Tips on how to add a little interest to your colouring

This is my first tutorial for Copic Europe and I wanted to share some of the ways I

"play" with Copics.......

So I have a little montage of ways you can add a bit of fun to your colouring!

Lets start with a simple stamp

I have used

Say it Loud! by Art Impressions

It's OK like this, but a bit boring don't you think!!

So to jazz things up a bit I started by stamping it out on Copic suitable card stock using 

Memento Angel Pink, so that I could use the no lines technique

and cut it out using a stitched circle die by Lil'inker Designs

Now I started by creating a background using my "Squiggly Wiggly" method!

Basically you start with your base colour, in this instance B0000 and cover the whole area using the standard Copic circular motion.

You then add squiggles of a darker shade, in this case B000, going over it with the lightest colour to soften the squiggles if necessary. 

Don't get heavy handed with this, light, delicate squiggles work best.

 I finished with a layer of B00 squiggles, softened by B0000 applied in a circular motion as before.

A - B0000 applied in a circular motion

B - B000 squiggles applied to three quarters of box, softened with B0000 

C - B00 squiggles to top left of box

D - Squiggles softened with B0000 applied in circular motion

This technique works best with the palest shades in any of the colour families.

It gives a soft textured almost fluffy appearance to a background and I use this method regularly when I am colouring skies!!!

Now the real fun begins.......

time to play around with your image!

I started by giving each word a 3D appearance, achieved by simple shading, but hey, it's still a bit boring and I like to have fun when colouring.....

I'll show you a close up in a minute, but here is a list of the colours I used for each word

SING: B21, B23, B24, B26

DANCE: B01, B02, B04

LAUGH: B91, B93, B95, B97, 0

LOVE!: B12, B14, B16

shadows applied using N1, N2, N3

DANCE: random dots applied using darkest colour B04

LAUGH: spots created using 0 to remove colour 

LOVE!: Stripes drawn using B16 and B14 mindful of the 3D colouring

I hope you have found this tutorial interesting and whether you try colouring a Squiggly Wiggly background or add a pattern to your images, above all have fun when using your markers!!

Happy Colouring

An animal themed challenge at Tiddly Inks

#163 Paws for thought

One for the animal lovers amongst us......a challenge that requires a Tiddly Inks animal stamp!

and here is mine

as I am allergic to cats and have been since I had our son Ben I opted for a dog, and shock horror it's not a Westie this time!!

My Beach Boy - Tiddly Inks

Copic List
T Shirt - Y11, Y21, YR21, N1, B000, B00, BG01, B53
Shorts - YR30, E40, E42, E81, E44
Sand - YR30, E50, E51, E41, E42, W1, W4
Skin - E0000, E000, E00, V20, E41, R20
Flag - B14, B12, B000, W3
Sky - B0000, B000
Hair - E51, E31, E34, E25, E59
Bucket, Spade and Sandals - B91, B93, B95, B97, B32, B34, B37, B39, N8
Dog - W00, W0, W1, W2, W3, W4, W6, W8, BG0000, E70, E71
Crab - R11, E11, E04, W2, W3

enchanced with coloured pencils

Sentiment - CC Designs - Happy Day

For more inspiration from my fellow design team members and information regarding where to post your entries please click HERE

Thanks for dropping by

The new Without Words Challenge is a little fruity!

Hello there!

I hope you all like this new creation

(it's one of my all time favourites)

Anyway, lets start by telling you about the new challenge

Fruit and/or Veg

Now, it's been a while since I used a Mo Manning image, I love the detail she incorporates and in fact I added a little bit of my own along the way........

Mo Manning - Elke & Bear

Peaches to bottom left of image - by Jane Allen

Sentiment stamp from stash

Copics:

(Brace yourselves it is a very long list)

Background - B0000, B000, YR30, W1, E81

Swing - E41, E42, E71, N0, N1, N2, N3

Branches - E30, E31, E34, E44, W3

Peaches - YR20, YR00, YR02, Y32, R32, R56, W1, W2, W4, 0

Leaves - YG11, YG61, YG63, G85, T1, T2, T3, T4

Leggings - YR30, YR20, YR0000, YR000, R01, R02, W0, W1, W2

Boots - E50, E51, E53, E40, E40, E41, E42, E43, E44, W1, W3

Cardigan - G20, G40, G12, T0, T1, T2

Dress - C00, C0, C1, C2, C3, C5, BG0000, BG000, YR01

Hat - YR30, E50, E81, G40, G20, W0, W1, W3, T1, T2

Bear - E40, E41, E42, E43, E50, E44, RV32, W7, Y21, Y26, Y28, W1

and as with a lot of my work this image has been enhanced with coloured pencil

(see previous post for details)

Our wonderful sponsor this month is 

Bunny Zoe

so for your chance to win a voucher

please post your entries HERE

Now, before I go I thought I would share another little tip:

When colouring something realistic please don't guess, especially if like me you've never seen a real peach tree!

May I suggest searching for images online.

I'd die of embarrassment if after hours of colouring someone said - "oh, nice apple tree"

I made up a montage sheet on Pages (Word would be fine) of images of peaches which I constantly referred to whilst colouring.  It was also of enormous help when I added in my own, hand drawn element to balance the composition!

As always thanks for dropping by, 

I hope you enjoyed todays post as much as I did colouring this!!