Copic for Beginners
Copic Markers are alcohol ink markers that can be refilled. They blend easily, and make your work look professional.
Here are some tips for starting out with Copic markers:
1. Work on a piece of cardboard or chipboard. Colors tend to bleed through, and you need something absorbent underneath your work. If you use a craft sheet or tabletop, the colors will puddle and pop up in places where you don’t want them.
2. Stamp your image with Memento ink. Ancient Page needs to be dried with a heat gun. Staz-on is alcohol based and will bleed when you color.
3. Use the special Copic cardstock for best results. We tried many various papers and found this to be the best. Both cardstock and inks are available at our website store.
4. Use 2 or 3 colors from the same color family. The tendency is to start too dark. You need light colors for a base, and then the darker ones for shading.
5. The blender pen is not for blending. It actually is an eraser. Use it to take color out for highlights and to correct small mistakes.
6. After stamping the image, start with the lightest color. Fill in the outline with small circles. Then shade with the next darker color. Sometimes the stamped image will have tiny dots where the shading should be. If not, decide for yourself where the image should be darker. Then go back over the entire image with your first color to blend. Do not press hard. Just let the pen glide over your work. Notice that there is no pilling of the paper when you go over it (if you used the recommended paper).
7. Now you can add the next darker color and then again go over the entire image with the lightest. This is the easiest way to shade and blend for the beginner. We will add other methods later when you have practiced this.
Here is a tutorial on shading by this method:
Step 1: Stamp with Tuxedo Black Memento ink
Step 2: Color in tiny circles with light colors. We used G12 sea green, RV10 pale pink, and Y02 canary Yellow.
Step 3: Shade with darker colors. We used G17 nile green, RV14 begonia pink, and cadmium yellow.
Step 4: Go over with lighter colors again to blend colors together.
Step 5: Cut out and layer. We used Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles (plain for the image and scalloped for the pink mat. Add to card as is shown here or put it on a project of your choice.
