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!
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
Can anyone please assist me. I don’t use Copic I use Spectrum Noir and would like to know the similar colors to use.
Hi Barb,
right now we are using copics. We will not be using Spectrum Noirs, but I am sure if you google or go on Youtube lots of people use them .. you should be able to find things there!
I’ve been loving every one of these and today’s display using different shades of gray is fantastic! Now I need to branch out and get more Neutrals (I only have one) and pick up a couple Toners. I also pin each one and get lots of repins!!
I am so happy these help you! and thank you SO much for pinning them!
Love each one of these color combos! I would like to know where do you begin coloring when there is such a huge space to color such as the elephant’s body?
Hi Linda! I usually start by mapping out the areas I think will be darkest using my lightest shade (after picking where my light source is coming from). I’ll do a post showing this as a step by step. 🙂
Absolutely loved this. The greys have been explained so perfectly and the image is just adorable. Thank you!!!
Oh thank so much for explaining how you use each grey family. I tend to use mostly the cool, and sometimes the warms. I have the Neutrals and Toners, but just haven’t gotten in the habit of using them…..now I’m going to use them more! Thanks! 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing these copic coloring samples. It really inspires me to want to pull out my markers and color da world. 🙂