Tag Archives: Copic Markers

Who Lives in this Tree House?

The fact that I am hardly the first to create fancy little trees with fancy little doors is not lost on me.  However, it is fun!  Are they fairy houses or gnome houses or beast houses?  Friend or foe?  My goodness, it could be a door to the other side of the universe. Maybe every time you open one of these doors, you are presented with a window to another dimension!  I could go on for days, but I don’t think that’s quite as interesting as showing you some fancy little trees with fancy little doors (and all the attendant beasts, of course).

Here is the most recent:

Who's House is This?

I like it.  I purposely left the background blank because I may make prints with a variety of digital backgrounds.  Maybe I’ll have it printed onto cling film of some kind so you can put it in your window (house or car, whatever).  Tragically, there is a spot on it in the upper left.  I can remove the spot digitally, but I am hoping to put the original up for sale so part of the reason I posted this is so that I can ask my Doodle team at Etsy for some expert spot-removal advice.

Speaking of the Doodle team, the first of the crazy tree house scenes, attached below, is the result of yet another Doodle challenge, this one based on the theme “The Enchanted Forest”.

Hogging the Swing

Tocktock the rat was hoping to have a go on the swing, but that silly purple bird was hogging it again. His closest friend was the dog, Ollie. But Ollie mostly liked to stare at brightly-colored things. Everyone said he was a magical dog because he could see colors. Tocktock did not think this was useful magic. Useful magic would get him a turn on the swing quicker.

Tocktock was even pretty sure the big blue bird was frequently irritated by the swing-hogger. But he could hardly expect one bird to side with a mammal over another *bird*. Oh well.  Maybe he would go eat some bugs and come back later.

This 8×10 woodland-type community portrait is available in my Etsy store.  Yay!

Here’s a couple other recent things in my continued attempts to figure out these tricky Copic markers:

Cecil is Curious

Cecil was quietly waiting for the tiny dwelling’s occupant to make an appearance when the monstrous pink bird showed up. Hello, he said. The bird looked at him with interest but did not answer. Do you speak? asked Cecil. The bird shook its wings out. Cecil did not know if this meant no. Or yes. Or wasn’t an answer at all but just a shake.

I have been visiting this spot for several days, said Cecil. I don’t know who lives in that house, but I am hoping they will show up. Maybe they will be nice and make tea. The bird bobbed his head up and down. Cecil did not know what to make of this, but was happy the bird did not seem to want to eat him.  (A 5″ x7″ drawing.)

Ornery Beast Hydra

One of the heads is always supposed to be awake. At least, that’s what their mother told them. You’ll get caught unawares by a monster! she would say.

To be perfectly honest, the three never believed this tale. Sure, it might be useful for one head to stay awake in case of rain, but they were a hydra! What monster would possibly want to tangle with a hydra? Besides, naps are such nice affairs. They take at least three per day. (A 5″ x 5″ drawing.)

Green Bird & Friends

Lymon the bird noticed recently that his favorite tree was becoming a favorite spot for other people. He liked to think of animals and bugs as people. Why not? They could all talk and everything, although of course they preferred not to let the humans know this.

He still wasn’t sure what the little grey guy was, since he was pretty sure porcupines don’t climb trees. Echidna? Hard to say and frankly, hard to understand with that high-pitched voice. But he was a patient bird-person and eventually they would understand each other.

I quite like this ACEO.  I even listed it at one entire DOLLAR more than the others, although I am considering adding another entire dollar for a whopping total of ten dollars.  What can I say?  Sometimes I go off the rails.   :O)

Thanks for stopping by!

Further Copic Adventures, Magnified

So admittedly I had a case of ACEO fever for a while (I suspect it’s like poison oak in that it is bound to flare up from time to time), but in the back of my mind I kept thinking I should try something a bit larger.

I have a portfolio filled with black and white drawings (the originals of various digitally-colored works I have posted in this very spot for the last few months until the ACEO fever hit).  So I figured I would break out the Copics and work with one of those.  Here is the result (now available in my Etsy shop, see link to the right):

Three Bright Birds

I like it, but I see a LOT of room for improvement.  The colors are a little muddy, the blending ok but not stellar, and so forth.  I do need to get more pens!  I have about 25 now and will probably pick up another dozen soon.  For the colored details on each figure I used Prismacolor chisel tip markers, which is a somewhat finer line than the Copic brush tip, and I would like to do more of that sort of thing (detailed color on color).

For some really stunning Copic work, check out two of my Etsy favorites:

Brooke Connor Design (Thank you Brooke for suggesting Copic markers!)

Illustratus Sundevaric AHOY  (Newly discovered –   strange and lovely!)

 

The first time around, scanned and colored digitally, Olive and Co. looked like this:

Olive's Niece and the Uneventful Visit

Their story can be found in their original post here.

Thanks to everyone who visited!

A Step-by-Step Copic ACEO Post

Some of my favorite blog posts are the kind that show the stages of a project from beginning to end.  So I’m having a go with my recent obsession – ACEOs (Art Card Edition Originals) created with Micron fine line pens and Copic alcohol-based professional markers.  Please feel free, should you stumble upon this post, to offer comments, criticisms or suggestions.  I can take it.  ;)

Please note I in no way resemble a Copic expert.  I wouldn’t even call myself proficient.  So this is clearly not a how-to post, although I suppose it is a how-to-if-you-are-me-today post.

One thing I’ve noticed is that I don’t get discouraged as easily as I once did, abandoning pieces before they have a chance to develop a personality.  These days I try to be more patient.  So let’s start here:

Step One

I sketch in pencil first almost always these days.  For a long time I didn’t sketch beforehand at all, and it led to a lot of wasted paper and no small amount of frustration.  I still doodle a lot without sketching first, but mostly I do a basic outline of a beast – particularly the legs (for alignment), nose (which makes a big difference in a beast’s personality), hair/spines (because it’s easy to accidentally make each piece  too similar, which is not an effect I generally like) and ears (which also affect personality).  I could have added a forelock but I wanted more white space.

Step Two

Just a simple line outline.  After I’ve given it a few moments, I erase the pencil lines with my handy Staedtler Mars plastic eraser.  I don’t even mind if the eraser fades out the ink at this point, because I’ll be going back over it at the end.

Another thing I notice and if you have been a doodler of any sort for any length of time you probably notice the same thing, and that is that I don’t hesitate like I used to with pen line.  So you don’t see a lot of starts and stops with little bits of line trying to line up.

Step Three

A basic covering with the lightest blue.  The opposite side legs and ear start off one step darker.  I tend to dab a lot to try to avoid lines in the marker coverage.  I also like to leave some white space to add depth in subsequent layers.

I should add here that the thing about not hesitating with pen is not serving me quite so well with the markers, which do have a nice brush tip but I haven’t trained myself to slow down quite enough (particularly with tiny ACEOs!) and I manage to color outside the lines with some frequency.  :D

Step Four

I decided a bit late to add some detail.  I forgot I wanted to do a striped tail but better late than never!  As long as I didn’t have my heart set on light colors that the light blue would bleed through, this isn’t a big deal.

Step Five

Decided on brown for the spots which covered the blue easily.  Did some sketchy shading with my next blue.

Step Six

The photo is a tad blurry but I went back over the beast with the first (lightest blue) which softened the transitions.

Step Seven

The next darkest blue.  As you can see, I am missing many shades of blue in between, but I am making do with the colors I have.

Step Eight

Another round of the second blue.

Step Nine

And then an overall cover with the first (lightest) blue.

Ten

One pass of the background with lightest green, dabbing and leaving white space.

Eleven

And then a second green around the edges.

Twelve

Back over with the lightest green at the sides and then covering the whole green background with yellow.  You can see where it catches the white spaces and adds a bit of texture and depth.

13, 14, 15

Oops, forgot to stop and take a picture or two.  I re-inked the outlines with a thicker Micron, gave him a closed eye and a nose, and added some hair after all (because he asked nicely for some).  I re-did a bit of the darkest blue, then went back over that with blue #2.

That’s it.  No particularly fancy Copic tricks.  This is a pretty basic beast with no landscape or friend or flora.  Although I started off doing lone beasts like this one, I do try to add a little something to make a bit more of a scene rather than a portrait most of the time.  Often a little dog!  But it is rough to fit multiple objects in a teeny 2.5 inch by 3.5 inch art card.

Copic Marker Adventures, ACEO-sized

Other have said it before, and more will come after, but hot dang!  Copic markers are really cool.  The colors are super rich.  I am still experimenting, mostly on ACEO-sized (2.5″ x 3.5″) illustration board. Part of the purpose of the tiny size is to have some completed original art in my Etsy shop.  Here is the first one I did, in which I also used Prismacolor markers (and you can see where those colors don’t blend as well):

Lorraine, a Bird

This is Lorraine. She is catching a few ZZZs on her favorite branch after a hard day herding prairie dogs.

Yesterday I added to my meager Copic collection by purchasing 15 more markers (they are not cheap!)  eeek, but worth it.  Also, I get the Ciao size which is the smaller, more economical size (without losing any of the quality of color).  Then I made more tiny pictures!

Liesle and Frederique Nap

Liesl (on the left) and Frederique were arguing about flightless birds when Frederique fell asleep mid-sentence. (This happens more than you might think.) Liesl, satisfied that she had won the argument by default – particularly after her intelligent comment about penguins, nodded off soon after.

Two Bright Beasts

For the second time in my blogging history (which is extremely short), I am embarrassed to admit I do not know the names of these two colorful creatures.  Part of the problem is that they are shy.  The other part is that the few tidbits I have overheard them whispering seem to be in Icelandic.  Or maybe Dutch.  In any case, a language I do not speak.

Jinni and Figgish Napping

Jinni the orange beast and Figgish the dog are excellent friends. They met at a seashell collecting convention in 2009 where they argued good-naturedly about whether you can really hear the ocean in a conch shell.

The depth of color is really quite lovely, with all credit to the Copic people.  You may also notice I have managed to color outside the lines in one or two of these teeny masterpieces, as well as smudge some of the line work.  I tell myself this adds to their handmade charm.

Argus and the Alien Flower

Sometimes Argus has the strangest dreams about alien flowers on colorful landscapes. He firmly believes his ancestors came from Sirius, the Dog Star, where many strange and wonderful plants and creatures still reside. (His amused mum never denied this story.)