In Rosie's Book: Copic Creations Birds Challenge

Why Rosie's Book?

While growing up, I had a dear friend, Renee, that lived next door and with whom I spent much of my childhood. We grew, in different directions, and went on our merry way. Many years later, I ran into her parents and they kindly reminded me of the laughs they still have over my book. “What book?” I wondered with a puzzled look. "I don't remember a book." Hardy laughter accompanied their response. At some time during our childhood, I tried to convince Renee about something that her parents didn’t agree with. I told her that proof of its truth could be found “in my book.” Naturally she went home and tried to convince her parents of the same thing but they weren’t falling for it. She needed an edge and told them emphatically, “It’s in Rosie’s book!” After they caught their breaths from reborn laughter, they let me know how “Rosie’s book” has been cited for many other things throughout the years. They’ve also mentioned that they’d like to see “Rosie’s book” one day. I can’t remember all of the things that I said were in “my book” but I’m sure my dear friend’s parents can recall much more than I ever knew about – LOL!!! So, here it is . . . my version of things you might find In Rosie’s Book . . .

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Copic Creations Birds Challenge

I've spent some time creating Copic backgrounds after seeing some of the entries for the Copic Creations Birds Challenge (here). I discovered Crissy Armstrong's video on dotted backgrounds (here) and had to play. We've practiced stippling during a couple of my Copic classes and this is a cool spin on that technique.

Tiffany Doodles is sponsoring this challenge. Tiffany Richards creates stamps based on images from her own photographs. She has some really beautiful bird images. I'm using a Goldfinch image from a set of EK Success Martha Stewart stamps that I already have in my stamp collection. The Goldfinch is the New Jersey State Bird so it seems appropriate that I should focus on creating a card using this beautiful native bird.

There are at least 9 different Copic techniques used in my entry for this challenge. How many of them can you name? If you've taken any of my Copic classes, you'll recognize at least some of them as we have gone into detail about and repeated many of them. This is a perfect example of why you need to know about the many ways to use Copic markers and why it's important to practice using those techniques.

I filled this image then used some of the same colors to create the background dots in this version:

I felt as though that might be a little too bold and took away from my Goldfinch.

So, I tried to lighten the dotted background by using the 00s of the same color families in this version:

Oh, I think that's much better. The effect is there and the background is much softer and subdued. I like that version. Then I tried to use a sky-toned outline shadow in this version:

I like that too but it wasn't exactly giving me the speckled kind of natural background that I think a Goldfinch would have if it were resting on a tree branch. I decided to airbrush, using the same colors as I used to fill the image, with the addition of violet as the contrasting color to the yellow in the Goldfinch. This is the version that I adhered to my card:

So take a good look at all 4 versions and see if you can find where these 10 different Copic techniques were used:

1. 3-Tone Smooth Blending

2. Deliberate Streaking

3. Opaque White

4. Outline Shadow

5. Airbrushing

6. Stippling

7. Fading with Lighter Color

8. Fading with Colorless Blender

9. Tip-to-Tip Blending

10. Pushing Designs

3 comments:

Lilian said...: Rosie, your examples are just stunning! I love the airbrushed background best :) Thanks for joining the Copic Creations challenge! :); July 6, 2010 at 1:11 AM
Unknown said...: I love the card you submitted, great job. The background came out fantastic, so smooth and such a pretty color. And of course you did a fantastic job on our state bird. And yes i can see most of the techniques that you taught us in class. Enjoyed the read!; July 7, 2010 at 3:01 PM
Heather said...: Hi Rose, it's so great to see your experiments and I really think you chose the right one - it is stunning and such a fabulous card altogether.
Thanks so much for playing along with us at Copic Creations.
hugs Heather xx; July 8, 2010 at 10:04 AM