Atlanta Intermediate, Thursday!!

This is your last chance to register for the Atlanta Intermediate Class on Thursday. We only have a limited number of seats available, so if you are interested in attending, please register ASAP. If you walk in, there are no guarantees that we will have supplies.

To register, and for more details, check the Copic Class registration link here. Contact Nancy, nancy@copicmarker.com for more details.

Remember to come visit us on Friday, Dec. 2nd, from 10-11am, as we will be having a book signing at Altered Angel in Alpharetta, GA. We'll see you there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Fun
I want to take this chance to tell everyone what I am thankful for. There are so many blessings I have: Good Health, Family, Friends, a fun job, and the chance to live in a wonderful country. And, I have so many wonderful online friends that I never get a chance to thank, for their inspiration and support.

Today, as a thank you to all my online friends, here is a free image that I drew just for you! I have been drawing variations of this pilgrim/turkey since elementary school, and I thought you might also like a chance to color him. Just click on the image and save it. (Not for commercial reproduction without permission).

Coloring the turkey
I looked at turkey photos to get the coloration right on my turkey. This image has a lot of browns, and honestly, I used so many browns that I may have missed some in the tutorial.

First, I started with the hardest parts. In this case, the gun was trickiest. I colored the metal parts of the gun with C1, C3, N5. Notice the strong contrast between darks/lights. This helps with the illusion of reflective metal.

I used E31/E44 for the main body of wood, and E27/29 for the shadows.

The yellow was colored with Y06 and Y21. His hat was colored with N3/N5/N7. His leather boots were colored with E13, E37 and E29. Notice the crisp cast shadows under the cuffs, as this helps make the boots look more dimensional. By changing the base tone of brown, you can see that the boots take on a different tone than the gun, even though the darker colors are pretty similar.


Next I colored his head. Turkeys have a red/blue fading bald head. Really pretty, and kindof tricky to do with Copics. The B32 is feather blended into the R22/R14. I added some C3 to his head to tone it down as well. I dotted on colorless blender and R59 to make it look lumpy. I could have darkened under the hat brim a bit more, but his head is so tiny that I didn't want to lose too much color, so I left it fairly bright.

Finally, I colored his body with a bunch of browns and N7 and W9 to darken the deepest shadows. Real turkeys have beautiful, patterned feathers, heavy in blacks/dark browns, so I wanted to keep that feeling of dark, dark feathers.

His tail is colored first with E44, then I added E31 to the small feathers, darkened those with E27 and W7. The Bigger feathers are darkened with YR14, E27/29, and the tips are colored with C3.

Once his body was done, I went through and touched up colors, deepened shadows on the whole image, and then added a hint of blue sky with BG70, BG000, and B41.

The scans all came out a little different in tone from each other but I didn't bother color-correcting them, and he seems to look better in real life. Oh well. He was fun to draw, fun to color, and I hope you enjoy coloring him as well.

Upcoming Events
Atlanta Intermediate Certification, Dec. 1
If you haven't registered yet, we still have a couple spaces left in the Atlanta Intermediate class next week. Colleen Schaan and I will be teaching that class.

On Dec. 2nd, from 10-11am, we will be having a book signing at Altered Angel in Alpharetta, GA.

This is a free event. We will also have markers and images from Our Craft Lounge for people to color and come down and say Hi! Don't miss it! Colleen and I are going to have a lot of fun, so please join us either at the class, or at the book signing.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend, and those of you here in the States, enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Update and Chair

Class Update
We are busy getting our schedules outlined for 2012, but we still have one last class coming up in the next few weeks, and there is one change I would like to bring to your attention.

Dec. 1, Atlanta Intermediate Class has been filling so quickly that we decided that I will also be going, so that class is now being taught by Marianne Walker and Colleen Schaan.

So, if you were thinking of attending, or would like to give yourself an early Christmas present, then please register right away! We only have a few spaces left, and we anticipate those filling quickly. Colleen and I are looking forward to a really fun class. We had a blast teaching together in Portland, and Atlanta should be just as much fun!

To register, and for more details, check the Copic Class registration link here. Contact Nancy, nancy@copicmarker.com for more details.

Meanwhile, for those of you preparing for 2012, there will be both a Standard and Intermediate Certification class in Anaheim, just before CHA. Details will be going out in the next couple weeks, so be prepared for those dates as well.

Chair
Here is one of the other images I drew while demoing at the U of O last week. Since I drew these while demoing, I do not have line work or in-progress step outs, nor do I remember what colors I used, sorry! I drew it with a 0.03mm multiliner onto scratch paper.

Frequently when I am demoing, I look through my example book and find old images that need to be updated. I realized I did not have a good range of furniture illustrations, and interior designers love using Copic markers, so I dreamed up this simple floral chair.

I really like how this chair came out (maybe not as much as the outhouse from the last post, but it is still nice). Notice the texturing on the fabric. This was made by taking my blender pen and dabbing it, straight down with the brush nib, after I had finished coloring the basic green layer. For those of you who are studying shadows, you'll notice that there are two light sources, hence the two faint shadows under each chair leg.

I hope this inspires you a little bit, have a great week!

Back in town

Whew! I am finally back in town. What a wonderful group of students I had in my 3 certifications in Hawaii. Those classes were a lot of fun, and I can't wait to go back and see all your smiling faces.

Yesterday I had the nice opportunity to demo at the University of Oregon's, 30th annual Tools of the Trade show. I look forward to this each year, as I always have a chance to draw and color something new each time. I showed you the piece I colored and drew last year, so I couldn't conclude the event without showing you one of the pieces I drew and colored yesterday. I hope you enjoy!

Outhouse
I drew this picture with a 0.03mm multiliner onto nice paper.

The base brown for the wood is E33 with YG91 and Warm Grays 3, 5, & 7. I added hints of E37 and E47 just to flesh out the color range.

The foliage is colored with G21, YG41, G24, G28, YG63, YG67, YG45, and BG99 and Warm Grays (for the darkest shadow areas).

The sky is airbrushed B41. The roof is cool grays blended with 0 and a tiny hint of BV23 and Y00.

Shadows on outhouse
For those of you who have been studying shadows on my blog, you can note that the outhouse is basically a cube. The light is coming from the left, and casting a shadow to the right. The foliage closest to the base of the outhouse on the shadow side is the darkest, and the shadows get really deep with the BG99. On areas where the vines creep in front of the shadows, you can see that I used YG41 as my base, but for shadow areas, I used G21/24 for the lightest area on those leaves. Also notice, under the tin roof, I added the deepest shadows right under the ridgeline.

I hope this gives you a little inspiration for the weekend. Have fun coloring!