FreeBee + Tips and tricks for colouring (advanced)

So, I've done it, I'm now Intermediate Copic Certified. I was a little bit dissapointed because I was hoping it would be a bit more advanced than what it was. It's very much geared towards Papercrafters. I guess it's something I am just going to have to accept, as there is nothing out there for illustrators of this nature.
Anyway, I got my pin. LOL. I also wanted to show off some of the colouring I did in the class.

I was actually amazed at how timid people are with their copic markers! These people can survive cancer, raise kids, and have endured 60+ years of this life, but they won't freehand a cast shadow. Everything else in life is much scarier than drawing a leaf shape free hand!
I challenge all you Copic artists to stop worrying about  "ruining" a image by being bold with your colouring! If you're working with stamped images, just stamp it multiple times on one sheet, then use the best one in your card, or project. Being bold in your colour uses will make you stand out in this crazy sea of Crafters on the internet. In the end, its only paper - you can grab a new sheet, you can restamp that image, and you can always start again.
I'm working on one of a kind line arts in drawing by HAND and I take tons of risks with my colouring.
We also must not forget one of the benefits of Copic Markers; They're somewhat erasable! if you don't like the colour you laid down, you can take that colourless blender and clear it right up.

Well, enough of that, I'm now going to show off my cute arts.
All the images below are from the copic certification course, so I believe they were all drawn by Marianne Walker, who is the product specialist for Copic.

First Up, Santa!

Art by Marianne Walker, Coloured by Marker Guru

The Santa was brought out in a section about colouring with redshift.  Apparently people have issues with the reds. I personally, while I noticed they don't clean up very nice, I was always just more careful with them. I never really had a problem with them in general. Then of course when I'm colouring the santa, I got a lot of bleeding in thee cuff of his jacket, HAHA!
So this Santa was coloured with these colours.
R20, R24 and R59.
 Ordinarily when I colour with redshift and I want dark shadows I jump to the RV69 colour because it cools a little bit, and it's really ultra dark. (Maybe you've noticed, I'm not timid about shadows at all!) Unfortunately the R59 was the darkest available.
I left a bit of rim lighting on some areas because areas of high contrast and( a dark, next to a light) create an interesting Focal point. so wherever 2 darks are touching I like to leave a light edge to make it a more interesting area, and to not have areas blend together too much.
For his Cuffs and the white fluff on his suit, I added some W1 and W2 in there along with a little bit of Y11. Then I tool the clear blender and poked with the brush nib to give the texture to the fluff. I did the same with his beard.
His skin was BV31 and (this is my most favourite skin shading colour) E00. I added a little bit of R20 for some rosy cheek action and some shading. I also shaded the white gloves with BV31 and a little bit of W1.
The dog was E43 E44 and W8 are( for lack of a darker brown).
 I used E70 and E71 in the bg to enhance the lighting of it in this. it gives a clearer impression of the light source in this image.

Lets move onto the Lilacs.
When considering light and shadow for an image, it can sometimes be a little daunting even for an advanced artists. Shapes can become so complextion it can quickly become a cluttered confusing mess.
Take for example these lilacs.

Articles By marianne Walker, coloured by Marker Guru

The leaves overlapping create a great deal of cast shadows and a very exciting interplay of light and shadow. Without going too in depth, and I'll just give you some of the colours in used: YG01 and is the base colour, YG05 and, in YG03 and then I used a variety of cooler greens and blues like YG67 and and YG61. Honestly I can't recall all the colours I used, I don't really keep track.
Everyone was really interested in the colours I used in the blossoms, and its really not that exciting, LOL.
I used B23, B45, and B93, then afterwards I wanted it to be more Lilac coloured, but also wanted the lighting to match the intensity of the leaves. so where the blossoms are pinkest, I left the blue colour very light, where the light would hit them, then after I had it all coloured up I just went over the whole blossum bundle with R11. That's it. It was that simple. Made the light source really unified.

Now, the point of showing the Lilacs was actually to give you a bit of insight on an artists technique for really making a scene dynamic in contrast, and that is the work the lighting and shadows out in Grey scale first. I often do this with my art work. Alternatively you can test if your image is dymanic enough by converting it to grey scale in your camera or Photoshop. If the shading is as clear in grey as it is in colour, I'd call that successful, if the image has sortta of a unified tone to it, its time to punch up your shadows. You can also do this with a piece of Red Acetate held over your image.

Articles by Marianne Walker, Coloured by Marker Guru

Here is an example of the lilacs coloured in grey tones using the warm greys. I think it also looks pretty Swanky. Side note, I used a little Opaque white on there for leaf shines, and a bit of cool grey on the back leaves in this image.

So there you go, hopefully some good tips and tricks for you.

As a thank you for reading my entire blog post, Here is a free Snow man Digital stamp. I only ask that you give me credit for the art in your blog posts and when promoting your work using this image.

Moved to my shop

Colour him up and share what you've done in the comments on this blog! I'll feature my favourites in my next post!
Thanks you for your support! Unusually high traffic today, HAHA!
Thanks! <3
By the way, this is my 100th Post!