Today I thought I'd share a page from my Copic Art Journal.   YES this did take a while to finish, but as you may know, I was recently 'out-of-action' for a total of 3 months and not able to do much except lay in in reclining chair (it was a looooong 3 months) - so I had time to spare and not much else to do :O)    This page kept me happily busy for a while between the doodling and the colouring.  It was created all in copics and I had so much fun creating this, even with my hubby checking my colouring progress saying - 'is that all you've done' on a semi-regular basis.  I think he was interested in seeing the finished page to find out where I was going with the colours :O)

Copic Colours used on 'K' art journal page:

• N3, N5, N9, Black 100, 
• YR15, YR27, 
• V01, V12, V15, V17, V28
• BG 01, 05, 07, 09, 11, 53, 57
• B 01, 02, 04, 06 18, 21, 23, 24, 37
• YG 03, 05, 07, 17
• AtYou Spica: Lilac, Pink, Clear and Lavender

In my Copic Art Journal I'm not interested in perfect blending, I just want to lay colour down FAST - so I use the following technique to quickly get colour on the page, have it still look blended and get a nice amount of shadow - all achieved as quickly as possible.  This is basically blending colours using 'flicking'.

 Draw image using Copic Multiliner pens and choose colour palette.  For my journals I use 2 or 3 colours from a blending family (eg: V15 & V17) and then a marker which is roughly 12 higher on the colour chart in this instance V28 for shadows and depth.

Lay down the mid tone first - V17, starting from darkest edge and 'flicking' towards lightest area.

Add your palest colour - V15, starting from about halfway up the V17 you already coloured and 'flicking' towards the lightest area.

Add your darkest colour - V28, colouring over the previous layer of V17.

Add the second layer of V17 and colour over most of the previous layer of V15 (keep the top edge light and wispy so that some of the V15 peeks through.

Add another layer of V15 - going over the edge of the V17 and flicking further into the centre of the lightest area - this will help to blend the V17 and V15.

Flicking from top down, fill the rest of the lightest area with V15 - keep flicks light and wispy so as not to end up with a flat colour.

I used a little more care on the 'K' as it was a larger area and I wanted to make sure I had a nice graded blend.

I'd love to see how you have used Copics in your own art journals, if you have a page to share, please leave a link in the comments below this post :O)

If you would like a little more info on doodling, check out my Doodling for beginners post.