, E21 (for a slight browning effect)
Flower Centres - Y21, Y28

I hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial, thanks for popping by and if you are colouring Christmas themes right now, why not leave us a comment where we can find you!  We'd love to see what you create!
Happy Colouring!

Testing Copic Marker Shadow Colours

Today I'm taking a huge leap and experimenting with different colours to add interest to shadows.  Now I'm not sure if you've seen this post but in it, Mandi-Lee talks about using complimentary colours in your shadows for extra wow factor.  I've previously tried using the BV family and even the occasional B, but I was wondering what else might work other than complimentary colours.

To test some combinations, I created a grid using a single Copic colour marker and a single colour for the shadow - not the easiest blending combo in many cases, but this provided some incredibly interesting results!  I was expecting many of my shadows to look pretty awful, but was quite surprised by how good so many of them looked - some of these colours even blended rather well!

Now for the best results ideally pick a colour darker than you are colouring with, (this didn't always work out that way the way I did this), as a result some of these colour combos may have looked better with a slightly darker colour for the shadow.  Also though I didn't use them here (as we know these should work),  don't forget about the complimentary colours when looking for shadow colour options!

On to the test...

First I tried some of the light/bright colours - these were a bit tricky to blend and some of the combos turned out a bit interesting, the yellow in particular proved quite fussy.

My favourites for shadows on:

• BG02 were W3, BV00 and R02 - though C3 was also ok
• YG05 were BV00, B01 and W3
• Y02 were B01 and E02
• V04 were C3, B01 and W3 - though some of these aren't really shadows but they do look great!
• E11 were C3, BV00, R02, E02 and W3

All in all, there were many more colours than I was expecting, that produced great results, though not all results are 'shadows' exactly!

Next I tried some mid tones and darker colours - I think these were even more successful, but again I ended up with some interesting combinations. 

My favourites for shadows on:

• V06 were T5, BV17, G28 (closest to complimentary colour)  and B37
• RV29 were G28 
• B08 were T5, BV17 and B37
• YR09 were RV19, TR18 and B37 (closest to complimentary colour) 
• YG67 were T5, BV17, G28 and B37

It turns out there are many more choices for interesting shadow colours than I originally thought, and not at all what I would have predicted!  I had hoped to find some pattern to what works - something like the complementary colours - but it seems to be a little random.  I would encourage you to try your own version of this to find exciting options for your shadows!

If you're a bit nervous then the amazing team at Copic have made it easy for you with the new Copic Colour Wheel.  For reliable shadows with the wow factor,  try using the complimentary colour for the marker you have chosen - you will find potential colour choices opposite your chosen colour on the new Copic Colour Wheel.

Back with more soon,

Kate

Sakura Pink!

Hello Everyone!  Did you know that the Copic range grew this month with the introduction of a new PINK multiliner?!  As we all know, this month is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so the new pink multiliner has arrived at the perfect time for all your doodle art works, adding accents to your stamped projects, journalling in your scrapbooks and so much more!

I've tried my hand at a basic journal page using the Sakura Pink Multiliner for most of the work.  I've started by adding a little colour (pink of course) to the page by airbrushing some RV55 Copic around the edges.

Next I've taken my Sakura Pink Multiliner and started drawing.....

Then I've done some doodling.....

Add a heart and try a technique called Cross Hatching.  Draw lines at a 45 degree angle.

Then drawn more lines at the opposite 45 degree angle.

To give a more filled in effect, use your multiliner to draw lines straight down.  This effect is often used in Manga or drawings to add depth of shading.

Use a variety of markers to start colouring parts in.  I've used RV00, RV52, RV55.  I've also used the Sakura Pink Multiliner to draw in a bit of a border.

Add some depth to your page by layering colours with stencils.

To draw it all together, I've used RV63 to lightly go over the page as well as added a little bit of stamping.

That's all from me today, I hope everyone gets behind Breast Cancer Awareness Month and help raise funds for this cause - we all know someone who has been affected by this terrible disease and I hope one day we can find a cure!

Support Breast Cancer Awareness in October with Copic Oz

Did you know that one in eight women in Australia will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime?  I'm sure you know that early detection saves lives and that the earlier a cancer is discovered, the greater the chances of successful treatment.  To help raise awareness for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Copic Marker Australia have decided to donate to the McGrath Foundation to help raise awareness and money, to support the fight against breast cancer.  YOU will all help to decide how much is donated by participating in the #COPIC4ACAUSE project.

While I may not be eligible to win a prize, I have decided to create a project in my Copic Art Journal aka Copic Blending Journal for #COPIC4ACAUSE. 

I have created a special pink doodled heart, using as many pink Copic markers as I could.  The outline for the project was done in Black Copic Multi Liners:  0.5, 0.3 and 1.0

The doodled image was coloured with RV02 and RV04

RV00, RV04 and RV09

RV55, RV66 and RV69

RV23 and RV25

Now because this is a piece of doodle art - it's not supposed to be fussy, or planned or time consuming, so the only blending I've done is on the very large swirls.  To colour these I've added RV09 to the ends.

Then RV69 to the base

I've added a little RV66 between the RV09 and RV69 - making sure to flick where the colours meet.

I've continued to use the flick blending method with these 3 colours until I had an image that was nice and smooth.

Add some RV09 and RV000

 Fill in any white areas in the design with RV10

Accent with N1, N3 and N5 for a little shading.

and you are finished.

Do you think it's pink enough?

I can't wait to see what projects you all create to support this amazing cause, don't forget to upload your creations to Instagram with the hashtag #COPIC4ACAUSE and tag @COPICMARKERAU.  I really hope you all get behind this amazing initiative, because every dollar counts in the fight against breast cancer.

Back with more soon,

Kate