Posts Tagged ‘copic markers’

I have not used my Copic Multiliners and Sketch markers nearly as much as I planned to on the Art Journal Caravan at Scrapbook Graphics. It is just that illustration is not an easy thing for me. It is something I want to be better at. But, it takes time and time is our most precious resource. Anyway, I was inspired by “Nevermore”’s Zentangle/Zendoodles. I’d never heard of it. Evidently, the company decided to make a buck by publishing “styles” of doodles and sort of a dice game to get you moving when you get stumped. I looked for a free source of inspiration and found a great blog.

I’m tickled pink that it was just what I needed to keep me moving quickly through the creation of this illustration! I used a “how to” book on drawing Manga as reference for the Mermaid’s upper body. I winged it on the tail. For the seaweed I used some Dover swirls as reference. And the rest of the doodles are either mine or borrowed from a page on the blog.

I think that most people use the Zendoodle process for more abstract art? I don’t know, but I hope I get inspired again because that was a lot of fun!

I started by drawing the fish outlines and the wavy lines behind them. Then I did the seaweed at the bottom. It was an afterthought to add the Manga Mermaid. I’d been wanting to do some illustrations of little girls. Once I had the Mermaid positioned I drew and colored the reef life around her. Then I colored the Mermaid and the fish.

You can’t really see all the Stickles glitter on the mermaid and the little fishies in this scan. Nor can you probably tell I used Liquid Pearls for her necklace and in the dots on the crests of the waves. The net or hammock was kind of an accident because I started doing hashed shadows around her and decided to make it a net. I figured she is startled because a diver just woke her up from a nap!

I left room at the top in case I ever want to add a sentiment and make this into a card for someone.

One of the prompts this week was to use the word “mend”. Rather than use the quote provided this week, I went with a bible verse.

I was thinking about the hard work you do in relationships. Tearing down barriers to communication, and mending hurt feelings, etc.

This is the design I did in Photoshop using mostly graphics from Tracy Ann. The notebook paper leaf is from Tangie Baxter’s Art Journal Caravan steamer trunk. I figured if I ever wanted to journal on this I’d write on that cute notebook leaf. I believe the bird house is from NLD and I filled the heart with some ephemera from Tangie’s trunk. If anyone needs to know about the other items I’ll have to go hunting because my computer crashed before I got to the step of recording the kit names.

And here is the art journal page after the hybrid touches. I used the Copic colored Multiliners, Liquid Pearls for dimension, Spica glitter pens, Copic markers/Prismacolor pencils for shading, and Tim Holtz red distress ink for the edges.

Tangie Baxter at ScrapbookGraphics.com is hosting an art journal online “class.” So far there are close to 300 people taking the class. Some people are doing a traditional art journal w/ paints, pens, collage, etc. Others are doing it all digitally. And still others are doing a hybrid approach. My first project was hybrid. I will probably do some of both, especially since I can do digital so much more quickly.

Here is the digital “canvas” I created:

And here is the completed journal page. I colored it with Copic markers and Multiliners. (Having the “lights” set helped tremendously for blending the shading on out.) Then I used Copic Spica glitter pens for highlights. Tim Holtz Walnut distress ink is used around the edges as are his yellow Liquid Pearls on the quote block. And the feet were heat embossed with a shiny metallic blue. A photo would have done it better justice than this scan because there are lots of glittery and shiny accents.

I also chose this 8.5 x 5.5 size because if I do illustrations it will use much less marker ink and take a lot less time. I have an old day planner notebook that I plan to keep them in. I’ll just do hole punches across the top. It was printed on a nice heavy Bristol smooth vellum card stock which holds up really well but actually soaks up too much Copic ink (not ideal for blending.) I’ll need to experiment to find something just as heavy but will work better with the Copic markers.

I had a Coke too late in the evening last night and couldn’t sleep. And a quote from my Oswald Chambers devotional that evening was really stuck in my mind. So I got out of bed at 1:30 a.m.,  surrendered myself to my awake state of mind and drew till about 2:45. The roofers then promptly awoke us around 8:00 and I colored this afternoon while trying to ignore their nail guns because a nap would be impossible for my 3 year old, much less me!

When I read what Oswald Chambers wrote I totally “got it”.

The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one with the nature of the sea in him.

I call myself a “wimpy” certified diver. I love to dive but don’t want to ever see a shark. Ever. I prefer stationary dives to drift dives. And my dive master is always in my sight. Despite all that fear, when I am underwater and all I can hear is my own breathing while gazing at a whole other world it is amazing. There is something about getting past your fear and being 100 percent in the moment that is kind of a memorable experience.

There was a point in my marriage where my relationship with God hit a new level. It was when I realized that I was totally alone in my relationship and accountability to God. Despite the amazing God fearing husband He gave me there are some times when He is talking to me and only me. Running what I think I heard by my husband, sister, or friend really doesn’t do any good. Because ultimately my relationship with God is and always will be as solitary as I feel when I’m under the ocean and can’t talk to anyone else. I can’t get anyone else to chime in and validate what I think I’m hearing. My faith is MY faith and mine alone.

God does speak to others in order to give you affirmation, but that is a whole other subject. I don’t get into my Faith very often on my blog, but I thought I would today so that you would understand the illustration I’m sharing. Also, I was inspired by the latest Artful Blogging to be authentic. So there you go. Deep, huh?

I drew this using two Dover illustrations as reference and then colored it with Copic markers. The flourish is meant to be seaweed or living coral. I colored the water BG10, drew squiggly lines with BG13 and shaded with V12, B32 and YG11. Then I came back with the colorless blender to make the bubbles. I won’t list all the colors for the fish and seaweed. I took creative liberties in coloring them in an attempt to stylize the look instead of making it realistic. Lastly, I finally over came my fear of the Copic air brush system I’ve had for about nine months. You can’t see it but I airbrushed around the illustration with pink and orange. What fun!

I can’t do an illustration of one daughter and not the other as well. I’m not as happy with how this one turned out. I think it is a little harder for a beginner like me to tackle a toddler’s face. It is a little easier when the facial features are more defined.

This is little Raeleigh, she was just over three years old when the picture was taken earlier this year. I scrapped a photo taken the same day, so you can see how her face *really* looks. The photos of her sister showed some sky, but Raeleighs didn’t. I wanted them to match, so I started by compositing a background for Raeleigh’s picture with backgrounds from Danielle’s pictures.

I am obviously not a trained artist. I did take all my college electives in graphic design, but it was only about 17 hours with one illustration class. I think I had one drawing class in 9th grade and I took some water color classes post college. I miss doing water colors but I’m so slow at it that I fell in love with using the Copic markers to do a faster piece with a similar look.

So, I’m being a little brave showing my rudimentary art. I know those that stumble upon my blog because Google hits “Copic” will be disappointed!

I was reading on someone else’s blog that they were doing Artist Trading Card (ATC) size illustrations every day for practice. And, I thought working small might be a great way for me to get some practice in with not a lot of time invested. (I just don’t have the patience to invest a hundred or so hours in a water color right now! When I was doing that I didn’t have a husband or children!)

Plus, I’m using my birthday money to add to my 72 marker Copic collection and I need to justify it! I’ve been trying to find videos by good illustrators to help me decide which colors I need. Here is one that I found on the Copic blog that I love…Trev Murphy. After doing this little illustration it firmed up my decision that some of the money needs to go toward some colored multi-liners. I just need to decide what widths! I know I want several widths of Sepia and black and maybe a pretty small width of each of the other colors.

I want to be able to get better without getting too frustrated on getting the drawings right. So, I decided to try messing with one of my own photos until I had a pseudo “sketch” and printed it on some Bristol board. First I used the magic wand selection tool in Photoshop to select my daughter’s form. Then I copied it to a new document and applied Atomic Cupcake’s pencil sketch action. I also used this action to create the shifted outline. Then I turned the photo into gray scale, blew the highlights until only a few details of her face and form showed and applied a drawing filter in Photoshop. I just wanted it to be a guide so I lowered the opacity of this layer to about 10%. Here is my cheater method “sketch.”

This is my illustration. I used the only two multiliners I have to finish it off with a very rough outline. I like the look of it but it did convince me that I need some very fine sepia multiliners for this type of work.

Finally, this is the original photo. If you know of any other great Copic videos by amazing illustrators please leave links!

I am having a lot of fun with my Copic Markers! This is my eldest daughter’s birthday card. I used the brand new card sized paper pack, “Urban Prairie” from Basic Grey as my inspiration for color choices.

The “doorway” is a Cricut cut from the Happily Ever After cartridge. I cut it on a heavy white cardstock and colored it with markers. Then I accented the jeweled areas with Icicle Stickles.

The stamp is by Hampton Art, I picked it up at Michaels. It actually says “Birthday Princess” at the bottom but I didn’t want to cut off the ornamental bottom on the doorway so I did not ink that part of the stamp. After I colored the princess I applied Icicle Stickles to the apron part of the dress. It worked perfectly, not bleeding my inks at all! The star on the magic wand and center of the butterfly are yellow stickles. The ribbon on the wand, the crown and the bird are all Liquid Pearls. I smeared Liquid Pearls around the edges on the background for the perfect magical finishing touch.

The ”6? is cut at 2.75 inches from Alphalicious. First I colored it a light pink, going over different areas to achieve a mottled look. Then I did the edges in a darker pink and blended it in with the light pink, working my way around alternating colors. Next I tried a trick I learned from Marianne in the Copic class. I colored a (just out) Inkadinkado stamp with a dark pink Copic Marker, going over it several times so it had a lot of color applied. Then I spritzed it with my Ranger mister, filled with water and stamped in on the six. Next I shaded a few select areas with a very light blue and warm grey. I finished the “6? off by applying the rasberry Liquid Pearl, more heavily on the edges.

The butterfly was cut and embossed with Spellbinders Shapabilities. After coloring it in yellows and pinks I applied the gold Liquid pearls to the ouside edges and the yellow Stickles to the middle. The accents on the wings have a little bit of Icicle Stickles too.

This card was a lot of fun to do, I’m loving using the Cricut with the Copics! We bought Danielle a huge wooden briefcase with crayons, pastels, watercolors, pencils, and tons of MARKERS. You’ll never believe what she is doing…she is putting them in order, “you know like your markers Mommy, I’m organizing them in special places with the colors together.” She has been coveting Mommy’s markers, so I thought if I got her a spectacular set of her own that she’d leave mine alone!

This card is for my youngest daugher Raeleigh who is turning three soon. I’ve been working on this card a while and just finished it up last night.

I started by cutting a 5 x 7 card base and folding it so it would fit in my Cuttlebug. Then I used square Nestabilities to cut a scalloped hole in the front of the card. Next I cut a 5 x 7 piece of glitter stock and backed the inside front of the card. I then stamped the Disney stamp with black ink on a nice heavyweight paper from Bristol. After coloring the image with Copic markers I cut it out and embossed it with the next size down.

I’ve noticed that some people are thinking the baby/stork card I did was done with patterned paper. So, I want to be clear, the “3? was cut on the same white Bristol paper with Alphalicious at 3 inches. I stamped the three with a variety of flower stamps, leaving room for the bee. While coloring the “3? I emphasized pinks/purples since the card is for a girl and picked up the same colors from the Disney stamp.

The bee is cut at 1 inch from Walk in My Garden. First I colored the black areas with Copic’s pigment ink multiliner. Because I used pigment ink I could color the yellow stripes without being afraid it would bleed. This pen is also good for touching up a stamp that didn’t quite stamp well. I used Icicle Stickles for the wings and Black Diamond for the antenaes and tail.

I used 3D Zots to adhere everything, giving it a nice dimensional look, especially with the bee.

I had a lot of fun doing this card because most of the time cricut cuts are done in layers of colored paper. I think the idea of cutting things in white and coloring it like this opens all kinds of new creative possibilities!

Thanks to everyone at the Cricut Messageboard for participating in my “Copic Certification Celebration!”

We have a winner, but first, here is what I decided to give the winner of this drawing. This Hero Arts acrylic stamp set is called “Birds and Branches”. The set includes one 12? long border stamp and 14 assorted stamps totaling 15 stamps. And because of the unconventional size of the branch I’ll send along a 12? acrylic block. As always, thanks to Lisa for the deep “sister discount” which allows me to give out such nice prizes.

AND THE WINNER IS….

Denise (Mom21Brat) who wrote on 10/10/2008: “I LOVE that card! It’s beautiful!”

She was referring to the embossed pumpkin card.

Congrats Denise! I’ll send you an email to confirm and get your mailing address!

Thanks again to everyone for your kind comments!

One thing I can say about the scrapbook industry, you will probably get great goodies if you pay to take a class from a manufacturer! They know how to do it up right!

Here is a picture of my goody bag!

At least 6 of the 8 goodies were ones that I did not already have! I have to say I just LOVED both the wide marker and the Spica glitter pen! I already called my sister Lisa and talked to her about ordering them next. I’m telling you, you will NOT be disappointed with the Spica glitter pens! They are way better than the glittery gel pens I’ve seen. The glitter is achieved with micro glass flakes which are apparently more reflective than the glass beads used by other brands.

I’m hoping to create a short video to show you why I love the wide marker on Sunday. We’ll see if I can capture the excitement on video. I don’t think though that a camera will come close to doing the glitter pen justice!