Copic Jumpstart Preclass

Welcome to class! I’m so glad you’re here. I worked on this class for so long…well let’s get you prepped for the lessons to come with some basic information. Even if you’re an experienced colorist, I hope there’s some interesting information here for you that will make your journey in Copic coloring a little easier!

Before we start…a little housekeeping

I retain the copyright to the content you are learning in class. That means…

1. Do not sell or give away the concepts from my classes – you may not re-teach my instruction contained or created within these lessons.
2. Do not post a video tutorial or step by step photo tutorial of your own redraw of class content.
3. Do not repost any handouts you receive in class.

However…I love to see students making strides and taking this teaching and personalizing it with your own skills.

1. DO make your own designs and develop your own style! I love that!
2. DO gift your creations made with these techniques, of course!

At the bottom of each lesson you’ll see some ways to share your homework and ask questions, so that’ll be handy for you.

Marker Basics

I wanted to share the product info with you, but many of you know this already – so I came up with a fun way to entertain you a bit while I chat about marker bodies, etc….if you’d like to color it yourself, see the resources section at the end of the lesson!

Copic Charts

Creating basic color charts may not be the most interesting part of class – but you’ll want to have at least one on-hand for reference as we work. I always keep one of the numerically-oriented charts on hand, as well as my hex chart. If you colored yours ages ago, it’s a good time to make yourself a fresh one; Copic ink fades over time, so making a new chart can be helpful. Besides, it’ll show you if you’ve misplaced a marker or two (ask me how I know!) Links to all these charts are in the Resources section below.

Maintenance: Refilling, Changing Nibs

Got a few streaky markers in your collection? Pre-class is a great opportunity to get them all inked up. Blending works SO much better when there’s plenty of color in your markers. Check your nibs, too, and order in a few extras in case you get a “booger” like I show in the video!

Stamping supplies: Paper, Ink, Stamps, Printer

Since many folks coming to take this class are crafters, I’ve included some basic information on stamping – papers, inks, and ideas for the kinds of stamps you may want to try out based on line weights. See the Resources section at the end of this lesson to download the 3page pdf and examine the line weights for yourself.

Assignment

Before beginning you may want to your markers in order, refilling and cleaning as you need to, do a little shopping, and get your charts updated if needed. Otherwise – get some stamping and coloring done!

Downloadable Resources

Please feel free to download these for your personal use, but no materials provided to you in this class may be posted as blank PDFs for others to use. (Feel free to link to this class, however, so your friends know how you got to be so smart!) Just please be considerate of my content and the owners of other charts below as well. Thanks!

1. 1. Copic Marker drawing to color: Download  (There’s a tutorial HERE on using digital stamps and Word.)
   2. Copic Charts:
      1. FREE Several charts from my friend Sharon’s blog
      2. Hex Chart, $5.99 (not included in class, also not required, but helpful)
   3. Copic Ciao Labels
   4. Alternate colors that could be substituted for the list below:  Download (PLEASE note that many students find that they’re ok with the colors they already have before chasing down new pens. No need to panic.)
   5. Stamp Line Comparison: Download PDF – clickable links inside take you to the store to shop for that set, and you can poke around to find other stamps by that company as well. Affiliate codes may be used.

Markers

The markers listed below are the ones that will be used by me in the class. HOWEVER: You may have markers very similar to some of these! Please do not feel you must have exactly these pens. I’ve created THIS little PDF to provide just a few suggestions of colors that will probably be just fine to replace those, so when you hear me say “B24” you can look at this chart to find another similar color.

I’ve had emails from a few of you about not having any Copics yet – and this list is daunting from that perspective! Please don’t despair. What I would recommend is one of these two options:

1. Trio of two favorites. Choose your two overall favorite colors to use on your favorite imagery to color. Florals? Maybe it’s pink and yellow. Animals and birds? Perhaps browns and blues. Then look at this list below, and select a light/med/dark from each of those groups. The “natural” blending groups discussed in the video above are what would work best, but you might stray outside that a little if you need to, since the groupings below are not 100% natural groups. So that’s SIX markers so far. Add a light grey (a C or W, 1 or 2) and a medium to dark (C or W, 5 or 6)….add a 0 colorless blender, and if you can a B00 – and that could be enough to get you rolling for class.
2. Basic rainbow. While most of the time we want threesomes (the natural blending groups) to do great blending, you’ll learn a little about how to create some colors out of layering one shade over another. If you get this basic set of 12 and supplement with the greys, you’ll possibly learn even MORE than those with a lot of color options – which wouldn’t be a bad thing! Here’s that list: Y02 Y17 YR16 R05 R14 RV04 V15 BV00 B24 BG13 G14 YG03 and greys (C or W 1 or 2 and 5 or 6). Add a 0 colorless blender, and if you can a B00 for a sky.

Understand that if you just go for the 16 colors in either group above, you’ll find yourself limited in some situations in class, of course. But if you have a friend in town you can pair up with, that’s a great way to share colors with each other – and learn together!

Here are the color groups I’ll use; I get my markers and refills at Blick.

• B000 B00 B01
• B41 B93 B97
• G03 G02 G14 G17 G28 G99
• E43 E25
• B24 B26
• B95 B99
• BG05 BG13
• BV00 BV08 BV04
• E51 E11 E15 E19
• E31 E33 E35 E37 E29
• R20 R05 R14 R37 R89
• RV02 RV04 RV06 RV09
• V04 V09 V15
• Y02 Y11 Y17
• YG03 YG17 YG95 YG99
• YR02YR14 YR16
• C0 C1 C3 C5 C7
• W0 W2 W4 W6 W8
• Colorless blender

Paper

While my favorite is Neenah, you can use YOUR favorite paper in class. You need to get to know it better, so what better to do than practice! If getting neenah be sure to get the right one – the kind sold in office supply stores is generally NOT correct; if it’s too cheap there or on Amazon, it’s the cheap office version they make.

• Neenah Cardstock, Solar White

Other Copic supplies (NOT required)

This section is filled with a variety of Copic supplies – many of which we won’t be using in class but you may find them interesting. As well as the products I used to make the cards for the lessons. I’ve included the Airbrush supplies (the class covers no airbrush) – but before purchasing, please see THIS post for more information on which set you may want to try out.

• Airbrush
  • ABS3: AMZ – Blick
  • Air Compressor – only need comp and cord, not this whole kit…get it at your local hardware store
  • Cord, if it doesn’t come with the compressor
• FYI Colorless blender is no longer sold in the big 200cc bottle.
• Copic Reinkers are now in new bottles.
• Copic Multiliner pens are copic-safe (won’t bleed) as are sharpies.
• Copic Tweezers for pulling out nibs when changing them

Stamps

In the first lessons as well as the final, we’ll be using all downloadable digital images and making a number of charts to refer to as class moves on. The next five lessons will be cards using specific stamps, but if you have a stamp set similar, please feel free to use that instead. You can decide if you need these specific sets or not. Coz they’re cute. Ya know. Far be it from me to hide cuteness from you!

Non-stampers need not worry about becoming stampers! Just draw images with similar shapes for practicing blending techniques.

1. Paper Smooches: Vegtastic and Great Chemistry – are used but are no longer available; there’s a digi stamp to download instead, or use any stamp with round images to practice!

2. Lawn Fawn: Critters Down Under – we’ll look at fur on this card, and a few other things to assemble a scene. So any animal stamp like this – and if you have flowers or plants, you can have fun with setting up the scene or just practice fur! 🙂
3. Ellen Hutson, Mondo Hydrangea = flower petals will be in this exercise – soft layering of colors. Any of your pretty flowers will work.
4. Lawn Fawn, Monster Mash and Gerda Steiner Designs, Monster Party (no longer available)  – in this lesson we’ll be playing with odd colors to shade with. Monsters are fun, but you can find lots of stamps you can do this kind of thing with too.
5. Avery Elle, Pixie Dust (no longer available) – this is our little lesson on skin and hair – keeping it simple, so having simple people stamps is great. if you have complex ones and are up to that – feel free to use those too!

When I make cards with a lot of amazing coloring, I keep the cards themselves simple – so there’s not a lot of embellishing on the supplies list!