Shading and Blending with Gray Markers

Hi Friends!!

Cicci Here from Sweden, This is my first post for Copic Marker Europe, and Today I'm showing you how I use the Grey Markers for some shading and how to get some depth in the colouring. It's great to use this if you don't have so many Markers, maybe you just have two red Markers and you want to have some more depth in your colouring? Add Grey Markers to them and you got great colouring.

 If you are new in this Copic world and don't have all the Copic Markers, don't worry..buy some greys and you can colour really nice stuff, just with a few Markers.

I have almost all the Markers BUT I think the grey family is great to use anyway:0))

I have used an Image from Emmanuelle Colin to show you how I colour this face,

 with Cool Grey markers.

I have used the Grey Markers for the shading/blending 

C3 C5 C7 C1 C2 C0 and a little C10.

Ordiary Skin Combo: E50 51 53 11 13 R20

Hair: Y21 23 E15 

Eyes: Y21 YG17 G29

Leaves: Y02 YG17 G29

Dress: B000 B00 FBG2 

Lips: RV52 

Flowers: V12 15  FBG2 B000 RV52 RV00 FB2 C2 C0

Background: Various Ink B000 26 RV00 YG03 Y02  C3 C2 

White Posca pen for the dots

Step 1

 I started to colour in the place I want to be darker in the face with C3

Step 2 

 Continue with C5. I just colour on the same area that I have coloured with C3

(you can start with the darker Grey Markers as well, but remember it's easier to start with the lighter, because if you make a mistake with the light Marker it's easier to fix the mistake than with a darker Marker)

Step 3

Then I blend those colours with C3 2 1

 I'm doing this with circle movements. After the blending,

 I also add some strokes with C7 and a little C10  on the place I want to be darkest in the face

Step 4

Time for blending out the C7 and C10 with circle movements with the Copic nib. I start with C5 and after that I blend with C3 C2 C1 . I continue with the blending until I don't see any lines left or very little lines :0)

In the end of this step, I make some long strokes over the area that's still white in the face and I use C1 and C0 for this. You can see how much I have added on the white area with the Grey Marker.

Step 5 

Now I start to colour with the ordinary skin colours. 

I have used  E50 51 53 11 13  R20

Now I'm just adding the ordinary skin colours. If you want to try this you can use the combo that you like for the skin. I often use this combo for the skin. If I don't use grey I'm sure I have added some E04 instead. But this time I just use the Grey Markers.

Step 1

Add E50  On the grey area

Step 2
Add some E51 on the same area as you coloured with the E50

                  Add some E13 and blend out with E11

Step 3 

Add some E53 near the hair and blend with E51 and E50

After that I just want to put the colours together and I used E51 and E50 for that.

 I colour with light long strokes over the whole area on the face, first with E51 and then E50

When that step is ready I have added more of the ordinary skin colours, also some R20 for the cheeks and after every added colours, I have blended with lighter Markers. 

I have not taken photo of every stage, because this turtorial would be very long, if I have showed every step here.

DONE !

Good luck and hope to See you again in August

HUGS and have a Great day!! 

Cicci With the Pen