The texture board is a fantastic tool to use to enhance your work. It is a quick and easy techinque. You simply place the texture board underneath your paper and rub gently with the side of a soft pencil. There are 2 double sided boards available, one with hatch and dots, and one with leather and woodgrain textures. The texture board works best with a thin gauge paper like Bleedproof. If using with blending card you will need to press quite firmly with your pencil to achive a good result.

Guest designer Mark Wilken has given us a few examples of how he finishes off his work using the texture board.

For a chance to win a texture board of your choice, ‘Like’ us on facebook and leave us a comment on our blog telling us why you would like to win! Competition closes May 24, 2011, winner will be annonced May 25, 2011. This competition is for Australian and NZ residents only.

Adding shadows & shading helps make your images look more realisitc.

Check out the examples bellow.

To enhance your colouring purchase the new Shadows & Shading book from your local Copic Stockist.

For a chance to win a copy of the book, ‘Like’ us on facebook and leave us a comment on our blog telling us why you would like to win! Competition closes March 30, 2011, winner will be annonced March 31, 2011. This competition is for Australian and NZ residents only.

One of the best things about Copic Markers is that you can achive 3 variations of tone, with one marker. This is known as layering or rendering.

Single Layer- we suggest working from left to right.

Double Layer- You will notice the increasing darkness in tone.

Tripple Layer- The third layer creates an even darker tone.

To best understand the Copic Colour System you need to remember 3 things:

1. The colour family
2. Saturation/the amount of grey
3. Brightness

The color wheel is a fantastic tool to use to gain a better understanding of how to pick your Copic Colours.

• If you are looking for pure colours, look for colours on the outside of the wheel.
• As you move towards the centre of the wheel, the colours become more grey.
• If you work your way around the bands of the wheel, you will find colours of a varying brightness.

• If we find B95 on the wheel and move along the same band on the wheel we can clearly see that to the left is  B97 which is a brighter/darker tone and to the right is B93 which is a paler tone.