Feathering Dresses!

Hello Everyone and welcome back to another Copic Oz Tutorial!!  Today I'm taking a look at the Feathering Technique and showing a few combinations to try yourself!

Feathering is a technique that's perfect for those times when you want to use two colours from two completely different colour families and need them to blend.  Think of fairy wings, dresses, irises, pansies, frangipani's.....any time that two different colours need to blend or merge into each other when the traditional blending techniques won't work.  The ONE important thing you need to remember is that no matter whether you are using purple, blue, yellow green or any combination; when you look at the number on your Copic Marker, the number needs to END in a 0, 1 or 2!  The reason you need to use a light colour is so the colours that feather out will blend, very dark colours do not work. 

Let's start at the beginning - take a piece of X-press It Blending Card, a Copic Multiliner and two Copic Markers from different families, I'm using B01 and BV11.

Draw a rectangle with your Multiliner and then place a mark at the one third and two third points.  Multiliners are great to use with Copics as they will not bleed or react with the alcohol in the markers.

Take your first maker (which ever you prefer) and place it on one edge and flick it toward the two third mark, lifting as you go.  It's like a flicking/sweeping action and should leave a trailing edge. I've used BV11 first.

Notice how it is darker on the side where you place the marker to the paper and a lighter, trailing edge as the marker is lifted from the paper.  Repeat to fill in the box.

Next, take your other marker (in this case B01) and do the same thing from the other side.  If you don't feel comfortable doing the feathering from the other direction, just turn the page and repeat the previous step to achieve the same result.

Remember, the trick is to use the SIDE of your brush nib, not the tip!  If you are getting a stripey effect, it's is probably because you are using the tip.  Look at the bottom of this picture to see the differences. The first 'flick' is using the SIDE of the brush nib, the bottom one is using the TIP - this will not allow your colours to blend and you'll get a stripey effect.

So, let's transfer this technique onto a stamped image.  To demonstrate with, I'm using this sweet CandiBeans image called Penny's Dandelion Shower - her dress is perfect to use with this technique!  Once again, I've started with BV11.

Next use B01 and feather from the top down.

Purple and Blue might not be your favourite colour combinations, so I've done a few other samples to give you some ideas - just remember, your colours should always finish in 0, 1, or 2.

Top Left - RV00, B00
Top Right - R11, BG11
Bottom Left - BG10, V01
Bottom Right - Y11, YG11

Finish colouring your image and create your card!

I hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial!  Why not have some fun with the feathering technique yourself and leave us a link so we can see what you create!  :)

Happy Colouring!

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Marbled Backgrounds with Copic Various Inks

Hi All - this week I'm going to share something fun that you could even get the kids involved with if you want to!  Though I must warn you, once you start playing this can be a little addictive, and it only gets worse once you realise all the things you can use it on!  I'm talking about marbling with Copic Various Inks of course :)

To try this for yourself you will need:

• shaving foam (the cheaper the better) 
• a flat surface, tray or dish that is longer than the object you'd like to colour
• 3 or 4 colours of Copic Various ink, I used: BG15, BG34, BG49 and YG07
• a palette knife, spatula, and maybe a toothpick 
• and if you'd like to include a little luxury a pearlescent or metallic ink, I used Silver iZink
• things to marble, paper, card etc.

 Spread the shaving foam onto a flat surface using a credit card or palette knife, I make sure mine is about 3cm thick so I can make a few different marbled items.  Once the surface is relatively flat, drip the various ink on top, making sure to keep each drop separate.  I like to use only 3 - 4 colours at once or you run the risk of making mud - my most successful patterns have either been all cool colours or all warm colours, BUT if you are careful you could use all the colours of the rainbow - you just won't be able to make as many prints.  

You can add a few drops of metallic or pearlescent ink for a luxury look,

a few drops = delicate swirls of metallics, lots of drops = pure luxury!  I just added a few.

The Various ink will eat into the foam a little, don't worry this won't be a problem.

Using the tip of a palette knife or a toothpick, draw parallel lines through the shaving foam.  Then rotate your project 45 degrees and repeat the process, keep rotating your project and drawing parallel lines through the foam until you have a pleasing pattern.

Place your cardstock onto the surface of the foam and lightly press down with your fingers, you need to make sure that all of the card makes contact with the foam or you will have blank spots on your design.  Some of the foam may squash around on to the back of your page - don't worry, just wipe it off later.

Gently peel the card from the surface of the shaving foam - don't worry this isn't the design that will be on your card.

Place your paper foam up onto some newspaper and use a paper towel to gently wipe to foam off the paper, I've also tried a spatula to remove the foam, but it can damage the paper surface and drag colour across the design - so I prefer a paper towel.  This step is really messy so be careful.  Once the shaving cream is removed, the design printed onto your paper will be revealed, the FIRST print will look something like this, notice the white space and clean lines.

Now if the pulled pattern left in the foam looks really pretty like this one, then grab another piece of paper (or your journal) and place it onto the foam - no need to waste it, and yes I've placed a double page journal into the foam - messy but so pretty!

Your print may look something like this, wouldn't this be an amazing and unique background for a scrapbook layout, page or a card.

Hmm - there is still a LOT of shaving cream and ink - I like to draw more lines add a little more ink and create a 2nd generation marbled print - notice this one has less white space and the pattern isn't as crisp, the lines are all softer and this second print has more of a watercolour appearance - still beautiful though!

To be honest I just keep dipping pages into the ink until either the ink or the shaving cream run out, it's messy, fun, unpredictable and completely addictive.

Wondering what else you could use this on?  Following is a brief list of things I've marbled:

• journal pages
• scrapbook pages
• card backgrounds
• chipboard letters (this looks AMAZING!)
• ribbon - oooh this looks yummy
• doilies
• Easter eggs
• notepaper
• envelopes
• handkerchiefs - though this was a bad idea as it's so pretty I've never used it!

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial on marbling with Copic Various inks - if you have felt inspired to give this a go we would love to see your results over on the FaceBook page.

Back with more soon,
KatePin It

Back to Basics

Hello Everyone and welcome back to another Copic Oz Tutorial!  Today we are going Back to Basics!  For many of us, it seems such a long time ago that we ventured into the Copic Universe, but we have to remember that many have only just started on their journey, so for those beginners - this one is for you!!

Let's start at the beginning - did you know there are now 358 Copic Colours!!!  I know - awesome right!!  :)  There are FOUR styles of Copic Markers - Original (square body), Sketch (oval body), Ciao (round body) and Wide (short, wide body).  Most of the Papercraft Tutorials that you'll find online or in stores will use the Sketch and Ciao markers - both of these use the Super Brush Nibs which are perfect for blending!  The main difference between these two marker types is that the Sketch comes in ALL 358 Colours, you can airbrush with it, it's a little more expensive because it holds 40% more ink than the Ciao.  The Ciao come in 180 Colours and isn't designed to fit the airbrush system.  You CAN absolutely have both types in your collection and use both at the same time as the inks are the same.  I have a collection of both!

Sooooo......how do you choose colours??  A good starting point is the Copic Colour Wheel!  You can download your free copy of the Copic Colour Wheel from the Copic Marker Australia Library - or simply CLICK HERE!  The Colour Wheel has all the colours on it, grouped in Colour Families (Blue, Blue-Violet, Violet, Red-Violet, Red, Yellow-Red, Yellow, Yellow-Green, Green, Blue-Green, Earth, Cool Grey, Neutral Grey, Toner Grey, Warm Grey.).

When you look at your markers you'll see a number - for example B00.  If you look at your Colour Wheel you'll see that the B stands for the Blue Colour Family.  The first NUMBER (0) tells you how vibrant or saturated the colour is.  The second NUMBER (0) tells you how light or dark the shade is.

Here's an example of a Natural Blending Pair.  That is, two colours with the same letter, same first number and the second number 2 - 4 digits apart.  In this example I've used B00 and B02.  When you look at a Colour Wheel, these colours will be on the same track that goes around the wheel.

Now I'm sure you've seen that usually as people become more confident with their Copics, they use more than two colours.  A natural blending partner for the above two markers is B05, because it is 2 - 4 digits apart from B02.  You can see in the example that the vibrancy of the colours is the same, but the shade gets darker.  This will still be on the same track of the colour wheel.

So what happens if you change the first number instead of the second number?  In that case, you are changing the saturation/vibrancy of the colour.  Below I have B05, B45 and B95 (all ending in 5), however look how much more GREY the colour becomes as you change that first number?!  These colours will be on different tracks on the colour wheel - the greyer it becomes the closer it moves to the centre of the wheel.

Disclaimer - the E Family (Earth) doesn't follow this rule with the first number - it does with the second number rule though.  Earth is that rebel in the family.....you know what I mean, we all have one don't we!  ;-)

So, lets colour!  This sweet image is called Wendy's Bouquet by CandiBean and I've started colouring her dress in the example colours above, beginning with B00.  When starting to colour, I always lay down the LIGHTEST colour first - this is like priming you paper ready for blending.

Next I've started shading with B02.

Notice I've flicked in the darker colour from the sides?  Usually people only talk about the 'flicking' style when talking about Feather Blending, but this is a really good habit to get into as those trailing edges are *SO* much easier to blend than hard, blunt edges.  Your flicking should use the SIDE of your brush nib and have a trailing edge like the bottom example, not hard lines like the upper ones.

After you've flicked in your darker colour of your pair, go back and LIGHTLY blend with the lighter colour where the two colours meet.  In this case, it's B00.

If you want to try 3 or more colours, the same basic principle applies, follow the steps above and then add the darker B05 for your shading.

Then once again blend when your NEXT lightest colour - in this case B02.

Then blend again with the next lightest colour - B00 in this case.

You image should now have much more contrast and depth of colour!  For basic blending on skin, I've used E000 as my base colour.  Once again, lightest colour first to 'prime' your paper for blending.

Next I've used E01 (E000 and E01 are within the 2-4 digits apart for basic blending pairs) and flicked this colour in from the sides and under the fringe.

Very lightly blend these colours together along the edges where they meet with E00 (the lightest colour).

If you want to really step up your skin colours once you've had a little practice with basics, have a look at the advanced skin tutorial that can be found HERE!

Finish colouring your image in what ever colours you like!!

The colours I used are....
Dress - B00, B02, B05; YG21, YG23
Hair - YR20, YR21, E33, E17 (I know, completely breaking the rules!  Intermediate rules!)
Shoes - E13, E17
Cat - E11, E13 (RV000 for ears and nose)
Bow - Y11, Y15, Y17
Roses - Y21, Y35, Y38
Leaves and Stems - G43, G46 (Eeep - missed two leaves!  Sorry, imagine they are coloured!!)

That's all from me today, I hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial!!  Have you heard that we are looking for designers to join the Copic Oz/Xpress It design team??  We are an Australian based team, so this is a call for Aussies only (sorry to our international fans) - want to know more??  CLICK HERE!

Happy Colouring!
Kathy  :)Pin It

Would you like to join the Copic Oz Design Team?!

 

 We are so excited to announce that we are looking for some talented new crafters to join our family of blogs! If you are a talented papercrafter, scrapbooker, card maker, mixed media artist or anything in between – then we want to hear from you! 

 

To find out how to apply please visit The Inspiration Lane Blog!

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Caring for your Copics!

Hello Everyone and welcome back to another Copic Oz Tutorial!  How much do you love your Copics?  If you are anything like me, they are precious, carefully stored and NO-ONE in my family is allowed to touch them except by special invitation and under careful supervision!  :) 

Today I'm going to talk about looking after your Copics, because like me, you've invested a lot into your collection and if you give them a little love, they will love you back forever!  :)

How exciting is it when you get that brand new, just opened Copic Marker?  It's so clean and shiny, inside and out!

Soon, you're using it all the time, lids going on and off and your busy creating.  One day you look down at your once clean and shiny marker and it looks like this...... Poor G28!  :(

Hmmmm.....time for a clean!  So, what is the best way to clean your Copics?  Well, there are a few different products you can use, just remember to keep away from touching your nibs and focus on the barrel and lid.

Here I'm using a cotton tip dipped in Copic Colourless Blender to clean the barrel....

And the lid.... Eeeek!  Look at how much is coming out of that lid!!

You don't have to use Colourless Blender solution though!  Any alcohol based product will also work, such a Isopropyl Alcohol (Rubbing Alcohol) and even hand sanitiser!

Another  product I came across is alcohol wipes, like the type used to clean glasses!  I can thank my Dad for giving me a hand full of these to clean my sunglasses.....until I realised they smelt of alcohol and now they live in my craft room!  :)  Just remember to stay away from the nibs so as not to damage them!

You can also add some rubbing alcohol to a tissue to clean the barrels and lids, just keep away from the nibs.  Once you've given your poor neglected marker a make over, it will look just like new!  Hard to believe it's the same one as above isn't it!  :)

It's important to look after your nibs and know that you should stay away from some products if you are using Copics........the ones below should never be coloured over with Copics.

 

Things that are not friends with you markers are.......

1. White Out or Opaque White

2. Un-fired Clay

3. Acrylic Paints (or paint pens such as Molotow)

4. Chalks or Oil Pastels

5. Untested inks or pens

6. Solvents or oils (such as Stazon, a solvent ink)

7. Pencil - won't damage it, but will discolour your nibs

8. Coloured Embossing Powders (this includes opaque white, gold and silver)

I know there is a trend at the moment to stamp and image, emboss it with white embossing power and colour over the top with your Copics.  If you do this, please remember that there is a pigment in Coloured Embossing Powders (clear is OK!) that can clog and damage your nib!  You may find a white patch appears on your nib and you can't get it off even if the ink is still flowing through the nib. This is the EP melting into your nib and eventually the whole nib will clog - much like a small blockage in an artery will one day become so bad that a repair is needed. 

A general rule is if the product smears when it gets wet and is opaque, STAY AWAY!  If you must colour over something like this, airbrush it instead.

Of course, Mixed Media is hugely popular right now and if you want to use Copics you can!  Just do your Copic work first and then your other media types after!

We are sometimes asked about Watercolours......  Watercolours are so thin they generally won't cause a problem, however, they may discolour the nibs.  If you want to use watercolours with your Copics, you can and we suggest using them after you use your makers!

 

Perhaps you've been reading through this and realised that perhaps your nibs aren't as healthy as they should be!  Thankfully when good nibs go bad, there is a quick fix!

If it is just a case of a lid being left off and one nib has dried out, remove the nib and let it soak in a few drops of blender to 'clean the pores' so to speak.  Make sure the blender solution has evaporated before you place it back in your marker and it should be good as new!

What if it's dried out beyond a quick cleanse or you have solvent ink or something nasty on your nib?  Copic sell replacement nibs and it is as easy as removing the old nib from your maker, by carefully pulling it out and replacing with a new one!

Remember, love your Copics and they will love you!!  Hope you've enjoyed today tutorial!!

Happy colouring!!  :)
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Colouring CandiBeans

Hello Everyone!!  Welcome to another Copic Oz tutorial!  Today I'm using a sweet CandiBean image by Little Darlings Rubber Stamps called Izzy's Bumblebee and thought we'd take a look at colouring her using basic colouring taught in the Standard Certification Class and then stepping it up to use techniques from Intermediate Certification.  (If you want to know more about Certification Classes in Australia, you can find all the details HERE!)  X-press Graph-x is now a distributor for the CandiBean range and you can contact them to find a stockist in your area!

Here is Izzy stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black onto X-press It Blending Card.  With Standard Colouring, we teach you to find a colour you like and then a 'friend' to go with in.  Usually this means, find a colour, look at the number and then find another marker with the Same Letter, Same First Number and the Second Number 2 - 4 digits apart.  Always start with your LIGHTEST colour!  Here I've used E000 and E01 for her skin.

For her hair I've used YR21 and YR23 (a colour 2 digits away from the original colour)

Once again, using two colours, E23 and E25.

Continue colouring using pairs of markers to complete your image and she'll look a little something like this.....

Other colours used here are....
Dress - R81, R83; Y11, Y15
Flowers - V20, V22
Greenery - YG03, YG63
Vase - B0000; Y21, Y26

Now she's looking lovely, but what if you wanted to step it up a bit??  Why not take your image and place a piece of acetate over the top with diagonal lines drawn on it.  Imagine this is your light source.  Where the lines hit first (on the image) will be where your highlights are (also imagine that she's not flat, so it will hit the rounded parts of her hat and dress too).  The areas further away will be in the shadow and therefore darker.

Using this template as a guide, start colouring your image! I've begun with her hat using E21

 And E23

 And E25

 And E27

 And for even darker shading, E79.  The more contrast, the more interest and dynamic your image will be!

Next start on her hair!  I've started with YR23.

And E99 (Colouring hair is perfect for breaking the colour rules and mixing colour families and numbers since hair is made up of so many colours!)

Add some E18

And E39

Now lets look at skin, remember that we are imaging that our light source is coming from the top right side!  I've laid down my base colour of E000.

Then added some shading under her fringe on on the left side of her face, arms and legs with E01.

So far we've done exactly the same colours as in the standard colouring at the start of the post, so lets see what some more contrast will do!  Add some E11!

Add more shading with E13 and lightly blend your colours using E11, then E01 and E000.

Keep colouring your image....
Dress - R81, R83, R85; Y11, Y15, Y17
Flowers - V20, V22, V25
Greenery - YG03, YG63, YG67
Vase - B0000, BV31; Y21, Y26, Y28
Bee - N5, N7; Y11, Y15
 

Let's compare....

So what do you think of the differences by adding a distinct light source and use of stronger contrast with more colours??  So much fun!

Hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial and hope you try adding more shading and contrast to you images for exciting, dynamic results!

Happy Colouring!
Kathy

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