Tutorial: Masking Film and Airbrush

This is a new tutorial for Copicmarker.com for using Masking film and the Copic Airbrush system.

Tutorial: Elements part 4/4 Fire

Here is a tutorial I did for Copicmarker.com on creating Fire. I managed to do 2 types of fire here - the out of focus background fire and the viscous fire dripping from the dragons mouth. It has some techniques on airbrushing. Click on the image to go to the tutorial.

Copic Marker Guest Blog

A while back Copic approached me about doing a Guest Tutorial for their blog! I was so excited and delighted of course I did it! SO here it is for you to enjoy and the art! (Blog restructure is still happening, I just got sidelined with dental issues)

Guest Tutorial – Airbrushing Comics by Marker Guru

Leaellynasaura - copic blog by `guruubii on deviantART

Aurora Borealis - Copic Airbrush

This is not quite a tutorial but more of a ...Exploration!
 I wanted to see if I could achieve a northern lights look with some Copic techniques. I tried at first to do it with just the trusty nibs but gosh, going dark to light in a really short area is quite tough to get smooth, especially a really super light to an almost black. Too Laborious! So I cracked out Ye Ol' Copic ABS and this is what I did to get my mini Aurora Borealis Drawings.

Step 1
I drew a little square on my paper. I didn't make these too big. Then I tore a post it note on a jagged sort of angle. (I'm doing the ribbony lights). Keep Both halves of the post it note. you can even used an x-acto and cut out a ribbony line. Just get a good shape. Tape it down but don't worry about getting the whole thing stuck flush. the little bit of ink that sprays under the edge helps the glowing effect.

 Step 2
Start with a light pink, green, blue or red - whatever colour scheme you want. Those are most common in the light effect. stray across the post it note onto the white. I covered it mostly with the pink overall.

Step 3
Take another post it note and lay it vertically on the paper and puff little bits of pink across the edge. this is how you get that vertical striping that happens. Do several lines, don't make them too even or make the puffs at the same spot along the edge. get some randomness.

 Step 4
I puffed some darker pink and violets in the top an bottom corner of those sides to add some contrast and make it trail off the page a bit.

 Step 5
I took the other half of the post it note and covered what I had done. I tried to line it up with the other piece before pulling the first piece off. See how the pinks gone under a little and has that little glow around the edge? thats good. the last thing we want is a white line interrupting the effect.

 Step 6
I fill in this side with Violets and pinks and work my way into some darker blues. until I have the effect I want. I left some variation in darkness around the edges at the bottom.

Step 7
This is the final image created by this example. This is way bigger than actual size, the original is only about 6cm square. but you can see the effect!

Other Attempts

Here is the first attempt I made. I really liked the glow, but didn't have enough of the vertical lines. I added some stars with some colourless blender dots. I also really liked the addition of the black tree silhouette. It really completes it as an illustration.

What NOT to do

and here's a frightful example of what happens when you don't re-mask your first area, and don't line up the edges of the stencils.

Well, I hope this inspires someone to experiment, or play around with Copics, or shows some of the potential of the airbrush.

Glowing Candles - how to

So I promised tutorials and now I'm delivering tutorials. This one is going to deal with that glowing candle business. Glowing candles are really hard to get to look right. Frankly, I would like this to be a better looking flame but it does it's job I think, and maybe the techniques will be useful. I kinda rushed these ones since I was trying to cook dinner at the same time, I could do better, but... ya.
So here I've got 2 techniques to show you
First off a quick one image technique.

Okay, the first 2 pictures are examples of what is being achieved. It's a watercolour effect.

Step 1: do a yellow bg leaving the shape of your flame uncoloured (white) (Y00)

Step2: Darken the area closest to the flame base a little around the edge with a slightly darker yellow using the tip to tip or palette method*.

Step 3: Using the palette method, and a darker yellow (Y00- original colour +Y17 - darker) darken the base of the flame again. and around the middle of the flame.

*by the way, this palette method is one of my favourite ways of blending. I have a laminate desk I use as my palette!

This is a nice watercolouring effect for those of you without the Copic Airbrush system, but for those of you with the ABS, there's more for you!

Okay, so the final step also looks kind of bad, because in real life it looks pretty cool but photographing it really brought out all the evil in it. bear with me. if you take more time lining up things, you'll get a better result.

I started with an ink drawing of the top of a candle. I did not ink the flame. Also leave some space in the outline of the candle's back edge where the flame would be.

I cut out a piece of frisket film in the shape of the flame and stick it down  (it caught the light well) In retrospect I would have touched the sticky side a few times to reduce the tack of the film because it actually tore my paper. You'll see.

This image is not the candle I'm working on but I used it cuz I forgot the photograph that step. I did a later of a soft spraying yellow for the base colour and sprayed a good circle around the flame. This was Y04.

I then did a darker ring around my light glow with Y17.

I also did a tiny spray right in the middle of the flame. This will create a point of high contrast, and make it seem extra bright. It's important that this be incredibly subtle!

I darkened up the bottom of the candle as well, and added a layer of frisket along the top of the candle where it would be lightest.

I added post-it notes around the edge carefully lining up the edges so they overlap the frisket so to not get hard edges where they're not wanted. (I didnt do it carefully enough)

I took YR14 and sprayed the base of the candle. This is where I buggered up. I over-sprayed not anticipating the force and velocity of the spray. I also hadn't lined up the post it notes right. but YOU WILL!

Removing all the post it notes and frisket, then added a bit of white gelly roller which I promptly smudged, then tried to fix  and failed. I'd use opaque white in the future. See how the white of the flame is so bright? see also where it's toothed the paper from my over sticky frisket. 

So did that help anyone, or is this utter crap? I kinda rushed it. I'll do better next time.

Some tips

• Test the markers in the airbrush before attempting on the image - some colours spray kinda sputtery and some have a sort of dash spray while some spray in a circle. All the nib adjusting in the world doesn't really fix it either, LOL.
• Touch frisket film on the sticky side to make it un sticky before putting it onto your paper. for all my tests I did that and did really well, and then on the one I start photographing I forgot, and screwed up my tutorial! Woof :<
• Use warm colours as much as possible, but use cool colours in the shadows. If you have a nice bright yellow candle, the lower part of the candle could have a touch of lavendar, ohhh, that would look good.
• If you wanted to be a little more advanced you could add some more detail in the flame using frisket film.
• I used Grafix frisket film for this. I have huge rolls, it's great stuff!

Links

As I was looking around for the palette technique (rather than explain it, I thought I'd link it) I found that Ilikemarkers had some good tutorials that were Christmas related I wanted to share!
Colouring Pine or palm trees
Opaque white Snow


Thanks! Toodle roo!

Copic Airbrush 101

a quick video on a basic gradient with Copic airbrush.

Copic Airbrush - compressors

So I went out and bought myself a Copic Airbrush system!

I've got a real Iwata Airbrush and the Letraset Marker Airbrush as well, but the art store I work at discontinued the Promarkers which I needed for the Letraset Airbrush. So it seemed like it was time to get the Copic one.

It's awesome!

I made sure to get the one that had the adaptor can, because I already had a compressor. I highly recommend that if you are going to use this even a moderate amount, get a compressor.

No matter how good the airbrush is, or the canned air is it just won't be as consistent as having the compressor.

There are of course, pro's and con's of both. The compressor is a one time cost, though it can be quite a cost, but you only have to buy it once, it's also not as portable as cans of air. the Cans of air are definitely less expensive, but in the end you pay more over a longer amount of time.

Think of it:

There are 2 air cans you can get for Copic. The D60 for $13.40 you get  7-8 minutes of airbrush use. and the 180 for $16.80 40-45 minutes of use. 

The compressors that I would recommend are either the Smart jet compressor for $365.80, or the Ninja Jet compressor for $213.20. Copic has a compressor available that is very reasonably priced (comparable to the Ninja).

Smart Jet is from Iwata. Iwata makes compressors for airbrush artists and have the best warranties and customer service available! I highly recommend them, but if you want to pay less you can get a table top compressor from the hardware store for probably around 100$. Just make sure it can go to 50psi. 50psi is the pressure you need for the copic ABS (Airbrush system) and not above, so a lightweight compressor is all you need.

So you are spending $17 for less than an hour of use with a can. that means you pay for the copic Compressor in less than 12 hours of use with the cans. That's pretty astonishing! and you think that the compressor has a warranty of 3 years, and will most likely outlast that warranty by at least a decade, that is a hell of a lot of savings.

 Even so, 12 hours seems like a long time to have continuous air, but when I first played with mine, I played for it 3 hours straight! The can of air was basically useless to me at that point.

SO there you go, I'll add more about the airbrush system later, but I wanted to mention compressors first! Happy Markers!