Copic Colouring tutorial – hair and skin tones

Hey friends, how are you? I’ve got a video up on my YouTube channel today showing how I coloured these Harry Potter inspired characters!

I started with the hair, because this can be one of the tricker parts of colouring a character, so I’d rather do that first than colour a whole image and mess it up at the end!

Here’s a few tips for colouring hair with alcohol markers:

I start with the lightest colour first, flicking from the parting to the centre, then rotating my image and flicking from the bottom of the hair to the centre, making sure to leave some white space between where the two sections of colour meet, to give the impression of light reflecting off the hair.
I find that holding your pen almost upright gives you the finest lines, so is best for colouring strands of hair, and flicking away from you also helps to get that feathery look.
Work your way through to the darkest colour at the parting and/or any areas of shadow (e.g. under the chin and hairline)
If you need to, add another layer of colour, working back towards the lightest shades, being careful to leave some white space where the two sections meet (you can add a few fine strokes of your lightest colour to this area so it’s not a stark contrast).

The hair colours I used for the characters were:

Ravenclaw (black hair – girl) – 100, W9, W8, W6, W3

Griffindor (black hair – boy) – C9, C7, C5, C3

Slytherin (red hair) – YR20, YR12, YR24, YR27, E09

Hufflepuff (brown hair) – E23, E25, E27, E29

I also used a different colour combination for each character’s skin. With the new combinations I was trying, I started with my lightest shade first (as it’s easier to add more colour if your marker is too light – you can’t take away colour if you start too dark). Make sure to go a couple of shades darker underneath the hairline, where there would naturally be shadow. The skin combinations I used were:

Ravenclaw – E18, E17, E13

Griffindor – E43, E42, E41, E40

Slytherin – E50, E51, E21

Hufflepuff – E13, E11, YR000

The remainder of the colours I used were:

Griffindor scarf – R89, R39, R35 (reds), Y38, Y15 (yellows)

Slytherin tie – G28, 24 (greens) and silver pen

Hufflepuff tie – Y38, Y15 (yellows) and black fine liner pen

Ravenclaw tie – B37 and silver pen

Uniforms – 100, W9, W8, W6

White gel pen highlights

I hope you enjoyed this colouring video/tutorial and if you’re interested in seeing how the finished card came about, I have a video up on the Wow Embossing YouTube channel today, too:

Supplies used:

The Greeting Farm Honor Students stamp set: https://www.craftypurplefrog.co.uk/ourshop/prod_6714126-Honor-student-clear-stamp-set-The-Greeting-Farm.html

Copic Markers: https://shrsl.com/4q0aw (10% discount for new customers)

Affiliate links are used where available, at no cost to you. Thank you for your support!

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