HTDT? 7.15.09 Advanced Copic Blending Techniques: My Favorite Things

CandiceL · 07-14-2009

Hello and welcome to another Copic themed HTDT? tutorial!! I hope you've enjoyed my previous Copic tutorials and that this one will help you add to your Copic skills. For this tutorial - I am going to show you 2 more blending techniques that you can do with your Copics. The first technique we are going to talk about is called "Tip to Tip Blending". This is a great way to get some nice shading in even the smallest spaces on your image. The new Annie LaPoint "Harvest of Hope" image is perfect for this technique - all those leaves and flower petals - this is actually a great technique for all of your flower-y images.

The first thing I've done is chosen the 2 shades I want to blend for my flower petals - for tutorial purposes - I chose some brighter colors so you could really see how this technique works - for my dark color I've chosen a vibrant orange and my lighter color is a yellow. To do this technique - all you have to do is take the brush tip of your lighter colored marker and flick it across the tip of your darker colored marker - this will pick up a bit of the dark color onto the tip of your lighter marker.

Once you've got some of the darker color onto your lighter colored marker tip - just gently sort of "flick" in the color where you want it to go - you'll want to flick from bottom to top - in this example - I've used my marker to color in the flower petal. See how the marker first leaves the orange and then it'll fade back into the yellow as the orange comes off. The beauty of this technique is that there is no need to go back and blend the 2 colors together - so this is perfect for those tiny places.

And don't worry about ruining the tip of your markers - to remove any left over ink on your lighter colored markers - just scribble with the tip on a scratch piece of paper until it all comes off!!

Here is a finished card with our Annie LaPoint image - I've done the tip to tip blending with light and dark shades of green to get into those little leaves as well.

CandiceL · 07-14-2009

The second blending technique I'm gonna show you is called "Feathering" - I LOVE this blending technique - this is a fun way to blend colors you wouldn't normally think of blending to create some really neat effects!! I chose to use the new "Feelin' Fruity" set for this technique - I wanted to use it to create a 2-toned fruit - you know - because who goes to the grocery store and finds that perfectly red apple - LOL!!

To start - I stamped and masked my perfect set of pears onto an MFT Perfect Paper panel. I wanted to do a yellow/green pear - so I chose a bright green Copic and a complimentary yellow Copic. (You don't have to be specific with colors for this technique - because the sky's the limit for colors on this one!) I start with my green at the top of my pear - feathering green down into the middle of the pear - stopping mid-way.

Now I'm going to feather my yellow into the green - I'll start from the bottom of the pear this time and feather my color up into the green - you don't want to go all the way into the green area or you'll lose your color - I usually go about 2/3rds of the way into my color.

I'm going to repeat the process as necessary to get the look that I want - here I am feathering my green back into my yellow again...

And then my yellow back into green a final time...

You can feather as many times as you want to create the desired effect - but note that this technique does use quite a bit more ink than the just the normal marker to marker blending technique.

CandiceL · 07-14-2009

Here is our final "perfect pair"...

And a card with our finished image...

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and that you'll try out these techniques!! The feathering technique is just PERFECT for the new MFT "Feelin' Fruity" set - think of all those red and green apples and strawberries you can color in!!

And keep in mind the tip to tip trick when you're getting ready to color in a gorgeous Annie LaPoint image!! And if you're new to Copics or just wanting to build your collection - check out the My Favorite Copic collection at MFT - this is a great way to add those must have colors to your Copic collection!!