Copic Colouring Specifics: Flowers

The secret to flowers is to create depth and shine while maintaining smooth blends. In nature, the distinction between dark and light is very subtle, all your blending needs to be seamless. But at the same time, you must demonstrate shadow in depth and highlights as well. We colour flowers in the same way we colour most things. The rose used today is available as an exclusive free digital download when buying Copic Club Add on #9.

Image #1 – Apply your base colour (R32) Image #2 – Apply your second colour (R35) and finally Image #3 – your darkest colour (R37)

We know how this works by now – the tip here is to ensure you retain lots of white space at this stage, particularly at the tips of each petal, where the sun would shine directly on the flower, and at the roundest points of each petal where it curves outwards. Apply lots of your darkest colour in the deepest shadows – you will need to examine the image  carefully before starting, to understand where each petal starts and finishes and what it is doing, whether it wraps around the flower centre, folds over itself or sits facing the sunlight or in deep shadow.

In image #4 all the stark white has been smoothed over with a blend of R32. Only the highest points of each petal have remained white. In image #5 we have increased the depth of the shadowed areas by adding some grey. This stage is important – it really helps to give the rose dimension. Be careful about where you place your shadows – consider each petal and decide if it sits behind or in front of another so you place your shadows accordingly. Finally, in image #6 we decrease the intensity of the grey shadows by colouring over them in R35 and we apply greens to our leaves in the same way. A great finishing touch to flowers is to add drops of dimensional magic or glossy accents on the leaves and petals to replicate dew drops. Just be sure to position them on surfaces with a ‘shelf’ that water drops can settle on.

I hope it has been helpful to learn how I colour a few different things. With a bit of practice, it’s not hard to master more than just the character, and it’s a lot of fun trying too!

Don’t forget to grab the current Copic Club Add on #9. – it comes with 8 markers this month!