Challenge #1 - Inspiration from DT member Kylie

Hi everyone! It is Kylie here with my very first post on the Mad 4 Markers blog. We have a colour challenge running currently until 17 April where you are challenged to use the colours E00, R20 and BG 15. Remember though, if you don't have these exact colours, you can use colours similar, so please still enter the challenge. You enter HERE. Sammi has put together an absolutely fantastic prize for the winner including a pack of 10 sheets of X-Press It Blending card and a box of 36 Copic Ciao markers! Now wouldn't that be very handy?

I hope you are enjoying what we have to show you!

I've done two inspiration cards for you using these colours. When colouring the images for both cards I have used a technique called "tip to tip" as I didn't have all of the colours that I needed to blend correctly. This technique is really handy when you are starting out and have limited markers. I will show you how it is done at the end of the post.

Here is my first example:





I have used Copic colours:
Skin - E21, E00, E000, R20 (cheeks)
Hair - Y23, YR20, E31
Dress/scarf/socks - R20, E000, BG 15, BG13, BG10
Shoes - E31, E34
Flowers - R20, RV 13, E000, YG 23, YG 05

White gel pen also for highlighting

Here is my second example:






I have used:
Skin - E21, E00, E000, R20 (cheeks)
Hair - E57, E55, E53
Dress and socks - BG 15, BG 13, Bg 10
Shoes - E31, E34
Leaves - G12
Basket - E57, E55
Flowers - R20 and blender 0
I have also used white gel pen to highlight certain areas.

Tip to Tip blending

Tip to Tip blending is really simple.

In the first card, I wanted to colour the dress a pale pink and the lightest pink marker I have is R20 - which is a bit too dark for what I wanted. The only other pinkish tone I have which was light enough is E000.

These two colours take quite a bit of blending together to get them to fade nicely, so in order to create a mid tone I have lightly pressed the tips of the markers together. Marker E000 absorbs some of the colour from R20 and slightly and temporarily "stains" the tip of the lighter marker.



When this marker is then run along the card, the darker colour is transferred first, gradually lightening to the original colour of the marker.

You can see in this last photograph, the tip of the marker is not damaged at all. The transferred darker colour has been left on the card and the marker tip is as it was before. You can also see the original colours of the markers on the card and the blended colour in the middle.



In the second card, I used colours BG 15, BG 13 and BG 10 for the dress. I was missing marker BG 11 to blend the colours nicely. To improvise, I have transferred the colour from BG 13 to BG 10 to make the mid tone to blend her dress with the nice shaddows.

You can also use your Blender 0 marker with this technique, transferring the colour from the coloured marker to the blender.