It’s now 2 February and yet another month to go till the change in seasons! Little One is dreaming of the day the flowers start blooming and the leaves appearing. And hence I made a little sketch, a great opportunity to rediscover my Copic markers which were sitting in the back of my art supply cupboard waiting to be used again. Also another chance for me to experiment combining that with colored pencils too!
Copic Markers
For this sketch, I went for Strathmore Sketchbook for Markers. Paper is wonderfully thick at 190gsm, although Bristol Paper is also good. The markers used were mainly Copic Sketch with a bit of Copic Ciao. Whilst the former is more for professional use (more ink hence durable) , the quality of ink is no different than Copic Ciao which is less costly. And after a light pencil sketch, I began coloring with the markers. Although I still need to work on techniques especially for avoiding the streaks, I do like the sideway strokes on the grass. I am hoping colored pencils might help “patch up” the streaky appearance.
A Beautiful Mistake
I needed to add this paragraph. Painters have coined the phase “beautiful mistake” because during the course of painting, accidents can happen. This could include spilling paint, splashing too much ink or dropping a brush full of paint on the wrong area etc. In my case, it was a dirty bandage on my pinky! That’s right, I had a cut on the joint of my pinky and didn’t realize the bandaid was dirty and as I was dragging the side of my hand whilst sketching, the area I was intending to leave empty got soiled. Panic ensued as I began covering the spot up with white gesso which was not clever as now the patched area shows! I then decided to draw a tree to disguise the accident and fill it with green, and though the gessoed area shows, it does give an interesting appearance.
Colored Pencils
After the ordeal, some leaves on the ground were then introduced using the same color as the tree to help balance the composition better. Now we’re talking! And now some colored pencils. I chose Holbein’s Artist’s Colored Pencils as they come in a wide range of shades which would be handy to match as close as possible the colors of the Copic Markers. As you can see, the pencils were mainly to add some dimension to the painting including light and shade as well as the shadow of Little One on the grass. They also give more “life” to Little One’s face. Colored pencils certainly enhance the painting further but with a softer touch than using another shade Copic Markers. To make the finer details more explicit and sharp, I went for gel pens too to incorporate fine details such as the veins on the leaves and shine on the eyelashes. The whites of the eyes were filled in with Uni Posca marker. And now, I think we’re done here!
And what a fun experiment this was! I ought to use Copic Markers more often. They come in a very vast range of colors to choose from, and I love how strongly and evenly they come out. Since they are rather expensive, I’ve been holding back on using them often but maybe I should just enjoy them and use them more! They also work very well with colored pencils as well as other kinds of markers like gel pens and even some acrylic markers provided they are drawn on top of the Copic markers. I shall definitely be using this method more often from now. Life is too short not to enjoy these markers. And they will be wonderful for painting about the upcoming Springtime!
My Kawaii Quarter 