I Am The Vine - Copics

I have a confession to make. I invested in some Copic markers many years ago and until now I haven't really used them. I was inspired to take them out and have a bit of a play to participate in the challenge over on the PaperArtsy blog - Alcohol Ink and Markers. Darcy has a link to Kimberly Brown's YouTube Channel. She has some great tutorials using mostly Pro-markers that inspired me to take out my Copics and have a go. 

I have also been wanting to try Zentangle® Inspired Art (ZIA for short) after being inspired by Norma J Burnell's fabulous ZIA Fairies. You can check out her beautiful work on her blog Fairy Tangles. I based my girl on her tutorial in a book I picked up called "The Art of Zentangle®".

This book contains lessons from four Certified Zentangle® Teachers and takes you through a range of tangles step by step.

To learn more about Zentangle® you can visit the website here.

I began with a pencil sketch and transferred my design to X-Press It Blending Card using a Copic Multiliner pen. It is very important to use a pen which is Copic proof or it will bleed when the marker comes into contact with it. I also used the very tip of the chisel of my lightest skin tone coloured marker to avoid a harsh black line around the face and neck. I also lightly coloured the the irises and lips.

To choose my colours I used my colour wheel. I highly recommend it if you are a bit colour challenged like me. I knew I wanted to use Yellow/Green as it was my eye colour so my triad colour scheme included Red/Orange and Blue/Violet. A bit different for me.

If you are interested these are the colours I chose: 

Skintone: E000, E00, E51 and E01 for the subtle blush on the cheeks.

Red/Orange: E95, E97, E99.

Yellow/Green: YG93, YG95, YG97.

Blue/Violet: BV00, BV02, BV04 and BV0000 for the background.

Vine: E31, E35, E37.

This is my finished coloured image. I had to practice my blending a lot before I began, particularly the skin tone. A bit streaky but I'm sure I will improve with more practice.

I coloured the background in a very pale shade of Blue/Violet.

In her tutorial, Norma suggests using small dots with her graphite shading. I have also used it here over the Copic shading and I like the effect. I coloured some rhinestones with my markers for some added bling. I have added a hint of glitter gel pen around the flower to bring it forward.

I have used coloured pencil for eyeshadow, lip detail and to deepen the neck shading. White gel pen was used for the highlights.

Something I learned the hard way: do not take the lid off your marker over your art work or you too will enjoy splatters, I mean beauty spots, over your freshly coloured face. Lesson learned:)

I found this art work to be so relaxing and I enjoyed it so much I definitely will be doing some more colouring in the near future. 

Thank you PaperArtsy for providing this challenge.