Lili of the Valley Thursday Sketch Challenge

Hello everyone! We have a lovely sketch from Bev for this week's challenge. I chose 'Lots of Letters' for my card. The image is so detailed and beautiful I didn't want to do too much in the way of embellishments. I chose to go with a variety of pretty papers and a big red striped bow. 

I colored my image with Copics once again, my poor pencils are feeling neglected, I'm sure. While I'm on the subject of Copics, I've had several requests for a list of colors I've used, but I just don't think I could be that organized. If you could see my work space while I'm coloring furiously, you'd understand why, lol. I have a 1/4 of an oblong kitchen table as my 'studio' and it is NOT pretty. While I'm coloring, there are tons of markers all over my table, some that I actually use to color the particular image I'm working on, some are just pulled out, tested and dropped on the pile because the color is not right. I get into such a 'zone' while coloring, that I'm quite sure I would never remember to write down the colors.


However I will share some tips I find very useful when choosing colors to use. #1- It is essential to have a hand colored chart of all your colors. Whether it's the official Copic one, or your own chart, this is an important tool. I keep my chart right next to me whenever I'm coloring, and refer to it often. 
#2- I choose which paper I am going to use before I start coloring. This makes choosing colors so much easier. The talented patterned paper designers have done all the hard work for you and chosen coordinating colors. Now all you have to do it pick out three or four of the dominant colors in your papers, and match them to your Copic color chart. For example, these papers had an orange y-red, a teal blue, a leaf green and a vanilla as the dominant colors. I looked at my chart and found the four markers that best matched these colors. 

I picked some lights and darks from the same color families, and with these colors I can color the majority of my image. For skin tones, I almost always use E0000, E00 and E11. I blush the cheeks with R01 and R02. For snow and white fur I usually use BG0000 or BG70, with a little BV00 for added shadows. Shoes are usually brown or black or shades of grey. That's all there is to it. I rarely keep track of color combos I use regularly except for the ones I've already mentioned for skin, snow and white fur. 
Finally, If I find the shading is not quite as deep as I'd like it, for the red hats and coats for example, I'll go back after I'm all done with Copics and darken the shading with colored pencil. In this case I used a Black Raspberry Prismacolor pencil.
So if you can match colors fairly well, choosing which colors to use for your image should not be too much trouble at all. Just make sure to practice, practice and practice some more! Every time you mess up, you will have learned from your mistake and the next time will be better, I promise you!


I hope these tips have been a bit helpful, it's the best I can offer.


Thanks for all your lovely comments, I so appreciate them, have a wonderful day!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley, Basic Grey 
Ink: Memento, Versafine, SU
Paper: Hammermill, Bo Bunny, Stardream
Tools & Accessories: EK Success tiny scallop edge punch, Nestabilities, SU ribbon, Copics, Stickles, Wild Orchid Crafts pearls