Sunday 28 September 2014

Online Card Classes - Copics for Cardmakers - Days 1 to 5

Hi there!

I have signed up to Copics for Cardmakers, but was unable to start lessons until yesterday. Firstly, I was away for work this week. Secondly, I only owned about three colours and needed just a few more to practise with! Luckily for me, my order arrived in the mail yesterday morning. :-)

I am sharing my progress here, but please note, I am an absolute beginner. These are my very first Copic lessons. It is highly unlikely that anyone will learn anything from me, but hopefully in a few months, we can look back and see some progress, lol!

Second disclaimer - unusually for me, neatness has not been a priority. I'll tidy up how I work once I've learned some of the techniques. You'll see lots of outside-the-line colouring here.

Day 1 - Blending Basics
We started with two colour and three colour blending on balloons. I forgot to practice three colour blending because I was most interested in learning how to blend two colours (to stretch my limited stash). We were taught how to create light using the Blender, but I didnt' practice it this time. On the second balloons, those highlights were just created by leaving the first colour alone in that spot (not going over them again).
I forgot to add the red and green colours onto this next one. They were R29, R24, R22, and YG23, YG95.
Day 2 - Blending Tricks
On Day 2 we learn about tip-to-tip blending, acetate blending, and feathering. All very cool techniques that I didn't even know existed, except perhaps the feathering, but the lesson taught me more than I knew, for sure!

The little red-breast was made using tip-to-tip AND acetate blending. The little grey bird was just an experiment on my own to see how he would look in grey.
Next came butterflies.
 On the second butterfly I used feathering and tip to tip blending. I also added black outlines.
Day 3 - Get More Mileage out of Your Markers
I found the blending with grey lessons fascinating! Some of my results were a bit dodgy, but even those "not so great" results taught me things! The use of grey may be one of the best things I take away from this online class. That I need to buy more grey markers may be the accompanying lesson (I have three greys, T1, T4, and T6, that's it).
The umbrellas practice taught me all sorts of things that I should NOT do... and a few that I should.
Day 4 - Turning on the Lights
Day 4 was all about shading. My favourite lesson was where I learned how to imagine sections of images as either round, oval, square, etc and to imagine where the shadows would fall, depending on the light source direction. My favourite revelation was that it's okay to shade any way you choose to. :-)

The first flower has directional light. The second used the feathering technique on the flowers with more realistic leaves. The third flower I didn't like much (too dark), so I decided to experiment with the leaf colour, which was an interesting process.
Day 5 - Colouring skin, hair, and clothing
I will admit that I never thought I would learn how to colour skin and hair. It looks so tricky. I now think that with a little practice that I WILL learn this skill. Yay! I don't have many skin/hair colours, but I don't imagine I'll do much colouring of people, so for the moment my few colours will suffice.
When I was working on my first ballerina last night, my little real-life ballerina came over and exclaimed "You're colouring me!". She was right. I was colouring my ballerina to look like my little girl. :-)  She then put in an order for a ballerina in an aqua tutu, which I made this morning.
The aqua ballerina pleased my daughter and the order for my next ballerina is a red dress. Maybe I WILL be colouring more people... lol!

So that wraps up the first five days of lessons. I hope that next week I will be able to play along within a day or two of the lesson. I'm really enjoying this class and I'm so glad that I signed up. If you have been thinking of joining in, it's worth it! I managed to catch up on the first five days over the course of a day, so you certainly have time to join in and catch up with the rest of us. :-)

See you later!

Michelle
xxx


9 comments:

Cassandra said...

Oh boy, you are so far ahead of me. I have just got through the first 4 days videos. I am hoping to have a crack at a few tonight. Short week this week so may have more of a chance.

You are doing a great job. Particularly like the umbrellas and the combinations you used.

Marika said...

Thanks for your post. I don't own any copics but once in awhile I think of buying a few and start to learn how to color with them. Now I know, that I should sign up for this class if I buy some. Thanks Michelle! This was very useful information - at least for me. Have fun at the class!

Colleen said...

Well, from the looks of all your practice sheets, I think you are on your way to being a pro...these all look fantastic! I wish I could say the same about mine! I think you have the knack for it now, you better buy more copics!! Your ballerina girls are really fabulous!

Cathy said...

The class looks wonderful, great colouring so far Michelle, Cathy x

Jacquie Southas said...

Michelle, you might have sold me on signing up for this class :)

Did they provide you a list of Copics to buy, or did you just order colors you thought you would use the most?

My Paper Epiphany said...

You were very quick Michelle! I can see improvement from these samples already. I was feeling a bit stressed about it yesterday, because I felt I had gone backwards from how I coloured pre-class. But I"m sure the practice is necessary and I love the idea of using the grey for shading. i've posted all my homework on a Pinterest board.

Kelly Latevola said...

I loved reading about your copic progress Michelle! I would love to take the class but I knowI'm going to have to wait to spend the money. Your coloring looks great. I really love your butterflies!

Karen M said...

Your colouring looks amazing Michelle and isn't the class just great...I have had copics for ages but I am learning so much:) Hugs xx

Unknown said...

I would really appreciate it if you could answer a quick question for me.

I love coloring with alcohol markers and would like to improve my skills, so have considered taking this course.

However, I don't have any Copics, just a lot of Letraset Promarkers and Spectrum Noirs.

Do you think I would still get a lot from this course with the techniques etc? Or do you think that not having Copics would make it a waste of money for me?

Copics are very hard to get here in the UK, I have never yet seen a shop selling them, now I think of it!