What Are The Best Copic Colors To Use When Coloring Skin

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Copic Tutorial: Using Copic Markers to Color Pare Tones

By Colleen Schaan

Get together your Copic markers and join our coloring expert equally she shares tips for giving each of your favorite stamped characters a more colorful personality!

Welcome to the beginning part in a series of articles where I volition exist sharing tips and tricks for getting the most out of your Copic markers. In this result, I am focusing on how to color pare, since many of the well-nigh pop stamp images today are of people.

Copic markers are booze ink markers used past illustrators, designers, cartoonists, and nearly recently, newspaper crafters. Copics are smooth, vibrant, blendable and oh-and so-fun! While Copic markers are fun to utilize, in that location are a few things you lot demand to know before jumping in.

First off, sure Copic colors are formulated to blend more easily with other specific colors. So how do yous know which colors work well together? It's easy -- just bank check out the color lawmaking and follow this unproblematic dominion: For easiest blending, pick Copic markers that have the aforementioned letter (color family), the same first number (saturation) and a ii or iii digit difference in the final number (shade or value). This volition give you markers from the aforementioned blending group that are geared to play nicely together. Hither'due south an example of iii Copic markers from a good blending group: B01/B04/B07.

Newspaper and ink compatibility is also important. Not all papers and inks work well with Copic markers. For best results, it is important that you lot always exam both your papers and your inks before outset to colour.

Now that you have the proper supplies and some blendable colors, let'south start coloring!

Marker-on-Paper Blending Tutorial

Step ane. Copics piece of work best when composite wet-on-wet, so first by saturating the newspaper with the lightest color, E00. Color in minor circles until the entire area looks shine. This color volition somewhen go the highlight. Some people similar to go out a small-scale area uncolored to create an even brighter highlight (Photo 1).

Copic Skin Tones Photo 1

Step 2. Add your medium Copic shade E01 to any areas that will non be left as highlights (Photograph 2). It makes blending much easier if you apply ink in a flicking motion -- leaving more than ink at the beginning of the stroke.

Copic Skin Tones Photo 2

Step iii. Blend the light E00 and the medium E01 shades together using the lite marker E00. Color in modest circles or movie where the two colors meet to alloy smoothly (Photo iii).

Copic Skin Tones Photo 3

Stride four. Apply more shading with the darkest Copic color, E11 (Photo iv).

Copic Skin Tones Photo 4

Step 5. Blend the area betwixt the nighttime E11 and medium E01 colors together with the medium color E01. TIP: Focus on blending only two Copic colors together at a time. Always utilize the lighter of the two to blend (Photo 5).

Copic Skin Tones Photo 5

Step six. Finish the blend with the lightest Copic color E00 to smooth everything out. Don't utilize too much lite ink or you will lighten upwardly the darker shades. If necessary, add more night ink and go along blending.

Your image is probably pretty practiced correct now. Yous might recollect yous are finished, but there are two or three additional things you can practise when coloring pare tones to brand your images come alive.

Step seven. Once the colored image is dry, use a soft majestic BV00 to add hard shadows. Don't blend this final shading (Photograph 6).

Copic Skin Tones Photo 6

Just look at the difference this one simple stride makes in giving your epitome a more than lifelike appearance.

To take your paradigm one step further, yous can add a touch of blush to the cheeks. This works especially well with infant and kid images. To avoid blobs of bright color, select a crimson or pinkish that is just slightly darker than your epitome peel tone.

Stride 8. Lightly castor colour R02 onto each cheek. Immediately blend with the medium skin-color marker by tapping around the outside of the cheeks. TIP: Don't use the Copic colorless blender for this, or you will launder out the face tone also. If you have shadows on the face, make certain to use the color of the peel tone from under each individual cheek surface area (Photo vii).

Copic Skin Tones Photo 7

Stride 9. Every bit the last step, apply the colorless blender to pull some more than highlights to create contrast.

Sometimes we get stuck in a oestrus, and all of our images become reflections of ourselves. Break out of that oestrus and get-go populating your crafty projects with a diversity of skin tones. Experiment with some of the combinations on the post-obit page.

Other Peel Tones

Copic Skin Tones Fair Pale Caucasion Copic Skin Tones Golden Tan Caucasion Copic Skin Tones Reddish American Indian Copic Skin Tones Olive Yellow Asian Copic Skin Tones Tawny Dark Brown Middle Eastern Copic Skin Tones Reddish Brown African American

TIP: The darker the Copic shade, the less color you will demand to utilise. Using besides much of the darker shades volition obscure details and diminish contrast.

This Copic tutorial was beginning published in the March 2011 outcome of CardMaker magazine. To become more information on Copic marking techniques:

Purchase a copy of Colleen'southward book Copic Coloring Guide.
Check out Colleen'southward blog, world wide web.distinctivetouches.com.
Subscribe to CardMaker magazine, where Colleen has a regular column featuring Copic marker techniques.

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