Friday, July 18, 2008

Pushing with lighter colors

It's CHA, and I'm in a room full of fabulous stampers. I've got Joy Kennedy, Daisy Sparks, Mickey Harper all with a pile of Taylor Van Bruggen's markers that she doesn't know we are borrowing, since she's out of the room. I figured that we have a cool technique I just showed the ladies, so I wanted to share it with everyone.

(For those of you who aren't familiar with CHA, it's the Craft and Hobby Association. In 2002 Copic won the Best of New Innovations Award, back when the show was called HIA. Be sure to stop by Booth #2848 and see Debbie Olson, Michelle Wooderson, and Kathy Sanders along with the Copic Crew)

Pushing colors with colors
I know that I have mentioned before that you can use the blender marker to lighten up a colored area, push colors to the outside, etc. etc. But did you know that you can use ANY light color to do the same thing?

On this image I have colored with a flat, basic green. What if I forgot that I really wanted to leave pink spots. Ack! You can't put pink over green, it doesn't work. Wellllll, actually if you give it enough juice you CAN get a pink spot on a green area.

The top circle has only light dabs of pink, and they look kinda blah. Now look at the bottom circle. What's the difference? The second circle I REALLY juiced up. Just like when using the blender marker, the darker color builds up around the edges of the lighter area. Yet, instead of fading to white, it's pink.

Any light color will work over a darker color, as long as you juice it up enough. Some super dark colors may not move enough, but if you experiment you should find some that work.

It takes a lot of juice to move the darker color out of the way. To get that much juice I pushed straight down on the super brush tip- this squishes a bunch of juice out of the barrel. I can hear people cringing. This doesn't hurt your marker- if you are gently mushing. When you lift up, if the tip is slightly crooked, just nudge it back so it's straight. The super brush will go right back to it's old shape. The only thing that will really hurt the brush is pulling on it, so don't do that. I've had brush tips last for over 4 years, and you can get an idea of how hard I abuse them!

Image: Inky Antics, turtle's flowers Ink: We don't know because we took the picture from a stack of Taylor's Paper: See previous comment

8 comments:

Janet said...

Glad you're having fun at CHA! Wish I were there (if only I had a way to get in). Oh well! I've been having a great time using all your COPIC techniques. You've taught me so much! I have this Inky Antics image and could never use it before because the markers that I had been using (SU) left him too flat! Now I'll have to dig him out again and try with my Sketch markers! Thank you so much!

Jacque said...

Oh, soo cute! I love what you did with this little guy. Thanks for the tip!

Nicole said...

1AM POSTING, MARIANNE!? Geez, woman, you are committed or SHOULD BE! HA HA! I bet you are having so much fun your adrenalin won't let you go to sleep!

I absolutely am in love with the turtle's shell, that is seriously perfect! It looks real!

SUPER great tip, I didn't know that you could use the lighter ON the darker colors; just another reason to invest in COPICS!

Donalda said...

I am so loving this blog, I have learnt so very much from you and I so appreciate your hard work, Just love this new tip.
Have a great time at CHA. I know you are having a blast !

dpkennedy said...

I love the dots you made on the turtle's shell in the sample-great technique!

Gabby Faye said...

Just getting back into stamping and you are presenting some new and exciting techniques here. I WILL be back often

Dana said...

Wow! Taylor is sooooo lucky to have you use her markers :) Thanks so much for sharing your knowlege to us. It is GREATLY appreciated!

Michelle Jo Photography said...

Hi!

I bet you are glad to be back home with your babies. I like the blog, I am going to check out the back tutorials.

I will talk to you soon. I am glad you contacted me ;-)

-Michelle Klomp