Copics and a Few Other Tidbits

Hi everyone. I don't have a project for today, but I do want to share a few tips and answer a question or two.

A bit about watercolor paper...

The other day, I was asked about what kind of watercolor paper I used on this card. I used Arches 140lb cold press watercolor paper. It is artist grade paper that I use for watercolor painting. It is probably not the best choice for card making because is is very heavy and thick. I used it because the cheap pad of watercolor paper I had purchased for cardmaking, didn't work very well.

This (pic above) is the paper that I found to be difficult to use.It is made by Canson and was only $2.50 at Michaels. I guess you get what you pay for. The color soaked right in and would barely move.

I have since picked up some new w/c paper. I purchased this pad at Michaels for about $6 dollars. It is made by Strathemore, and is a much better quality than the Canson I had tried before.


Here is a little comparison of the two watercolor papers. The paper on the left is the Strathemore and the stuff on the right is the inexpensive Canson. I used two Memento markers, applying the orange right at the base of the petal and coming out further with the yellow. Then I used my water brush to blend them out to the tip of the petal.

On the Strathemore paper, I was able to pull the color out quite easily in just a few strokes and probably could have kept blending. On the Canson paper, I went over it several times and never did have much success blending.

A bit about Copics...

A few days ago someone asked me to share what my favorite Copic colors are, so I snapped a few pics and here goes...

I think everyone should have the colorless blender, of course, and I use mine all the time. It's really more of a color pusher (Marianne's verbage, not mine) or a color picker-upper. I like to use it to push the color back into the lines when I make a mistake (I make a lot of mistakes) and to lift color to add highlights.

I also love the two cool grays above, C1 and C3. I use those a lot for shading and shadowing. I have two warm grays, W1 and W3, but find I hardly ever use them.

I have a total of 6 markers in the yellow/greens, but find the YG93, YG95, YG03 and YG05 are the ones I go to the most. I really love them for foliage of all sorts. I have 5 in the solid greens but they rarely get used. I think it likely that I will go to them more in the summer and holidays, but for now they are virtually un-used. I don't have any of the blue/greens.

I have 4 in the E50's color family, E51, E53, E55 and E57, but E51 and E55 are the ones I use the most. The E51, Milky White, is a great marker and works as a base color for a lot of things, especially skin tones.

I have 4 of the E30's, but these three are the ones I mainly use from those. These tones are a bit warmer than the E50's, so I go to them more often.

I have 6 yellows, but Y21, Y23, and Y17 see paper the most. I love the buttery, golden hues best among the yellows.

Of the five violets I have, V01, V04 and V06 are my favorites. I can get a good range of colors from just these three markers.

I only have three red/violets, RV21, RV23 and RV25. I am very happy with these three, but would like to add another group of three in a slightly different hue, just to broaden my selection.

I only have four reds and R22, R24 and R27 get used a lot. I think I probably need about 6 more reds.

I love my blues, but don't use them a lot. My favorites are B00, B21 and B23. Boo is like E51 and can be used in a lot of different ways.

Out of the six yellow/oranges I have, YR04, YR12, YR14 and YR16 get used the most. I combine these with the yellows listed above quite often.

I love my Copics and next week I am attending a Copic certification class in San Francisco with Marianne from I Like Markers. She has the best blog for picking up Copic coloring tips.

One more thing...

On that Sketchy Owl card the other day, I was asked to include the photos showing the Copic colors, so if you are interested in that you can find the updated post here.

That is all for today. I will be back with my first preview of the new Gina K Designs sets tonight! Have a great day!