Copic Technique Journal--Hair Combinations

Welcome to the Third Copic Technique Journal Tutorial here on the Copic Oz Blog, I hope these features have got you thinking about building your own Technique Journal.  Along the way we have provided you with ideas for colour combinations, and skin combinations; and a series of FREE Templates for you to either place in your X-Press It Blending Journal (filled with X-Press It Blending Card) or for you to build your own journal.

With each technique we are also encouraging you to “have a go” and let us know how you have made your Technique Journal come to life.  We provide an InLinkz facility at the end of each blog post, and choose a winner from each technique to receive a FREE X-Press It Blending Journal.  The winner from the Skin Combinations tutorial is Alshandra, congratulations… please email Sascha with your postal address to claim you prize.

This time we are focussing on hair and adding our favourite combinations to our Technique Journal.  I have samples of dark hair, and you will be able to see Kathy’s Light Hair and Kate’s Fantasy Hair samples in the InLinkz Tool below… once again we are providing you with FREE Copic Blending Templates.  Simply print these onto X-Press It Blending Card, and get started:

Hair Combinations Copic Blending Template—Portrait

Hair Combinations Copic Blending Template—Landscape

These print on a whole A4 Sheet of X-Press It Blending Card, simply cut in half and they fit nicely into your Journal.

Hair is always a huge challenge for me, particularly trying to modernise hair on the images I colour.  I have always had hair that is just one colour, as in a solid colour, but today so many people have mixed hair colours, this is what I worked on in my sample page today. 

I have also built my hair samples so that I can reference the order in which my colours are applied, as I regularly forget the order in which you apply the colours, changes the outcome.  I always do a bit of extra blending (and streaking) at the end, but these examples will head me in the right direction when I need it.

Line 1—Standard Brown Tones

Line 2—Brown Tones with a Dark Blonde Under-Glow

Line 3—Brown Tones with Red Highlights

I like to keep “Stamped Examples” close to each of my Technique/Colour Combination Pages, given I chose to use three of the little ladies on the template to show the series of colour application, I opted to stamp my images on separate pieces of Blending Card, and tab them ready for inserting behind the journal page.  This is easily achieved by securing the Hair Combinations Template to the Journal using X-Press It Double Sided Tape, in channels, as shown below.

This creates a perfect cavity to hold the sample, which slides in and out with ease.  A little trick if you plan on storing more than one sample in each slot is to double up the layers of Double Sided Tape, the more layers of tape you use, the more examples you can fit in…. or use foam tape if you intend on storing a thick stash… I plan to put the colour combo that will follow (back onto) this one, on the next page, straight onto the back of this tabbed beauty, keeping the amount of loose items to a minimum.

I used three different Marci Girls stamps from La La Land, one for each of my colour combinations:

Sugar n Spice Marci for Standard Brown Tones

Winter Marci for Brown Tones with Blonde Under-Glow

Marci Ballerina for Brown Tones with Red Highlights

And for some further inspiration here are some links to some previously highlighted hair colour techniques/combinations:
Copic Hair and Skin Wheel
All About Hair Challenge
Have a Good Hair Day

Colouring Hair with Texture

So now it is over to you, similarly to last time, we are calling upon participants to show us how they sample hair colours in their Technique Journal, feel free to use the provided template, or your approach to hair colour combos!  Most importantly, link up using the InLinkz tool below, we will award a FREE Blending Journal to the most impressive entry, and announce the lucky winner in two weeks, at the start of our next Copic Tutorial, Goodluck!!

And for those of you in Brisbane and the surrounds, we are counting down the sleeps until the Scrapbook Expo on June 10, 11 and 12.  Come visit us at the X-Press Graph-X Stand and touch base with all things Copic.

In the mean time I hope you are inspired to get busy building your Copic Technique Journal!!

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Copic Technique Journal #2 Skin Swatches

Hi everyone, I hope you are all working on colouring those swatches for your colour journals - I know that's what I spent my weekend doing!  Today I'm going to show you the second idea for your Copic Colour Journal - it's one we all use and lots of people have trouble getting something they are happy with - yes it's Skin Colours!

But first we have a prize to give away from our Copic Technique Journal #1 Colour Swatches competition, congratulations to Alashandra who did a fantastic job of showcasing Colour Swatches in her Technique Journal, we really loved how she used one image to nest a series of different leaf and petal colour options!  Well done Alashandra, please email Sascha with your postal address and she will get your prize out to you!!

And now onto this week's tutorial.... I find that keeping a record of skin colour combinations is vital to my colouring, both those I have discovered for myself and those used by other Copic artists that I've seen online or at certification classes.  Armed with this array of choices that I know work, it makes it much easier to choose skin colours to match hair or clothing.

Once again we are providing you with a fabulous and free Copic Blending Template, designed especially for Copic Oz and perfect for trying out those skin colour combos! 
You have two options depending on which way you like to work (landscape or portrait) both templates can be cut in half so they can be glued into your Copic Blending Journal, or you can use the full A4 size and pop the pages into an A4 ring binder.

Click here for the portrait template
Click here for the landscape template 

To get you started I've completed a page of beginner friendly Copic skin colour combinations - all of which are simple combos for guaranteed results!  The only tricky one in the bunch is the very last combo - which takes a little more work to blend than the others.  I've tried to stick to the same cheek colour R20 for most of these, so you can see how different it looks against each of the colours.  R20 is one of my 'go to' colours for cheeks as it gives beautiful results against most skin combos.

Pale Skin Colour Combos

Now I have to admit to also creating a few 'play' pages, this first page is perfect for people who do not have access to a Copic safe printer.  I've made this template page by cutting a circle from some scrap paper, tracing the circle onto a page in my Copic Colour Journal 3 times, then placing the template over the drawn circle and using this as a mask.  I stamped my La-La Land Crafts stamp (New Years Marci) into the circle using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I then cut out some pieces from the Copic Colour swatch template and used these to record my colour combos.  You might like to record hair and clothing combos on the same page.

Your other option is to go a bit fancy, now I wouldn't do this for every page (as it took a while) but it might be fun to have a few like this scattered through your Colour Journal to make it look that bit more special.  On this page I've used the same skin colour for each image, but have played with different shadow colours, hair and clothing.  I am always surprised by how different the same colours can look when paired with different combinations.  To create this page I die cut a circle in pink paper, then die cut the fancy frame behind, stamped Autumn Marci on some scraps of X-Press It Blending card and cut these to fit into the circle - instant gorgeousness!

I hope you've enjoyed this peek at some of my favourite skin colour combos and that you will enjoy using our new skin colour combo template!

So now it is time for the competition details.... similarly to last time, we are calling upon participants to  show us how they sample skin swatches in their Copic Technique Journal, feel free to use the FREE Skin Swatches Templates, links above!!!  Show us how you journal skin tone options and link up your blog post via the InLinkz below.  A FREE Journal will be awarded to the most impressive post... check back here in two weeks time to see who won and be inspired by the next feature in our Copic Technique Journal series.

And for some further inspiration here is a look back at some of the Copic Oz Tutorials of past that focused on skin tone:
Copic Hair and Skin Colour Wheel
Dark Skin Tutorial
Colouring Dark Skin


Back soon with more,
Kate

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Blog Hop Winners

Hi there, its Sascha from Copic HQ again. Thank you all for participating in our blog hop!

Yesterday I went into the Royal Children's Hospital and made Mother's Day cards with a great group of kids. They made some beautiful cards and really enjoyed using the Copic Markers. Some of the kids were really shy, but ended up chatting away whilst making several cards for their Mums, aunties and grandmas!

They wrote beautiful messages inside the cards too. One little boy wrote, " I love you lots and I love you even more than you think." He was so excited that he didn't want to wait until Sunday and gave his Mum the card on the spot... It nearly brought her to tears.

So, please help us support Koala Kids! We want your cards for the kids and don't forget that we will donate $5 to Koala Kids for every card entered! For all the details and to download an entry form head to our website.

And now for the bit you have all been waiting for, here are the blog hop winners!

Copic Oz- Julie T
Kathy's Blog- Loulou
Edna's Blog- Adriana Morales
Kate's Blog- Ashandra
Facebook-  June Johnston


Please send us an email with your postal details so we can send your prize packs to you. Pin It

Blog Hop!!!!

Hi All, It’s Sascha from Copic HQ. Welcome to Copic OZ! I am super excited to be starting off a very special blog hop!

In 2013 X-Graph-X Supplies (the company behind Copic and X-Press It in Australia) is supporting Koala Kids – a great organization which supports kids with Cancer and their families.

WE WANT YOUR CARDS!!!

To support Koala Kids, we will donate $5 for every card entered into the Copic Card Challenge! To enter, simply create a Get Well themed card. There are over $750 worth of prizes to be won! For more information, check out our website. 

To get the ball rolling, our design team members have each made a special card. Join our blog hop for your chance to win some BLOG CANDY! (A Copic Prize Pack which includes Copic Markers, a NEW X-Press It Blending Journal and a Bundle of Bonus Fabscraps Goodies)

This card is pretty special! Not just because I made it, but because next week I will be heading into the Royal Children’s Hospital Kookaburra and day oncology wards to make Mother’s Day Cards, just like this one, with some very special kids.  

To participate in the hop simply leave a comment on my blog or on any of the other participating blogs and the Copic Australia Facebook page. (Thats 5 chances to win!) The next stop is Kathy’s Blog! The hop finishes at Midnight (AEST) on Monday, May 6, 2013. Sorry, Australian and New Zealand residents only.

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Copic Technique Journal - Colour Swatches

Hello Everyone and welcome back to another Copic Oz Tutorial!  This week marks the beginning of a series of posts designed to inspire you to create your very own Copic Technique Journal!!  Due to overwhelming demand, X-press Graph-x has now released the X-press It Blending Journal!!!  This fabulous book is full of the X-press It Blending Card which we all know is *perfect* for using with Copics and bound with a black cover (perfect for decorating with your own personal flair!).

To get the ball rolling on this series, I'm introducing the new Copic Blending Template, designed especially for Copic Oz and its free to download! You have two options depending on which way you like to work (landscape or portrait when cut in half) You can use it in the full A4 size to pop into a full sized ring binder, or, you can cut it in half (A5) and insert it into your Technique Journal!  

Click here for the portrait template
Click here for the landscape template 

Print out several for each of your colour families to use as your very own personal colour guide or even put several colours on the template for your favourite combinations that work well together.  Sometimes you've made a project and you just love the way the colours work together, but months down the track you've forgotten exactly which ones they were (now was that the G20's or the G40's???).  By putting this combination in your swatch book, you will forever have this resource on hand!

I've begun to organise my colour swatches with the RV family - using a the wide variety from RV0000 right through to RV99.  Begin by colouring the box with your favourite combinations and then write the colour names right next to it.  This makes an awesome resource for you to look back on when creating your next masterpiece!!
 

On the next page I've stamped the flower image from Flourishes' Lenten Rose stamp set several times down the side of the page and cut the template into separate blocks to provide a colour guide from each flower.

 On another page, I've stamped a couple of images, coloured them with a variety of Copics and then cut parts of the template to make a multi colour reference guide next to it.

Sooooooo........are you loving the new Blending Template????  HOW WOULD YOU LIKE THE CHANCE TO WIN????  Simply download the free template(Click here for the portrait template, Click here for the landscape template) and show us what you create with it and add your blog link to the Inlinkz below!!  A FREE Journal will be awarded to the most impressive post....check back on May 15th to see who's won and be inspired by the next amazing tutorial in the series by our incredibly talented Kate!!



Thanks so much for visiting today and Happy Colouring!!
Kathy  :)

PS... You might want to come back here on Friday, May 3! A little birdy has told me that something special will be happening! :)Pin It

Using Copic Markers to Create Stunning Coloured Flowers

Let me start this post by saying I take no responsibility for anyone ending up with a flower colouring addiction.  I'm warning you all these are fun, easy and give fabulous results!  So grab any paper flower and try one of these techniques today.
Please note each technique builds on the one preceding it, so there is some repetition of instructions.

These are the flowers we will be making

Flower #1 - Using 2 Copic Markers for a Realistic Coloured Flower

This technique creates a fabulous flower that looks quite realistic, I love using roses for this as you can really see the colour blends on the underside of the petals.

For this flower you will need:

• Mulberry Paper Flower
• 2 Copic Markers from a natural blending family
• Colorless Blender Various Ink Refill
• Heat Gun /Embossing Gun

Instructions:

Begin with a white or pale coloured paper flower and choose 2 colours of copic marker (I like to use colours that appear in my copic coloured image, from a natural blending family).   For this flower I have used RV63 & RV66.

Colour 1/2 of each petal with your lightest colour working from the outer edge in towards the flower centre - make sure not to colour the whole petal.

Using the darker colour, apply a thin strip of colour to the outer edge of each petal - I just run the side of my marker along the edge of the petals.

Your flower should look like this once finished applying colour from your Copic markers.  You will notice I've made no attempt to blend colours or be particularly neat here - this technique is very forgiving.

The next step is to apply a few drops of Colorless Blender to each petal - add the liquid to the outer edge of each petal - the fluid will wick towards the flower centre and drag a little colour along with it.

 Dry the flower with a heat gun / embossing gun - this will take up to 45 seconds depending on how wet the flower is.

Drying with the heat gun will not only dry the liquid but it also results in discoloured edges to the petals (they darken considerably) giving a beautiful result.

You can watch this flower being created here:

 

Flower #2 - Using 3 Copic Markers to Create a Fantasy Flower

This flower uses 3 colours from different families and adds in a little bling to create a stunning fantasy flower.  This technique really works well on flatter flowers like the gardenia I used here, and though I have used a mulberry paper flower you can use this same technique on fabric flowers also - it looks amazing on satin, though your colours will turn out much lighter! 

For this flower you will need:

• Mulberry Paper Flower  - I like using gardenias for this
• 3 Copic Markers from across colour families (I used: V09, RV09 & YR09)
• Colorless Blender Various Ink Refill
• Stickles Glitter Glue - I used the colour Diamond
• Heat Gun /Embossing Gun

Instructions:

Begin with a white or light coloured paper flower (I like gardenias because they are easy to colour). Choose 3 colours of copic marker (this works to best effect if you choose 3 colours each from a different colour family - though can use a natural blending family as well if you like).

Colour the centre of the flower (avoiding the stamens) - I used V09, you can pick any of the colours to be your centre colour.

Then colour the remaining layers of petals, with the same colour - only add this colour to the to the inner part of each petal.  Your flower should look like this.

Add your second colour next to the first, overlapping a little - making sure to leave white space on each petal for your third and final colour.  Add this second colour to all petals, your flower should now look like this.

Add the third and final colour to remaining white areas of flower, overlapping the third colour over the second colour - you are not trying to blend here.

You should now have something like this and you are ready to add Colorless Blender fluid all over the flower - make sure you have thoroughly wet all petals so that the colours mix and blend.  For this flower you do not need to drip blender onto edges, just wet the flower all over so that the colours blend together.

Dry flower with heat gun / embossing gun as this produces best results.

Add a little stickles to the edges of each petal and leave to dry.

 When dry your flower will look similar to this

 

You can watch this flower being created here:

 

Flower #3 - Bling-It-Up Copic Flowers

These flowers build on the basic techniques from Flower #1 and Flower #2 and add a little (or a lot) of bling to ramp up the wow factor! Depending on your flower choice (flat or dimensional) will decide how many colours you can use to create the copic colour of your flower.  For smaller flowers fewer colours are best, on larger flowers you can use 3 or more colours.

For these flowers you will need:

• Mulberry Paper Flower
• 2 or 3 Copic Markers
• Colorless Blender Various Ink Refill
• X-Press It Clear Gel Glue
• Heat Gun /Embossing Gun
• Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Spray (I used Creme Brulee Cream) or Glitz Spritz (I used Royal Amethyst Fire) you could also use the Perfect Pearls Mist from Ranger
• Gala Glitz in White

Instructions:

1. Begin with flower of your choice, flat (like a gardenia) or dimensional (like a rose).  
2. Choose colours of Copic Markers to add to your flower - for a realistic effect perhaps choose colours from a natural blending family or colours that may exist in nature, or go for a wild combination of fantasy colours - the choice is yours.  
3. Apply colour to flower in one of the methods described above.
4. Add Colorless Blending solution to blend and soften colours, then dry with a heat gun.   

It's at this point you add the bling - building on our previously learned techniques.  For each of the following flowers you need to have completed steps 1 to 4.

Example: Shimmer Flower
Copic colours used on this flower BV11 &BV17
After completing steps 1 to 4 spray entire flower with a pale or colourless shimmer spray (I used Starburst Sprays), and dry with heat gun / embossing gun, for a result that looks like this:

Example: Bling Flower
Copic Colours used on this flower YR15 & R39
After completing steps 1 to 4 add Clear Gel Glue to tips of lower petals and sprinkle Gala Glitz over top.  Carefully turn flower upside down and tap to remove excess product and then allow glue to dry completely before use.  DO NOT dry with a heat gun as this can cause your glue to bubble or embellishments to melt.  This gives a result that looks like this:

Example: Shimmer & Bling Flower
Copic colours used on this flower BG13 & BV13
After completing steps 1 to 4  spray entire flower with a pale or colourless shimmer spray (you could even use more than one colour of spray), then add Clear Gel Glue to tips of lower petals and sprinkle Gala Glitz over top.  Carefully turn flower upside down and tap to remove excess product and then allow glue to dry completely before use.   You can also apply these 'bling' techniques to the flatter gardenias and similar flowers. This gives a result that looks like this:

You can watch these flowers being created here:

I hope this has inspired you to pull out some of those unused paper flowers in your stash and colour them up using your Copic markers.  Why not show us what you have created on the Copic Oz Facebook page.

May your day sparkle,
KatePin It

Let Yourself GLOW!

Hello Everyone!  Today I'm going to be talking about creating a 'glow' around your coloured image!  There are a couple of ways of doing this, by either 'flicking' colour out or dotting.

Flicking is one of my favourite technqiues, it's essential for when using the Feathering Technique and it's perfect for adding a glow as well.  :)

The best way to do this technique is to place your marker on the paper and flick it out, leaving a trailing edge (top example).  The action is all in the wrist!  Don't use the 'tick' action (middle example) - you don't need to go downwards first, only across.  Don't leave a hard edge (bottom example) - you won't get a lovely soft edging around your image unless you have the flicked edge.

I've used Flourishes Hello Baby stamp set for the first image.  I've coloured the outfit pink and then used BG0000 for the glow.

Start flicking around the edge of your image. 

I find that it works easiest with a very pale colour - you can always go around again to darken it up, which is what I've done here!

 If you want to make your 'glow' a little darker, use the next Copic maker in the range, in this case I've flicked a little BG000 (but don't flick as far out as the BG0000) and then flicked out again with lighter colour.

I really like using BG0000 or B0000 for glows around my images because it's like a sky colour, however, sometimes blues are not ideal for your image.  This time I've coloured the outfit blue and added a yellow glow with YR30.  You can darken the glow with a little touch of YR31!

If you want to add a little texture, try dotting on colour instead of flicking!  This is a fun and totally random effect!

This time I've used this fabulous hat image from Flourishes' Feminine Charm stamp set.  I've started by dotting on a light colour, in this case I've used E50, in larger dots using the tip of the Super Brush Nib.

Next I've dotted on some E51, still using the tip of the brush nib, but made the dots smaller and not as far out from the image.

Next I've dotted on some E53, still using the brush nib and also made the dots smaller and closer to the image.

To soften the dots, I've added more E50 in the gaps until I'm happy with the finished effect!  Obviously you don't have to use these colours, it depends on your image and what will work best!

Have fun trying some different effects for your images and make your artwork GLOW!!  :)

Happy Colouring!
Kathy  :)

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