Sunday, January 8, 2017

Highlighting and Shading Alcohol Marker Coloring with Pencils

Many years ago...
when I had a small collection of my first Copic alcohol markers...
(Too few to blend and shade adequately)
a salesperson at a local Pearl Art store suggested that I combine Prismacolor pencils and alcohol markers..to get lots of shading and color variation.

I went home that day...
and got out my little tin of Copics...and my big tin of Prismacolor pencils...
and gave it a try.

I was thrilled with the result that day...
and...
I have used this technique countless times over the years when making cards.
I've tried it with an assortment of pencils...
and an assortment of markers
(alcohol..and non alcohol)
and.....it works beautifully every time.

Recently...
My personal Santa (aka Gary) 
gave me the complete set of Faber -Castell Polychromos pencils for Christmas ...
along with a back up set of the complete set of Prismacolor pencils
(I already had the full set...but a back up set of duplicates is always a good thing...
especially because I color images...a lot
"Santa" also surprised me with a whole lotta Copics...
(YAY!)

I also had a gorgeous Catherine Scanlon stamp that I hadn't used...yet...
so I thought that I'd give the Polychromos  and Copics a try.
I've combined Prismacolor pencils and Copics in the past...but never Polychromos and Copics...
So I was really looking forward to trying this combination out.

I've used the Polychroms alone...and love them..
They lay color down sooooo smooooooothly.
So I was thinking that they'd work well over copics.

And..
they did!
What do you think?
(**NOTE: Next time I will choose a different green Copic....a shade or two darker..
This green is okay.....but not perfect ...to my liking)
Still...I love how this card turned out...
even with the "green issue".

If you like this look...
give it a try!
You'll need some Ultra smooth card stock...
(I use Spectrum Noir Ultra Smooth Card stock...it's Copic friendly...
and it's ideal for pencil coloring because it really is.....Ultra Smooth)

Start out with stamping and image with Memento Ink...
Then...color the image with one chosen Copic/marker color...
then shade and highlight with pencil colors over the Copic color
and....That's it!
Simple and easy!
and..
if you have a small collection of Copics...
Shading with pencils will expand your color palette....enormously.

I used Clarity Stencil brushes and a Stampin Up ink pad 
to add some background color around the flowers.
I didn't ink the area around the quote because I wanted it to be highlighted by a white background.


Here's the Catherine Scanlon Stamp that I used when creating this card...
*All of Catherine's gorgeous stamp sets....along with this set called  Words of Wisdom 2 
are available on line at:
I didn't include info about the quote...
because the company that offered the quote stamp is no longer in business


It's always a great day when I get to create some cards..
and it's an even better day when I whip out one of my Catherine Scanlon stamps
and enjoy creating a card.....or 2...or 10...with it. 
Creating this card allowed today to qualify as being....
 "one of those days"!

Now it's time for YOU to get out your markers and pencils 
and...
it's time to give this coloring technique a try!
Thanks for visiting...
Have a wonderful day my crafty and creative friends...
Michelle.



8 comments:

  1. Looks great! I am in love with that stamp! Added it to my wish list. Sure wish I had a Santa like yours 😁 I have just a couple copics myself, going to try this later today. Thank you!

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    Replies
    1. Dani....using pencils and Copics together will expand your color palette...a great way to achieve wonderful shading and blending while you eventually build your Copic collection...
      If you give this a try...please find me on Facebook...(Michelle Paolercio Borsack) and share a photo....(Catherine Scanlon stamps are so wonderful....soon enough...yo'll want all of them!)

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  2. This is a beautiful card with a beautiful image.Gorgeous colouring too xx

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  3. This is so beautiful Michelle, I love your design. I've tried using my spectrum nor pencils over distress inks,to tell the truth, I really don't get on with these pencils, not sure if it's my technique or the pencils,might try again with alcohol pens.....Thanks for the inspiration 😃

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    Replies
    1. HI Tracey....The Spectrum pencils are nice too....if you're going to try them again...over Alcohol marker color...make sure that you're using an ultra smooth card stock...smooth card stock is key for pencil coloring....Have you tried the Spectrum Noir Ultra Smooth card stock? (thats what I use for pencil coloring...and alcohol marker coloring....I love it)...Keep me posted, on Facebook...about how your next try with the pencils goes...have fun!

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  4. That's a beautiful card, I too received the Faber-Castell 120 tin of polychromos from santa ha ha x I will be trying this technique over my chameleon pens

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    Replies
    1. We have wonderful saints...don't we, Alison?!!
      have fun with your pencils...
      I love mine...they really lay color down nicely...

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