If you have been following our Marker Monday posts, you will now understand your copics, have the correct paper and ink, a small collection of carefully selected marker colours – and you know how to care for them – it is finally time to learn how to properly colour with them!

Today is the first instalment of an 8-week long Basic Colouring Focus. We will be working slowly, adding to our image on Mondays for the next 2 months. Most references to colour choice and other materials assume that you have the Lime Tart Copic Club Starter Kit and the first Add-On Kit, available next week.

It may seem a painstakingly slow process, particularly at first, but I hope to share with you lots of information along the way so have spread it out to avoid bombarding you with too much at once.

First – Always start with clean scrap paper underneath. Normal printer paper is good – a couple of sheets will provide the absorbency you need. Many quality copic-suitable papers do soak through the back a little – and that’s fine! – but it means that you need to protect the surface of your workspace – remember they are permanent! This also prevents your project from slipping around on a slick surface when your marker ink soaks through. It is important that it is clean too, as colour from a previous project left on your scrap paper can seep through the underside of your new image, ruining it.

We will be working with the very cute Rosalie with Roses stamp from CC Designs. She has been especially selected because she is both easy and fun to colour, and comes included with the Copic Club Add-On 1.

Using your memento inkpad, stamp her on a piece of Copic Paper, leaving space for recording what colours you used, what techniques you tried, etc. I strongly suggest you journal everything at this experimentation stage – you will refer back to these ‘swatch cards’ all the time!

Now let’s colour! When colouring with Copics, we don’t choose just ONE colour we like – we choose a FAMILY of colours. If we want brown hair, we choose 3 browns from the same family (refer back to ‘natural blending groups’for more information) And we always start with our lightest colour first. It should be a much lighter colour than we want our final image to end up because we will be layering our colours, so once we have added a 3rd brown the finished product will be much darker than it started.

If we begin with the colour we like now, by the time we are finished it will be too dark. This is a common Copic mistake when choosing your own colours – lighter is better – you can always darken by colouring over.

I have chosen the  following hair colours to work with:

   

BASE COLOURING – Select the lightest colour from each family, and use the brush end of your marker, holding it on a slight angle – so you are not using just the tip – and colour in small, even circles. Work quickly, but without rushing – the aim is to create a very smooth, even base for our final image.

If you allow the ink to dry as you work, you will achieve a streaky result as the colour will darken where you have coloured over dried ink. Try to avoid changing the pressure too – this will result in blotchy colouring as you will not be evenly soaking the paper. Flip the page over to get a good idea of how well you are doing – even, consistent colouring will look almost as smooth on the back as it does on the front. If you are varying the pressure, you will also be varying the amount of ink released, and you can see this better from the back.

• Use the lightest colour from a chosen family

• Angle the marker’s brush end slightly

• Colour in small, even circles

• Work quickly but don’t rush

• Avoid letting the ink dry as you go

• Retain even pressure

Today our aim is just to create an even base upon which to build. This is what she should look like when you are finished stage 1:

 

She still has a long way to go before she resembles the kind of gorgeous image that made you rush out and buy Copics in the first place I bet! As you can see, she looks pretty boring at the moment.

 There’s really not a lot of creativity in this first stage unfortunately- I am sure you will agree poor Rosalie looks flat, dull and lifeless. But I promise you it gets better! MUCH better!

 Over the coming weeks we will be learnign how to add all the gorgeous details in all the right spots. For now, it is an important skill to learn – planning the colour family you will use – choosing the correct colour to start off with and applying an even, smooth layer of each colour as a base.

 Don’t forget to record what you have done – take notes of the colours you used, the paper you stamped on, your ink and anything else you want to remember. You will eventually appreciate getting into this habit now – when you are looking to repeat a particular hair colour combo down the track, you will be glad to have recorded it for future reference.

 Next week we start adding colour number 2 to create depth.

 If you want to catch up on all previous Marker Monday posts at any time, just click on the Marker Monday link under categories in the left side-bar.