Black and White Manga

Hello everyone! It's Delphine here today to share a 100% Copic make! No need to have lots of Copics to colour an image, you can colour in black and white - and with a limited number of markers. I used 7 markers for today's post and picked the C family because I really like the Cool Greys but you can of course achieve the same look with the Ts, Ns or Ws. 

My love of manga images is no secret so I chose a super cute Make it Crafty image to colour in black and white, called Debbie's Surprise. The image itself is 15cm high - meant to go into one of my frames, which is why I printed it that size.

When colouring black and white, I always start with the skin and the lightest colours to try not to go too dark - once it is coloured, it's easier to go darker if you feel your skin needs to be darker rather than making it lighter!!! I used C00, 0, 2 and 4 for the face. I placed the shadows in C0 first to see where I wanted the skin to be dark and then coloured from dark to light - C4 down to C00.

I then did the rest of the skin, using C0, 2, 4. If you take a close look, you will see I left some very thin white parts on the edges of the arms for light reflection. I also added a bit of C2 on the eyes for the colour of the iris and the shadow below the eyelash.

I then moved on to the clothes. I chose to go for a dark top, to have some contrast on the image. I did keep the scarf quite light, but still darker than the skin. 

The top was done using C6, 8, 10, and the scarf C2, 4, 6 (where my very darkest colour for skin was C4 in a few places for dark shadows). The idea is really to take the most of the range of tones and not use the same tones on elements that are side by side.

Hair - always last for me! I knew from the start I would make them black - strong contrast with the skin. I used C6, 8, 10 just like for her shirt. 

And here it is framed for my craftroom :)! Thank you very much for your visit, have a great day! Hugs,

Delphine xx