Marker Guru

Temporarily open for commissions

2012-01-30T10:02:00.000-08:00

Animated Guru: Temporarily open for commissions: I am temporarily opening up commissions to raise funds to pay for Convention Tables and for ordering Product. It's not cheap to go to Conven...

V95

2012-01-16T10:32:00.001-08:00

Hello, I'm working on the restructure of this blog still but in the mean time I'm going to add some content.
So ya, I'm going to be doing some featured colours here and today I choose v95. This is a great colour for shading some of your pinker reds. It works best when laid down first with your red layered over top. In this example that's exactly what I've done. I lightly feathered the shading in making sure that there was a sort of soft edge near the middle, then I did one layer of r24 over top. This is a great colour to add to your collection. If you've ever had problems with reds feathering on you when you layer, this could be the answer you're looking for.

Copic Marker Guest Blog

2012-01-03T23:01:00.001-08:00

A while back Copic approached me about doing a Guest Tutorial for their blog! I was so excited and delighted of course I did it! SO here it is for you to enjoy and the art! (Blog restructure is still happening, I just got sidelined with dental issues)

Guest Tutorial – Airbrushing Comics by Marker Guru

Leaellynasaura - copic blog by `guruubii on deviantART

Studio

2011-12-19T10:58:00.003-08:00

We've recently rented a studio space for Gurukitty Studios for production so I'm setting up that a lot! We're going to be painting and setting up the desks today, and the rest of the week likely, then of course it's christmas so this re-structure of the blog will take longer than I thought, HAHA!
Thanks for being so loyal :D it will be worth the wait!
Watch for updates to our studio on our facebook page!

Restructure of this blog coming soon!

2011-12-08T12:12:00.001-08:00

Im going to be restructuring how i handle this blog. My main focus is going to still be copic helping, but its going to be a lot more interactive and the way free bee images are put out is going to depend on interaction! Its going to be great i hope and i also hope you'll support this new direction!

Free Digi - New shop

2011-12-05T09:33:00.001-08:00

Hello,
I have a new shop stamp up! It's a little Partridge in a pear tree...pile of leaves. LOL. Here is what the stamp looks like:

Available in my shop!

And here I've coloured one up myself, just for fun. It's in my shop now, please go check it out.

I very much appreciate those of you that support my blog, by commenting on my posts and tutorials (not just my freebees!) and purchasing my stamps from my shop. I'm trying very hard to have being a comic artist as my main income, not my secondary income, so all your purchases help us towards achieving our dream! The stronger my shop is the stronger I am! Thank you!

So here's a little free bee too:
It's a fruitcake.

Click for full size.

Video: Airbrushing background

2011-11-29T16:46:00.001-08:00

Hello! I posted a bit of a video. It's a speed paint of a recent quick drawing I did. It's at 600% normal speed. I use mainly airbrush and some quick stencilling for the background and some frisket film in there also. Its fun. The art I don't love, but the techniques are sound, I'm convinced of that! LOL.

And if you feel like it, you can also see the final art work here, though I promise you, it looks better from far away, LOL.

Nakia is from my comic, Conflagration

THANK YOU BLOGGER AUTO SAVE!
LOL.... >.>

Digital Stamp Shop sale - 1 day only!

2011-11-28T01:30:00.000-08:00

Hey!

It's cyber Monday, and so Gurukitty Studios (thats me) is having a Sale!

25% off the entire store

(expect packs, pre orders and custom products)

Including Digital stamps

Head on over to the shop!

One day only!

Walk through - Bala airbrush

2011-11-25T19:34:00.001-08:00

Sorry, I fell a little inactive. I don't think I'll have a free bee this Monday. I got a little swamped with things, and Christmas is in full gear for us. I'm probably going to try to get a speed paint up this weekend too. I'm really focussing on the tutorials aspect of this blog, so please don't be too upset if I miss free bee's now and then. i don't do a lot of "doodle" type art, so I generally focus on one big thing at a time.

I thought I'd post a little walk through of a recent image of mine. I get lots of questions about how I use my airbrush, so I'll show you.

This image was of my Character from Conflagration, who is a green skinned jungle witch. I don't recall the actual colours I used for this, I am going to guess. I normally just grab whatever will work without considering what it is, so keeping track of colours on projects is a challenge for me.

The photos here are a bit yellowy, sorry about that! the final piece is at the bottom, and it's fairly true to real colours.

I always do a layout of my project first, and make some plans for colour placement, lighting, and maybe discover if i need to buy new colours, or make one up by mixing the Various ink.
In this instance i took the ink version, and printed it out in a layout in my blending card. I then practised the techniques and colours to use in the final image. You can see how I jotted the colours down here in my layouts.

Step 1: I inked my image in Copic Multiliners. i used xpress it Blending card.
I then layed in my lightest colour which is my main light source. This was probably YG11.

Here I laid in a base layer for the hair with some e43. I always colour hair in the direction it's hanging so to form the little clumps of hair, and add to the realism. Notice I left some areas blank or lightly coloured for highlights.

Here I've begun laying in more of her skin tone; BG93. I was sure to not go past my light areas, which I deliberately made larger than I wanted, to accommodate some blending. I've been careful to leave some coloured areas very light, or white where my secondary light source will be.

here I've continued enhancing the shadows of her skin, and blending in the light areas. I'll be adding BG96 here, as well as a home made colour which is is a mix of 5cc's BG93 and 7cc's of BG96 to make what I'm calling BG94. i mixed this into an empty various ink bottle, and then filled and empty sketch marker with it.

I've now blended in the lightest shadows and smoothed out her skin more, with the YG11, BG93.BG94 and BG96

Here I've taken E44 and started darkening up the shadows in here hair, and blending it with E43.

Adding E49 to darken up the shadows in her hair.

BG09 and BG72 were used to colour in the background spaces around her head, and then the dinal stage was taking BG53 and in the Copic airbrush, I just freehand went over the whole right side of the image to give that blue light glow in her jaw line. I lightly sprayed it else where on the image as well, to carry that colour through, and give more glow.

I added the red in the scar marks on her forehead, and scanned it, and I was done!

I hope you enjoyed this and it maybe inspired you to experiment with the Copic airbrush system. It's a really great tool for enhancing your images. I have the Copic ABS-1 and I hook it up to my Iwata Smart jet Compressor, but Copic also sells a compressor set that's really simple.

FreeBee - new shop items

2011-11-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

Hey!
Thanks everyone for enjoying my free bees :D I'm really glad you guys are enjoying them. I'd love to see someone using them in projects :) Some of them have now moved to my DigiStamp shop for purchase.

I've got a new item in my shop today:

$2.50 in my shop!

I hope you like it, and some people will use it and enjoy it!
Here I also have a freebee for you as well.

Credit for use, click to get full size.

I'm working on a couple other things, including a tutorial, and some art work. Might post some of it here, who knows.
Anyway, Enjoy!

Free Bee - poppy

2011-11-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

November 11th is Remembrance day for us in Canada, so I thought I could make today's free bee a Poppy, for that day. This Digital stamp is free for you to use in your paper crafting projects, or just to colour for practice.

Please respect my terms - Give credit

Please link to me in the comments any projects you make with this stamp, I'd love to see it :)
Enjoy!
<3

Copic Colour Palettes

2011-11-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

I get asked a LOT by people, which colours should they buy to start out a Copic collection. Well, I got sick of having to go look through my markers and try to answer it each time, always struggling. I also have a Copic Demo coming up this Thursday from 2-3pm at Opus art supplies (120 Lonsdale ave, north Vancouver b.c.) I decided to just make a list that will be public.
Some of these were made up by me, and some of them are ones I got from the sets on the Copic website. Either way, feel free to share this link, print it out, give it out. It's there because we need it, LOL. If you have suggestions to add to it, comment and leave them, I'll add them in.
Without further Ado:

Copic Colour Palettes

Critiques

2011-10-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

So, I've decided to start offering Colouring Critiques on my blog! I'll let the page tell the details but the gist of it is, for $15 I will make you a personalized tutorial.
I'll still do classes for the basics on occasion, but I think this is something a little different, a little more personal. The generalized classes can only go so far.
So when you're ready for that next level, or are just looking for a little bit of personal development, please check out my critique page for the information on how to submit, and get started! It will remain in the links bar on the top of my blog all the time, so you can access it when you're ready.

Thanks so much!

Free Bee - Snuggie

2011-10-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

New: Check out my new Critiques offer!

It's snuggie season, and so I thought a nice Warm, Cozy snuggie DigiStamp free bee would be a good choice. This image is free to use on your paper crafting projects or just to colour, so long as you give proper Credit.

I hope you Enjoy it. I spend the majority of my day in my snuggie. Its a comic artists best friend, HA!
As always, please link me your projects so I can see what you do with them :

Moved to my shop

New Digi stamps in my shop

2011-10-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

Hey,
Just a heads up that I added a few more of my digital stamps to my shop. Some of you know this, but our shop actually had a fatal error not to long ago and we lost everything and had to install a new shop, so I'm adding all the products in one by one. Our comics (main job) were top priority once we got it going, but I'm slowly adding in all the old digital stamps.

If while you're browsing my blog, you see a stamp that's listed as for sale, and its not yet back up in my shop, comment on the post then I'll get it into the shop as soon as I can. you could also email me - markerguru@gurukitty.com

Thanks for all the comments! Phew, the traffic on here has been crazzzzzyyyy the last 2 days! Whats up with that? LOL

FreeBee + Tips and tricks for colouring (advanced)

2011-10-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

So, I've done it, I'm now Intermediate Copic Certified. I was a little bit dissapointed because I was hoping it would be a bit more advanced than what it was. It's very much geared towards Papercrafters. I guess it's something I am just going to have to accept, as there is nothing out there for illustrators of this nature.
Anyway, I got my pin. LOL. I also wanted to show off some of the colouring I did in the class.

I was actually amazed at how timid people are with their copic markers! These people can survive cancer, raise kids, and have endured 60+ years of this life, but they won't freehand a cast shadow. Everything else in life is much scarier than drawing a leaf shape free hand!
I challenge all you Copic artists to stop worrying about "ruining" a image by being bold with your colouring! If you're working with stamped images, just stamp it multiple times on one sheet, then use the best one in your card, or project. Being bold in your colour uses will make you stand out in this crazy sea of Crafters on the internet. In the end, its only paper - you can grab a new sheet, you can restamp that image, and you can always start again.
I'm working on one of a kind line arts in drawing by HAND and I take tons of risks with my colouring.
We also must not forget one of the benefits of Copic Markers; They're somewhat erasable! if you don't like the colour you laid down, you can take that colourless blender and clear it right up.

Well, enough of that, I'm now going to show off my cute arts.
All the images below are from the copic certification course, so I believe they were all drawn by Marianne Walker, who is the product specialist for Copic.

First Up, Santa!

Art by Marianne Walker, Coloured by Marker Guru

The Santa was brought out in a section about colouring with redshift. Apparently people have issues with the reds. I personally, while I noticed they don't clean up very nice, I was always just more careful with them. I never really had a problem with them in general. Then of course when I'm colouring the santa, I got a lot of bleeding in thee cuff of his jacket, HAHA!
So this Santa was coloured with these colours.
R20, R24 and R59.
Ordinarily when I colour with redshift and I want dark shadows I jump to the RV69 colour because it cools a little bit, and it's really ultra dark. (Maybe you've noticed, I'm not timid about shadows at all!) Unfortunately the R59 was the darkest available.
I left a bit of rim lighting on some areas because areas of high contrast and( a dark, next to a light) create an interesting Focal point. so wherever 2 darks are touching I like to leave a light edge to make it a more interesting area, and to not have areas blend together too much.
For his Cuffs and the white fluff on his suit, I added some W1 and W2 in there along with a little bit of Y11. Then I tool the clear blender and poked with the brush nib to give the texture to the fluff. I did the same with his beard.
His skin was BV31 and (this is my most favourite skin shading colour) E00. I added a little bit of R20 for some rosy cheek action and some shading. I also shaded the white gloves with BV31 and a little bit of W1.
The dog was E43 E44 and W8 are( for lack of a darker brown).
I used E70 and E71 in the bg to enhance the lighting of it in this. it gives a clearer impression of the light source in this image.

Lets move onto the Lilacs.
When considering light and shadow for an image, it can sometimes be a little daunting even for an advanced artists. Shapes can become so complextion it can quickly become a cluttered confusing mess.
Take for example these lilacs.

Articles By marianne Walker, coloured by Marker Guru

The leaves overlapping create a great deal of cast shadows and a very exciting interplay of light and shadow. Without going too in depth, and I'll just give you some of the colours in used: YG01 and is the base colour, YG05 and, in YG03 and then I used a variety of cooler greens and blues like YG67 and and YG61. Honestly I can't recall all the colours I used, I don't really keep track.
Everyone was really interested in the colours I used in the blossoms, and its really not that exciting, LOL.
I used B23, B45, and B93, then afterwards I wanted it to be more Lilac coloured, but also wanted the lighting to match the intensity of the leaves. so where the blossoms are pinkest, I left the blue colour very light, where the light would hit them, then after I had it all coloured up I just went over the whole blossum bundle with R11. That's it. It was that simple. Made the light source really unified.

Now, the point of showing the Lilacs was actually to give you a bit of insight on an artists technique for really making a scene dynamic in contrast, and that is the work the lighting and shadows out in Grey scale first. I often do this with my art work. Alternatively you can test if your image is dymanic enough by converting it to grey scale in your camera or Photoshop. If the shading is as clear in grey as it is in colour, I'd call that successful, if the image has sortta of a unified tone to it, its time to punch up your shadows. You can also do this with a piece of Red Acetate held over your image.

Articles by Marianne Walker, Coloured by Marker Guru

Here is an example of the lilacs coloured in grey tones using the warm greys. I think it also looks pretty Swanky. Side note, I used a little Opaque white on there for leaf shines, and a bit of cool grey on the back leaves in this image.

So there you go, hopefully some good tips and tricks for you.

As a thank you for reading my entire blog post, Here is a free Snow man Digital stamp. I only ask that you give me credit for the art in your blog posts and when promoting your work using this image.

Moved to my shop

Colour him up and share what you've done in the comments on this blog! I'll feature my favourites in my next post!
Thanks you for your support! Unusually high traffic today, HAHA!
Thanks! <3
By the way, this is my 100th Post!

Possible class soon

2011-09-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

So, I might be doing a Copic class very soon (like in the next few months). Anyone have any suggestions for what I should cover in it?
It will be something similar to before where enrolling gives you access to videos and you have full access to me for critique and guidance. I doubt it will be a long one. perhaps a week long, and maybe multiple classes over a few weeks.
Please comment your suggestions/ideas/ wishes now, so I can come up with a plan!
Thanks!

Copic Original for comics

2011-09-23T17:59:00.000-07:00

Hello,
I have been doing a few black and white comics lately, and something I've come to value in this adventure is my Copic Multiliner SP's! Oh yes! The Multiliners are a godsend. I've sort of tallied up what it would have cost me to buy disposable pens VS Copic multiliner SP's (refillable) and I've saved over 100$ on these 2 wee comics alone!

Something else! I have a couple Copic Original in black that I got in my Comic Inking Pro set a while back, and recently I swapped out my Fine nib on it for the Super fine and it's AMAZING!
This is what it looks like:

"One Day to Live" Comic, in progress!

Isn't that a keen nib? I've been adding some line weight and stuff to my inked pages with it! It's awesome because it doesn't get fuzzy like the Fine nibs do, and it is regular copic marker ink. It's like one step up from the .07 size Multiliner which I often crave.

Anyway, Just thought I'd share that with you :D

Shop Down - back up!

2011-09-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

~~Right now our shop is down, So my digital stamps are temporarily unavailable. I'll be getting them back up as soon as I possibly can! Sorry about that! :(~~
Our shop actually had errors that were not fixable so they all need to be re added to our new shop system so the check out is different. I'll try to get it up ASAP, especially the halloween and christmas ones! Thanks for your patience!

Shop is back up, but the digital stamps are slowly going up one at a time! If you notice any issues please let us know!

Ghost tales cover vote

2011-09-03T06:53:00.001-07:00

We've got a public vote going on to decide the cover of ghost tales! Please go look at the entries and vote for the one that most fits the theme!

Intermediate Copic certification + Copic ABS tutorials

2011-08-30T16:38:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,
anyone else going to the intermediate certification in Langley October 22? I've already registered/been accepted! HEE :P

I'm also planning some copic airbrush tutorials. anyone have anything specific you want me to tackle? It's much easier to do the tutorials if I have some questions I can answer in then! Let me know!

Help us bring our comics to Calgary Expo

2011-07-26T20:20:00.001-07:00

We are taking a big leap in our Comic Convention adventures. This time we're diving into Calgary Expo. We've heard great things from other people who've attended the Expo, and we're really excited to take our comics there! By the time the expo is here we should have ghost tales and maybe even Hello Albertosaurus at least available for Pre-order! Excite!

Now there is a small issue of funding. It costs a lot to travel these days. especially by plane and with lots of Luggage. To sell for 3 days, thats a Lot of merchandise. We need 2 plane tickets, hotels, and other costs. We live rather simple lives so we don't need much. Please take a look at our campaign below:

It would be really amazing if you could help us by donating some money, or even just promoting it for us! If you have Twitter, facebook, google+, Tumblr, blogs, or websites or anything (your dA journal for example)! if you could just promote our cause, and get the word out we'd be forever in your debt!

We have a campaign goal we're trying to meet.

Copic social network

2011-07-09T16:39:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Blogger looks new and awesome right now! I just wanted to let you guys know, if you didn't already, Copic has launched the finest thing since the marker: a Copic Social Network site! I've joined of course! I'm MarkerGuru over there, so join me! I'm so excited I can hardly sit still!

Copic colouring

2011-05-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

Kinda experimenting with some skin tones, and some accents....In reality I just wanted to colour Victor with his moustache. It gets a little hard on a person to be drawing cartoony stuff all the time, every now and then I want to bust out some drawings of my more....real characters. not that these guys are real looking at all...

Side note, I'd like Aaron Ekhart to play Victor in a TV movie of Conflagration

So I mixed my own colour for this one. I noticed that it was really hard to blend Bala's skin because I choose BG93 and BG96 as her skin colours but they're quite a jump with no colours in between. BG96 is pretty dark and blending those 2 colours into a gradient was tough. I mised a colour right between them. In an empty copic bottle I mixed 5cc's of BG93 and 7.5cc's of BG96. it made a nice mid colour so I could blend the 2 together more easily :)
Mixing colours is awesome. This is my 5th colour I've mixed and recorded :)

New Hello, Albertosaurus page

2011-05-02T17:53:00.000-07:00

http://experimentalguru.blogspot.com/2011/05/setting-up-comic-pages-for-printing.html
I made a tutorial on making print ready comic pages today from my latest comic page.
Heres the latest page: Page 12.

I am really burning through the copics on this comic! I'm refilling at least one each page, lol!