Check out his videos on drawing and inking Terra as well!

Find Todd on the web:
Website 
Copic Color Gallery
Facebook
Twitter 
Instagram

We now offer back-to-back certifications for Standard and Intermediate classes! If you have not taken the Standard class, you will need to apply for both at the same time. Below is our current class schedule:

Standard Certification
Chicago, IL 6/28 FULL
Kansas City, KS 8/9
St. Louis, MO 8/16
Minneapolis, MN 8/16
Portland, OR 8/16

» Apply for Standard Certification Classes

Intermediate Certification
Chicago, IL 6/29 FULL
Kansas City, KS 8/10
St. Louis, MO 8/17
Minneapolis, MN 8/17
Portland, OR 8/17

» Apply for Intermediate Certification Classes

.
.

Join our regional instructors for TWO consecutive, fun-filled days of coloring, creating and getting inky! Expand your coloring skills, experiment with unique surfaces, learn new inking techniques and advance your airbrushing aptitude in this totally hands-on workshop. Prerequisite: Standard Certification

Chicago, IL 7/19-20

» Apply for Copic Color & Ink Workshops

Join our mailing list to be the first to know about new class announcements!

Step 1: Identify the reference photo. Try to choose a picture that is well contrasted, that shade and light are very visible in. It will help you later with shading your piece, giving it depth and a realistic look. Since I limit myself to a 3”x3” square, I crop the picture so I have the same exact image I am drawing in front of me while I am at it.

For this piece I used acid-free multimedia paper, Copic Sketch markers, Copic Multiliner pens and a white gel pen.

Copic Colors Used:
R14 (for the base color of the fruit)
E09, E18 and R32 (for the highlight and shading)
C3 and C1 (for shading of the strawberry and underneath it)
YG63 and YG03 (for the stems and leaf)

Step 2: For this one, I used the Copics to sketch the general lines of the composition with the main colors I designated for the fruit and stems. The small, restricting size allows me to refer to the borders as guides, like a grid. Of course, you can do any shape you want:

Step 3: I fill in the colors, leaving white space where the color should be lighter:

Step 4: I start to apply the shading, using both the base color and the darker shade and mixing them so the transition is smooth. If I had more shades in between, I’d probably be using more colors to get it right:

Step 5: I lay down the lighter shade, blending it with the base color of the cherry:

Step 6: From here on I add more shade, apply the darker color to the stems and leaf, and see if I need to add more detail. I also grab a Multiliner and add small detail to the stems. I add a bit of reflected light using the white gel pen. If I don’t want it too dominant, I smear it as soon as I lay it on the paper, while it’s still wet. I also add the shadows:

Step 7: I check to see if further details are needed to complete the picture. I determined that a little more detail is needed to the stem, and added the shadow beneath the stem of the left cherry:

Find Anat on the web:
http://www.anatronen.com
http://www.3x3notes.com
Facebook

What would you like to see us cover in future tutorials? Let us know in the comments!

Enter by this Friday, June 14th for a chance to win $350 and awesome Copic prizes! For more details and to enter, head over to the original post.

Good luck!

Win a Copic Airbrush System and Five Copic Markers of Your Choice!

The Copic ABS-1N kit comes with everything you needed to start creating. Includes an air grip, adaptor, air can 180 (40-45 minutes of air), hose and air can holder.

With a variable spray pattern and simple color switching (just pop in a new marker!), the Copic Airbrush System can be used on a variety of surfaces. For use with Copic or Sketch markers. Learn more about all of our airbrush systems.

Enter by June 14th at 11:59pm PST for your chance to win!

The winner will be contacted via email by June 21st.

Enter the Eugene International Film Festival‘s 2013 Concept Art Competition, sponsored in part by Copic Marker USA!

Prizes:
- Trophy!
- $300 Gift Certificate for Copic Marker’s online store
- Registration for a Tales of Amalthea creature design master class

Categories:
- Best Tales of Amalthea-Inspired Creature Concept
- Best Cast Member
- Best Set Decoration
- Best Storyboard (limited to 4 frames)
- Best Action Illustration
- Best Wardrobe Design

There are no dimension restrictions for the artwork. Winning pieces will be displayed at the Eugene International Film Festival, November 7-10 in Eugene, Oregon.

Submission Fee: $20
Deadline: August 23rd, 2013.

Learn more about the EIFF, and enter your concept art for a chance to win!

ENTER HERE

Awards not guaranteed for every category. Submissions will be judged & winners selected by established professional artists and designers selected by Archwing Studios & Copic Marker USA. All judging decisions are final and at the discretion of the EIFF, its agents and assigns.

Comics creator 

I’m going to show how I go through the process of creating a dappled light effect in an illustration. I draw dinosaurs, so obviously I’m going to show the effect on a dinosaur.

Materials Used:
Copic Sketch Markers - B000, Y0000, BG10, BG93, BG96, BG99, W3, W8, BV31, E70, E71, E77, R14, R02, W10, 110
Copic Multiliner - Cool Grey .01
Copic Drawing Pen - Black F01
X-Press It Blending Card
White Gel Pen

The dappled effect is created by light coming through the trees. The shadows cast by the leaves can leave a variety of patterns. It can be complicated but we can simplify it in a way that will make it easy to create the effect. There are a few things to keep in mind.

If the light source is very bright, and the object casting the shadow (leaves)  is close to the object being cast on (dinosaur), the shadows are going to be more solid, darker, and finer detail will show:

If the light source is bright and the object casting the shadow (leaves) is far away from the object being cast on (dinosaur) then the effect is a more blurry softer shadow, and sometimes a lighter shadow:

This is because ambient light comes in from the surrounding area making it a more lighted space, where as if the objects are close the light can’t get in to mess things up.

I’m going to do the type of dappling where the light is direct and casts soft abstract shapes of light on the object. It’s my favourite. It’s seen mostly in sunny summer days in forests.

The dappled effect can be handled in two ways:

1) You can think of it as shadows: Colour as if you’re shading the cast shadows onto the animal.

2) You think of it as light patches: Focus more in creating the light spots than thinking about the shadows.

I think that the 2 scenarios can work equally well, and I think that each illustration might take a judgment call for how to handle the path it will take.

I’ll now take you through the steps of creating this image.

I take every illustration I do as a learning experience, so I always start off with experimentation. I don’t know how I’m going to do this process at all, until I’ve gone through these steps. Every time I illustrate a scenario it’s the first time. I don’t like to get to comfortable with any art things or else art becomes sterile. Onward…

I rummaged through my recent sketches for something to work on and I found this one in my sketchbook. I thought it would be good if I extended the forest out a bit and change my intended light source:

I opened the image in an image editing program (Photoshop) and laid in some grays to get an idea of the tones I’d like in this, and map out some of the dapples. I thought only of the light and shadow in this stage.  I put the sketch on its own layer and set it to “multiply” mode for the layer, and did the gray layers underneath to preserve my lines. I am going to be using quite a bit of black in this image. I’m going for a comic book style.

After I was happy with the shading, I printed a copy and stuck it to my drafting table. Then I moved onto mapping the colour of the illustration. I changed all my grey layers to be in “multiply” mode and added coloured layers underneath so I could see the colours through the shading. I referenced the vulture coloration from a Dinosaur special called “The valley of the T Rex”. I really liked the red head and black body on that series but I lightened the body at a later stage. Okay, So I printed this out and taped it to my table as well as a screen shot from the T Rex.

I printed out a copy of my sketch to the size I wanted to work at, and inked onto a new sheet of X-Press It blending card with my Copic F01 Drawing pen. I then did some of the rough background with the .01 Cool Grey Multiliner. I intentionally left large areas blank as they’re going to be worked in with markers only. This is just the way I like to do it. There are areas on the T Rex that are going to be coloured black as well. I’ve left them as only outlines for now. Black being what it is, it would be difficult to not smudge it into my image as I worked if I did it first:

After I inked this, I scanned it and printed 2 copies on a piece of blending card. For these 2 drawings I’m going to experiment on how to colour, then I’ll do the real thing on the actual ink version. this took me 8 experimental versions before I got the look I wanted, just to give you an idea of how long it takes.

On to the colouring:

First, I use B000 to lay in some colour for the sky in the background. I like to leave it a little rough around the edges. it’s such a subtle part of the image you won’t ever notice it later on:

I also used BG10 to add in some indication of distant trees outside the edge of the forest line:

Next I take BG93 and fill in the background trees as well as free-handing some of the filling foliage in the bottom corner behind the Rex. Again, in the early stages a smooth coat is not something that’s terribly important:

Now I’ve gone in with BG96 and added some darkness to the thickness of the trees. I’ve left the edges a little lighter because of ambient light coming through but I’m not spending a ton of time on this as the background elements will tend to fade away a little once you enhance the more important elements of the illustration. I’ve also gone in and added some thicker darker ferns behind Rex. I did this with just the brush nib on my sketch marker. One stroke up for the stem, and then little flicking motions from the stem outwards to create individual leaves. Sketch markers are ideal for prehistoric flora:

Now I’ve gone back with the B10 and added in some silhouettes of Alamosaurus in the background, and used W3 on the ground to create some sandy patches. Rough as normal, to keep the focus on the Rex. I’ve also used Y0000 to add some dappled light onto the Rex’s back. It might be heard to see but I’ve basically just blobbed them on with the super brush in abstract patches. Also since Rex’s head is sticking out into the sun I gave him more dramatic highlights on his head area:

Now I go in with my BV31 (my BFF) and lay in all the shadowy places on Rex.  Now the patches are more apparent. This is where it gets a little fickle. Make sure you use a feathering stroke (soft flicking while using the side of the brush) when you are near the yellow patches. it’s important to keep the edges of the light patches quite soft:

Now I start filling in the Rex’s real colour. Using E70, I start filling in the areas that were previously BV31. I let some of the BV31 show through as it’s a nice contrast to the yellow light:

Now I use R14 to colour in his head, leaving little areas for the sunlight to hit his face on the highpoints. I used the E70 & E71 to add some shading in his head and more on his body I also used a little bit of E77 in his body:

Now I use W6 to add in some darker shading over the entire Rex, including his head. I also used Y000 and R02 to blend out the highlight areas on his face:

Now I am fairly happy with it and I’ll fill in the back leg with W8 and add some the foreground ferns in. I used the same technique as before. Here I used W8 and W10 and 110 to do these foreground ferns:

I now used the white gel pen to dot on some highlights on Rex’s face. I used little dots to indicate the texture of his skin. I gave my T-rex a bit of a lion mane of feathers so I touched on a few of them, too:

And that about wraps this up!

Here is the finished sleepy T Rex enjoying the sun. I hope it was useful!

Find Jayleen on the web:
Gurukitty Studios
Blog
Copic Color
Facebook
Twitter

June 7-9: HeroesCon Charlotte – Booth #818 & 917

.

July 4-7: Anime Expo Los Angeles – Booth #560

.

July 18-21: Comic-Con San Diego – Booth #4928

Wide markers are great for a number of things: Filling large areas with rich, consistent color, calligraphy and lettering, applying background foundation tone for shading and sketching, and making plaid patterns. For those with an adventurous spirit there is a final frontier to the exploration of Wide markers, and that is the customization of your own nib.

Through the selective removal of areas of the Wide nib via physically cutting into the nib itself, you can add raking lines to your encyclopedia of mark making, as well as a really nice way of making rainbows!

Things You’ll Need:


Copic Tweezers: These handy tweezers have teeth that are handy for gripping the nib for mess-free removal and replacement.

Spare Nibs: The stock Wide marker nib is the angled Extra Broad chisel nib, but the flat Calligraphy nib is great for lettering and controlled raking lines.

X-Acto Knife: A sharp cutting tool is essential. There’s no match for a sharp blade when making clean cuts! Using a dull blade will result in frayed cuts that are undesirable for this technique.

The Technique:

Safety first! R29 is a great color for blood, there’s no reason to make your own! For this tutorial, I will show you how to cut a number of notches into the flat Calligraphy nib resulting in raking lines that are great for making crosshatch lines, and exciting zigzag lines.

When cutting notches into the nib, you want to cut at an angle into the nib, resulting in a notch that has a V-shape. This will give you a clean, un-frayed notch.

Once you have your first notch cut, evenly space the notches along the nib, but leave enough space between notches so that the nib still has some structural integrity.


The next step is swapping out the existing nib from your favorite Wide marker and inserting the new custom nib:


Notice that with the tweezers, I am pulling the nib straight out of the marker. When removing the nib, be careful not to damage the nib, as you can save the original nib in an airtight ziplock bag, and swap it out later!


Now What?

Now we have a customized Wide marker. At this step, the new nib is dry, without any ink and it will take some time for the ink from the marker to fully ink the nib, but if you are looking for faster results, you can use ink to “refill” the nib for instant coloring! Be sure not to add too much ink, but just enough to soak the nib itself. Once you see the nib fully colored, it’s ready to go. Ink from the marker itself will fully saturate the nib over time.

Now the Fun Part:

As you can see from the pictures above, I have inserted my customized the nib into a colorless blender marker. Now I’m going to use a number of colors to make a rainbow with the notches that I have created.

Touching the chisel end of a sketch marker for a few seconds (any other marker will do, but I find that the chisel end works best) to the end of my customized colorless blender Wide marker, I have created an instant rainbow marker:

Voila! Depending on how much ink you add to the blender marker, the longer you will be able to color with your new Rainbow Copic.

IMPORTANT: Make sure to use up all of the added color to the colorless blender marker before capping the marker for the day. Any color left in the nib will seep into the marker itself and tint your colorless blender over time. Coloring on some scratch paper or smooth Bristol board is a great way to clean your colorless blender of added colors

Other Techniques:

Use this technique to create interesting raking lines or for separating a marker into two broad strokes, which is great for calligraphy and borders.

Using the colorless blender with a number of notches cut into the nib, you can create some very interesting textures and colored swatches!

I encourage you to experiment with different ways of customizing the nibs and using your marker not only for lines, but also for stamping and patterning! Try overlapping your lines for quick gridwork, or for drawing flowing hair. Most of all, have fun!

Find Jackson on the web:
Portfolio
Copic Color

Share your Wide customizations with us on Facebook and Twitter!

To celebrate the release of the latest The Great Gatsby remake (now in theaters), we’ve teamed up with fashion illustrator Jennifer Hancock to bring you a series of tutorials based on the Roaring Twenties fashion seen in the film.

For the final tutorial in this series, Jennifer walks us through the steps to create fur or faux fur with Copic markers:

There was something very naive about this era… So much excess with the Great Depression looming in the near future. That naiveté certainly existed in regard to animal cruelty – I do not advocate the use of fur pelts. I do, however, appreciate authentic costume, and fur clothing and accessories were all the rage in the Roaring Twenties, which is why I chose to include fur in this tutorial series.

I created this entire series using many of the same colors: jade green, dark berry red, popular skin tones from light to dark, flamingo pink, black pearl gray and white. If you review the product list you will notice the same colors being used again and again. I hope you become inspired by the variety of tones and textures you can achieve using 2-4 shades in the same color family.

I hope you enjoy these tutorials as much as I enjoyed sharing them with you! If you use these tutorials for a project, I would love to see your work – connect with me on Copic Color, or through the social media and contact options on my website. Special thanks to Copic for giving me a reason to create these images – As if I needed an excuse!

Until next time,

Jen : )

Step 1: Sketch out the border of the fur and overlapping areas in a small zigzag-type line. The more uneven and jagged the line, the better. I chose to outline the fur in a Multiliner color that most closely matched the marker color that will be next to the fur. Once outlined, fill the entire section with the lightest marker shade in your palette – You will want 3-5 shades. My fur and lightest shade are white, so I did not add any color at this step.

Step 2: Using the second lightest shade in your palette, follow along your outline, making small strokes with the paintbrush tip of your maker. These strokes should point slightly down and away from the center of the fur.

Step 3: Using the colorless blender, bleed out the strokes you just made by saturating them with the Colorless Blender. This will cause your strokes to fade and blur together. I did this to create the soft, dense, down-like fur at the base of the larger fur hairs. This technique also works well for velvet, felt, and suede.

Step 4: Using the second lightest shade in your palette again, use the brush tip of your Copic Sketch marker to create short, thin, light strokes that fade to a point along the outline. Keep the strokes erratic and spaced apart by 2-3 stroke widths. Angle is more important than perfection. Keep the strokes coming out from the center, pointing slightly down and away from the direction of your outline. Begin some of these strokes closer to the center of the section, but still close enough to connect with your border strokes, all while keeping the center light or free of color. Keep building until you have a nice, full-looking section of fur. If you have a slightly darker shade, add a few light strokes spaced out along the outlines, keeping with the same direction. This will create more depth by adding some shadow. Once you are satisfied with the shape and fullness of your fur, take your darkest shade and make light, thin strokes all along the edge of the fur. Be sure that these strokes are few and far between – Space them far enough away that they do not touch much. You want to create definition, not a solid border.

Step 5: Use a colored pencil that is slightly lighter than your darkest shade for texture. Make light strokes around the edge, and sparsely toward the center. This works best if you are using a paper with a nice texture. Omit the pencil if you are trying to achieve the look of super-glossy fur. If your lightest shade is not white, add a few strokes coming from the bright center sections of the fur using opaque white ink – this will add more dimension to the fur and make it appear as if some of the furs are catching the light (I did this very lightly on the fringed sections of the dress).

Materials Used:

Feathers & Fan
Copic Multiliners - .05 Olive, Wine, Gray
Copic Sketch markers - YG67, G82, R22, E01, R02
atyouSpica Glitter Pen - Silver

Hair
Copic Multiliners - .05 Black, Wine
Copic Sketch markers - 110, RV69
Prismacolor Pencils – PC929, PC938

Skin
Copic Multiliners - .05 Black, Sepia
Copic Sketch markers - E15, E18, R20
Prismacolor Pencils – PC938, PC946

Eyes & Lips
Copic Multiliners - .05 Black, Wine, Gray
Copic Sketch markers - E55, T3, T5, RV69
atyouSpica Glitter Pens - Silver, Black, Pink
Copic Opaque White

Dress & Jewelry
Copic Multiliners - .05 Black, Wine, Gray, Olive
Copic Sketch markers - RV69, R39, R22, R02, G82, YG67, E01, T3
atyouSpica Glitter Pens - Silver, Pink
Prismacolor Pencil – PC938
Copic Opaque White

Fur
Copic Multiliners - .05 Gray
Copic Sketch markers - 0, T1, T2, T3, T5
Prismacolor Pencil – PC1065 (Optional)
Copic Opaque White (Suggested)

Find Jennifer on the web:
Copic Color
Portfolio

Check out all four Roaring Twenties fashion tutorials by Jennifer!