Custom Colors With Various Ink Refills

Product Feature & Tutorial by Kel Brown & Rachel Henahan.

Today we are going to have a discussion on how to make custom colors with copic various ink refills!!!

Kel and I are going to bring you a few in this series on Custom colors. Today are 'just the obvious' kind of colors. We will be doing 'outside color family mixes', 'using gray & colorless blender additions' & '3 or more mixes'!!!

Here is the Page download to add to your mini copic journal (found on the sidebar left)

What you will need: A friend!!! If you do not have a friend you will need an empty copic refill bottle.
1. 2 refills of choice
2. Empty copic Marker
3. two disposable cups
4. A tsp if you can not see the markings on the various ink bottles well.

This works very economically if you have a friend to share the love with. Kel bought one ink refill (E25) and I bought the other (E21), in order for us to produce its baby E23. Kel and I both leave the transaction with our own refill of the custom color and our own marker.
We use this method in order to insure precise measurement for consistent color mixing. This is to say, that we will always be able to refill our marker with the SAME color each time. We will not be mixing directly into the empty marker, for this reason. If we were to mix directly into the empty marker we would not be able to SEE our measuring and refilling would never produce the same initial color.

What you should know ahead of time. Each refill is 25ml. A tsp is 5ml. This will aid you in your measurement if you are not able to see the lines on the side of the refill bottle, then measure 2.5 tsps into your cup. If you are able you can pour half of your refill (12.5ml) into the cup. Take the lid and pour spout off your refill and pour half into a cup. Do this with each refill. So that E21 refill is half full, and the cup has the other half - AND E25 is half full and a seperate cup has the other half. SO you have 2 cups and 2 refills all half full.

Now pinch the plastic cup to a point and pour the cup of the E25 ink into the E21 refill bottle. Then take the second cup and pour the E21 ink into the E25 refill bottle. Replace the pour spout. Shake each refill well. Now you have 2 full E23 refills.... one for each of you. If you have no friend. Then pour half of your E25 ink, and half of your E21 ink into an empty various ink refill bottle. You will then have a full E23 refill and half of a E21 and half of E25 refill.

After you have reattached your pour spout and shook your refill well. Remove the chisel tip of your empty marker. Making sure both caps are removed... fill your marker with approx. 2cc's of fluid. Replace the chisel tip. And lay the marker flat with lids off.

You can see here that the ink will distribute and the marker will pressurize properly. Any clean up can be done using a paper towel and hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol or alcohol based cleaner.

Keep your eyes open for the next installment of Kustom Kolors by Kel. . . (and her friend Rachel). We have some Krazy Kolors in store. (likely next week)

August Product Feature

Today I want to share a very neat Copic product with you, and a fun way to match your colors.
Copic makes a very nice 'wallet' for store your copic markers.

The wallet is available in a few sizes for your marker needs. It also sets up as an easel. Now I have MORE than a few markers, so I do not keep all of my Markers in the copic wallet.

I have one that holds 36. I keep the COPIC MUNKIE RECOMMENDED 36 Basic colors in this wallet. I also have a 24 wallet for skin and hair. These travel with me and are very useful.

So what is the Copic Munkie Recommended 36, you may ask! Well, we have been working on a few charts here at the Munkie. We have charts that show the recommended colors, in groups of three for shading and blending purposes that will help you to do determine which markers pair well, and match with other color families. There are also a list of 6 alternatives that may fit better to your personal preferences (that is the last row). There are 3 colors for shading/shadowing stand alone colors... i.e. shadow on the ground, fairy wings etc. We will have a recommended 36 for Basics, Brights, Pastels/mutes & Earthy Natures.

You can view these charts at the Funkie Munkie in Greer. If you are an online club member, stay tuned. When we finish the chart information, we will be passing that along to you in email form. You can always call the store (864)288-9400. and ask for any colors you may see listed here on the blog!

Would you like to make a chart of your own? Here is a blank chart available for you to fill in!

June Tutorials by Katie Cotton!

TUTORIALS for JUNE (by Katie Cotton)

It was requested/suggested that there be a little tutorial on the the copic bundle colors for June. Well, June is about over, but here it is anyway! You still have time to order your bundle colors from Stephanie! Just head into the store or give her a shout to order! Club members of course get 35% off of the retail price of this bundle. :)

The copic bundle of the month is E25, E27, E29. These are LOVELY rich colors that you can have wonderful results with! But to some, they can be a bit tricky. Which is why it was asked that i do a little tutorial on them! No probbie, i say! But let me first say that there are multiple ways to get some neat effects with this color combo. This tutorial is simply 1 way! Check out THIS POST on the copic munkie blog to see 3 different ways to color the same image using this combo. You'll see 3 very different looks! See how fun copics can be!!!

Alright... now before i begin, i want to say that as you layer E25, it can get a bit darker than you were wanting it to be in the first place. This is just something you should keep in the back of your head. I'm also going to show you a bit of the "flick" or "feathering" method of coloring hair. We also did this in the club class this month, so keep your peepers out for another tutorial using this method and grey markers!

Here's how i started the hair... with E25...

Around the area that you'd like to have your highlight, you are going to flick or drag your marker into the white area. Let the marker lightly leave the paper in a flicking motion. This will help you get a gradual fade into the white. No we arent gradual yet... we will get there. :)

Step 2... add in E27

In the same flicking motion, add in your E27, but dont go as far as you did with the E25. Also add some E27 into the bottom portion of her hair as a shadow just as you normally would shadow (around the edges, maybe a few strands of hair, etc)

Step 3... add in your E29

I tend to use my darkest colors sparingly. Dont get me wrong, they are needed to get that depth, but too much and the whole thing just turns dark on me. And i like to still see my stamp lines. So i add E29 just to the very ends and then flick in a wee bit in her "hair part". Dont forget you can always click on the photo to view it larger!

Step 4... blending them all together... go back to E25.

Go over it all with E25 to blend. Remember anywhere you layer your E25, it's going to get darker. If you view closely, there are some spots that i did NOT layer so i that part would remind slightly lighter. If the area that is left white still have to hard of a contrast for your personal taste, quickly go over that area and the edges of the flicking with your colorless blender. I actually did this and you can see it in the final pic but i forgot to take a picture of this step. WOOPS. Or maybe it was deleted by mistake since there is a number missing from my picture sequence. In any case... it's easy. Just remember to "tornado" quickly and take a break as it will lighten up a smidgen more even after you've stopped using the marker because of the "drying time".

Next part of the image... her skirt!

Now again, because this color combo is a darker one, i like to leave some areas white so when i go over the whole thing to blend, it doesnt get too dark on me. Also, when i add a a dark color as my main color, i do like to start with the edges/shadows first so that i can still see my stamp lines. Not always, but it is my norm with this particular color family. In this case, I've started with my shade color of E27 because there just isnt enough space in the image to get too wild with a bunch of different colors.

Skirt step 2

Go over the whole thing with your lightest color, E25. If you want more of a gradual blend that you see here, concentrate your E25 color over the E27 more so than when you are adding it over your white space.

Boots step 1

Again, use one of your darker shade colors (in this case, E27) to draw in your shadows. I actually added in to the tip of her boot to give her those "boxy" knee highs. It'll help to get some added depth to the image.

Boots Step 2

Go over the boot with your E25. I actually layered E25 a second time over the far right boot because if you look carefully, it's actually a little bit further back/behind her left leg. You can tell this because the edge/tip of her boot is actually higher in the drawn image, making it further back.

So thats how i like to color with this color combo. If you own this color combo, my suggestion is to just play with it numerous ways with layering until you find what is comfortable for you!

Here is my final project using this image...

Stamps:
Rain Snow Shine from The Greeting Farm
Sentiment is a misc stamp i picked up at AC Moore on clearance... sorry i dont have much more info on it.

Coloring/Copics
Hair, Skirt, Boots, Buttons: E25, E27, E29, Colorless Blender
Skin: E00, E21(shadow), E02(cheeks), E000 (to blend it all together)
Jacket: YR12, YR14, YR18
Umbrella: YR00, YR12
Socks: E40, E41

TUTORIALS for MAY

Going outside the natural blending family (more specifically using RV11 and BG10) - A tutorial By Katie Cotton

Achieving 3 tone looks with only 2 colors - A tutorial By Katie Cotton