"The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:8

Sunday 12 May 2013

Copic Colour / Technique Journal

I discovered copics only in August 2012 and am so glad that I did. They are fantastic markers and some people can colour just beautifully with them (I hope the more I practice the better I get!)

Since they come in such a range of colours (and I do have a few now) I have found it hard to keep track of what colours I used for which pictures and what colour combinations I like the best. I found myself (not sure if the word is wasting time, learning or playing :-) ) with my copics for at least 30 mins before I got around to actually colouring my picture because it took me that long to go through my copics and find the best colour combinations I liked for the particular picture I was colouring at the time.

So I started a little A5 size book just for my copics where I tried to start keeping track of colours and techniques that I was learning / discovering. Ideally copics need to be used on special card, such as X-Press It blending paper, however, I couldn't find a "book" with just this paper and I was too lazy to go bind my own! So I just bought a plain art diary with 110 gsm card. The copics do bleed through the paper so I either use a scrap piece of card behind the page I'm working on or complete my picture / technique on X-Press It blending card first, cut it out and stick it in my book.

Imagine my joy when I discovered that X-Press Graph-X have now released a X-Press It Blending Journal - which is a book full of the X-Press It blending card! Yay! Also, on the Copic Oz blog a Copic Blending Template (get them from this site) has also been released.

I have found the templates a fantastic idea. In my Copic book I was just either writing the copic colours down and making a coloured mark below the "number" or stamping a picture, colouring it in and writing down what the colours were. But I have found the template to be one step better, because I can still stamp pictures and colour them in but the template also allows me to show the blend between the colours I used and you can also see the actual colour themselves.

Here are some pictures of my journal before I started using the template:

As you can see the copics don't blend very well on this plain 110 gsm card.
Stamps: Sizzix and Hero Arts Stamp and Die cut set #657852






This tree is one of the digital images you get on a CD when you buy Annie's Attic (Paper Crafts) Copic Colouring Guide Level 2: Nature by Colleen Schaan and Marianne Walker. The colours that I have used are not the same as the ones they show you in the book as part of the tutorial.



Stamp: Flourishes "Cherry Blossoms"  


And now... this is some of what I have created with the Copic Blending Template:
Elizabeth Whisson, copic journal, copic, copic colours, Flourishes, Bloomin Aussie Florals, YG, R
Stamp: Sturt's Desert Rose from Flourishes "Bloomin Aussie Florals"
I find this sooo much easier to see the difference between the colour combinations and am able to more easily pick which colours I want to use for my pictures.


Elizabeth Whisson, copic journal, copic, copic colours, Flourishes, Bloomin Aussie Florals, YG, R, G


As you can see I have left room for more colour combinations.


Elizabeth Whisson, copic journal, copic, copic colours, E, brown
Stamp: Part of the tree from the Penny Black "Teddy & Company" set


Elizabeth Whisson, copic journal, copic, copic colours, Y, YR, yellow, ornage, Annabelle Stamps
Stamp: AnnaBelle Stamps "Ballerina Rose"

This is only the beginning :-)

Entering this post (showing my use of the copic blending template) in the Copic Oz: Technique Journal #1 Colour Swatches competition to win a free X-Press It Blending Journal!

See more of my copic colour combinations and techniques:
Skin Colours
Colourless Blender techniques
Hair Colours
More colour combinations
Copic combinations added to Journal in 2014

I have also started a Copic page - you can view it here

2 comments :

  1. WOW you have been busy and your Colour Journal is coming along very nicely. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You've done an amazing job working on your journal and love how you've begun incorporating the blending template! Fantastic post!! :)

    ReplyDelete

Comments are greatly appreciated and I cherish each and every one of them! Thanks for stopping by!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...