Thursday, June 12, 2008

Quick Plaid with a Wide Marker

Since Father's Day is coming up, now is a good time to show you how to make a "Manly" plaid with a Wide marker (you can do this with any Copic marker, it's just more fun with a Wide). Don't forget to post a comment on Tuesday's blog to be entered in our drawing.

Pick a good, manly colored wide marker. Pick a couple manly colors in another style of marker that will match your wide marker. For this first example I'm using R27 and a 100 Black. Carefully touch the black marker to the tip of your wide marker, holding them there for a while until the color seeps onto the wide marker.


With your dual-tone marker try drawing a stripe. It takes a bit of practice to hold the wide marker at the right angle for a smooth stroke, but once you get the hang of it, it gets to be addictive making fun squiggles. You'll also find that the color you add wants to quickly come off the tip, so test how much you need to saturate the second color to get even stripes without it fading too soon.



Next, I added Y15 and I drew plaid. It's that easy. I had to add more ink as I went along, as you can see, the yellow wanted to fade out quickly. Try to do a blended stroke sometime, where one side of the marker is darker. Try different color combos, squiggles, or zig-zags. These markers are loads of fun, and are great for doing some other special effects I'll be showing you in the future.

When you're all done, if there is still any residue of your extra colors on the wide marker carefully scribble onto some scratch paper until it comes out.

Wide markers are great for backgrounds and for filling in large areas. They only come in 36 colors, but each one is about 3/4" wide! Wide markers use a lot of ink, so be sure to get a refill at the same time you get the marker.

I won't usually show finished projects on this blog, but since I had to make a father's day card for my hubby with this technique I figured you'd like to see the completed example. I drew the image myself, since he loves the Lumberjack Song by Monty Python.

Color theory note: I chose to do my ground shadow yellow to tie the card colors in to each other. Since the plaid was a strong yellow I made the ground a grayer, dull yellow. So the shadows are mix of Y23 and C3/C5. Usually I would use a W3/W5 for the yellow ground, but I wanted to tie in the gray of the hat and keep my color choices simple. The cool gray looks a little odd IRL, but not bad (the photo looks stranger)

Image Credits: Paper- Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80# Cardstock Marker colors: R27, R59, E31, E33, E29, C3, C5, Y15, Y23, Colorless Blender Image- Photocopied line art Adhesive: 3M Double sided foam tape

18 comments:

Susie said...

I don't have any of the large markers but I just tried this technique on the chisel end of my Sketch markers and it works fine. Thanks for a great tip! I love your images, by the way. You could design your own line of rubber!

Laurie said...

have not got any copics yet......keep thinking about it.....are they really worth it????
l.fowler27@sympatico.ca

Nicole said...

WOW, the possibilities are endless it seems!

To Laurie, UH YEAH! SO WORTH IT! Check out people's blogs and websites who post below (click on their names and then when you see their profile go to the very bottom of it and click on their blog names) to see their Copic Creations, THEN you will see all the rage!

Thanks, Marianne, for another great technique! Nicole

Kelly Booth said...

Great technique Marianne...
I only have sketch markers...but will give it a try. Your card is gorgeous....

Cris A said...

That is such cool tip! I'm having a rough time steppin out of my box with these markers. Touching different colors together and stuff....eek, it's scary

Ellie said...

I don't know why but I'm scared of those wide Copics! lol maybe cause I haven't tried them yet.. hmmm thanks for the tutorial :)

-Ellie

Christi Flores said...

I haven't tried a wide Copic either but I just might have to try it out now! I LOVE your finished project. Your image has so much depth. I hope my images can look like that one day. :)

shulsart said...

Oh, Marianne. This is so cool. I love plaid paper and this is a wonderful way to make your own. Guess I will have to pick up a couple of these wide markers. Thanks for the wonderful tutorial.

Pinky Roth said...

This is such a cool card. I have a question for you. How do you store the copics, do they need to be on their sides or can you store them vertically? Thanks!

Pinky

marianne walker said...

they can be stored either way, no problem.

Barb said...

Love what you did for your card & thanks for the great idea.
Smiles, Barb

Stefanie Staniak said...

What a cool technique. I scares the bejebers out of me but I'll try it - probably with two colors that I'm not that fond of !! LOL !!

Kevin Renz said...

Oh Marianne,

You are so talented! Can't wait until next Thursday in Seattle!!!

Heidi Blankenship said...

Hi Marianne!
Ok so I'm a little behind & I am just now finding out that you have a blog! Oh I am soooo excited!! I'm going to have to go back and check out all of the earlier post to get caught up. The plaid is a terrific technique & I love your card!! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog & your great comments!!

Anonymous said...

Great idea! Thanks for sharing this! Previously, I never would've thought to put one marker tip onto another one - till this past Christmas when Santa brought my daughter "Blendy pens" . . . gosh, what a "lightbulb" moment . . .

Linda Carson said...

BRILLIANT!

Carolyn said...

Your Fathers Day card is bright, cheerful and very creative. What dad wouldn't like to receive this one.

Carolyn S

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tip on plaid. Would this technique maybe work on the wide brush of a regular sketch pen? I don't have any wides yet and I think I would mostly use this technique on smaller drawing for skirts and jackets, etc.