it’s MARKER GEEK MONDAY! WOOHOOO!

This week I thought I’d share some Copic combos for colouring the adorable elephant images in Stamping Bella’s Stuffie stamp range. The image I used is I’ll Always Have Your Back Stuffies (is that little baby not the sweetest thing ever?).

I have used combos from all four of the Copic Grey families, but I just had to thrown in a bonus smooshy pink elephant at the end, I’m sure you will understand. 😉

This seems like a great opportunity to chat about the different grey families, so you can either put the markers you have to use, or so you can make better informed choices when you come to add to your collection!

• The first example shows a combination of Neutral Greys. As the name suggests, these are neutral in tone. I love using the darker Neutral Grey shades for colouring black hair (as seen in my Marker Geek Monday Copic Hair Combos post) as they give a true black look.

• The second example shows a combination of Cool Greys. These have a blue tone and work really well for colouring and shading cool colours and objects.

• The third example shows a combination of Toner Greys. These have a slightly brown tone. I often use the Toner Greys for simple grounding of characters etc.

• The fourth example shows a combination of Warm Greys. These have a really warm brown tone to them and are great for shading warm colours and natural objects/materials.

If you’re just getting started with Copic markers, I’d recommend thinking about the images you’re most likely to be colouring and picking one or two of the grey families to purchase first. I started out with just the Cool and Warm Greys, and was perfectly happy for quite some time. Now, I tend to reach for the Toner and Neutral families more often.

GENERAL TIP: You don’t need every single grey marker in a family (or in any colour family). A great way to build your collection is to leave a gap of one or two shades between the colours. You can achieve plenty of depth and variety by layering the colours together in different amounts.

The little pink elephant that slipped in at the end was coloured using the “smooshy, squiggly” texturing style discussed in my previous Marker Geek Monday Three Ways to Colour a Stuffie Bear post. After all, these little elephants are in the Stuffies range, so why not colour them to look cute and textured like cuddly plushie toys?! You could also use this texturing technique with the grey colours too, to mix the realism with a little fun! A bright or baby blue ellie would be adorable too, pair that or the pink (or a soft yellow version) with an appropriate sentiment and you would have a perfect card for a new baby!

Have a go and let us know how you got on by sharing your work here in the comments section, over in the Stamping Bella Sistahood chat group on Facebook, directly on the Stamping Bella Facebook page or on Instagram by using the tag #markergeekmonday . We love hearing from you and sharing the enthusiasm for Stamping Bella!

MWAH!

~Elaineabella