This post is
designed to give you a bit of insight on the new Stampin’ Up! Blendabilities
Markers. You are going to LOVE these
markers- they are the BEST coloring tool available!
I have gathered lots of information from the internet on various sites, and simply compiled it here for you.
WHAT ARE BLENDABILITIES MARKERS?
Blendabilities
are like copic markers, which are alcohol based markers...whereas Stampin' Up Stampin’ Write Markers are
water-based.
The
alcohol allows to you fully saturate your paper thus making it easier to
develop rich colors and to blend colors- and NO LINES or unintentional
darker areas!
Blendabilities have a brush tip and fine tip
similar to Copic sketch and ciao.
Blendabilities come in sets of three
coordinating shades (light medium dark) designed to specifically work together
and blend beautifully. There is also a set of skin tones as well as a blending
marker.
Features
and Benefits
- Alcohol
marker
- Leaves
no streaky lines
- Blend
beautifully
- Intense,
vibrant color
- Does
not fade
- · MUST
use Memento ink to stamp images- do not use STAZON it will ruin your markers!
- · Whisper
White cardstock
- Have
a fine and a brush tip
- Tips made of durable nylon which means no fraying
- Rectangular
barrel so they will not roll away
- MUST
store flat so the tips do not dry out
- Ink
color is cap color
- Caps
fit snug so marker does not dry out
- Caps
click when closed properly
- Designed
to shade images light to dark
- Come
in a 3 pack- light, medium and dark shade- makes easy color matching
- More
affordable than other alcohol markers such as Copics
CAN BLENDABILITIES DO EVERYTHING A STAMPIN’ WRITE MARKER CAN DO?
Blendabilities cannot be used to color directly
on stamps. They dry too quickly for you to apply multiple
colors.
BASIC COLORING
Saturate it
To get the full depth of color, you cannot be
afraid to saturate the paper.
Here's the front of the circles:
Here's the back - totally saturated!
Circular Strokes
Coloring in little circles will give you better
coverage. If you color back and forth, you will be surprised how often
you will notice - often not until the card is entirely done - that you have
white streaks where you didn't quite get everything colored.
Shading
The links that I have at the bottom of this post
give you some very artistic examples of light sources, etc. to create amazingly
realistic shading.
 |
| Add caption |
1. Give your image a light coloring with
your lighter marker.
2. Before it dries, add your darker marker
around the edges. If you do this right away, the "wetness" of
the bottom layer will start blending the darker marker by itself. Be sure
to use circular strokes or lightly draw "feathers" toward the inside
- you just don't want a defined line because it's hard to blend.
3. Color over the whole thing again with
your lighter marker. Keep coloring until you don't see the edges any more.
Remember - saturating the paper is good!
**BONUS**
Did you notice the gems on the card? Did
you notice that they matched? Gems and pearls can be colored with Blendabilities!!!
Once you get a collection of Blendabilities, you never have to buy a colored
gem or pearl again!
Basic
Coloring Technique with Blendabilities Alchol Markers by Stampin’ Up!
Step
1) Stamp your image with MEMENTO ink and allow it to dry; or heat set with a
heat tool
Step 2) Pick your lightest color and fill the
area you are going to be shading completely from edge to edge. Working
with the brush tip, move your marker in small circle strokes, this helps avoid
streaking.
You want to get nice
even coverage. Don’t worry about getting the page too wet, the alcohol that
suspends the ink is not like water, it will not tear up your paper.
Step 3) Take
your next darkest marker.. Add this darker color on top of your lighter
color where you want your shading to occur. If you are not sure where to
put the shadows, try experimenting with edges and along creases for now.
Step 4) Come back with your first marker, the lighter one, and again using
small circular strokes go over the area where the two colors intersect.
The alcohol in the markers acts as a solvent
softening the edges and blending the two colors together. You want to
work fairly quickly through steps. Letting the inks dry in between makes
it considerably harder to blend and often leaves your work blotchy.
Step 5) You can finish with step 4 or
you can go on and add the last, darker shade.
Each time you will work back through your
lighter pen to blend the colors together.
Do not worry about contaminating the tip of
the lighter pens they do not pick up the ink they just push it around.
Here is the finished
butterfly:
Slightly More
Detailed Shading
Even without getting overly
"artistic", Blendabilities make it amazingly easy to add a variety of
colors to an image.
Layering
up colors like this is quite easy.
1. The first step is to add the highlights in
the darkest color (you could lay down a light color first to help blending.
2. Then add highlights in the next color.
3. Color over the whole thing with the lightest
color - just color until it is saturated and colors are blending.
4. In the fourth tulip, I went back and added
some of the darker color again - I didn't want it quite as washed out.
You can do this dozens of times. Let's say I add too much of the red, I can
color over it again with the yellow and add a little less red.
Blendabilities are very forgiving!
Shadows and Dimension
So far my examples have been filled-in
areas. Blendabilities are also excellent at adding shadows and
dimensions.
Again, I cannot emphasize enough that I am a
VERY basic Blendabilities user.
I have put links below in which people create
true art with perfect shadows and subtle skies. I believe you can still
create a wonderful card with these basic tips.
So, let's break down the shading on this
snowman. It should be subtle, but it makes a HUGE difference!
1. The first snowman has his muffler, hat and
the little bird colored. He's cute, but a little flat.
2. On the second snowman, I have taken a light
gray marker and run it around the inside edges of the snow. This gives
the appearance of a rounded edge, giving this guy a little more dimension.
3. On the third snowman, I focused on popping
him from the background. A light line of blue sky makes him appear more
"forward", giving it even more dimension!!!
These basic shading colors are a must-have in
your collection. I even find myself shading around solid stamps to pop
them from their background.
Coloring Faces
Start
with an allover wash of lightest skin tone.
Add depth and highlights with darker shades.
**BONUS**
Did
you notice the polka dots on her shirt? I used a Colorless Blender.
I think this pen has been named
incorrectly. You do NOT need it to blend colors as I have previously
demonstrated. What it does is pick up color.
For her shirt, I just dabbed it around to pick
up some color and lighten the polka dots. I also know that it is used to
pick up mistakes like when you color outside of the lines.
Frankly, I have never had much luck with that,
although I have seen great demonstrations.
You can see by the close-up of this little
girl that I didn't even try to pink up the pink smear on her back!
TIPS AND HINTS
Does cardstock make a difference?
Yes. Watercolor paper is the way to go-
but Whisper White works very well too.
Does ink make a difference?
You
will get smearing with Stampin' Up ink and Blendabilities.
DO
NOT use Staz-on with Blendabilities - it's alcohol based and will smear and get
into the tips of your markers and ruin them..
The best inks that I use for Blendabilities
coloring is Memento. I have a black pad and a brown pad from each of
them that I use every time I bring out the Blendabilities! Make sure to let it dry well before coloring-
or heat set for assurance that it will not smear.
OTHER LINKS and RESOURCES
Basic Copic use:
A book by Annie's Attic called Copic Coloring Guide (and
also two new books on coloring nature and coloring people) is a very nice
resource It starts at the VERY beginning with types of markers and the
coding on each one. Then it goes through basic coloring and blending
tips. The pictures are nice and the card samples are basic, yet
cute. (Annie's Attic also has a good book called Coloring Techniques for Card Making that includes colored pencils, watercolors
and even some basic info on Copics.)
Danielle, on her Neat & Tangled blog, just
did this post with a video of
her using Copics on a butterfly. It's so easy to see the idea of circular
strokes, feathering and blending when you see it done! She also says she
will be doing further posts on Copics.
For advanced techniques:
You will be blown away by the amazing fall
leaves on this post on the Prickley
Pear blog spot. They give a dozen different color combos and samples.
Amy Rysavy, on her Prairie, Paper & Ink, has
done dozens of videos on coloring with Copics. She's in the middle of a
series of Christmas cards that are amazing. Amy is a true artist with
Copics (as compared to my simplistic style). Check out this post and video to
see the attention she gives to a face! Amy's blog is worth watching as
her videos are detailed and informative.
This YouTube video with
a great demonstration of blending techniques. She discusses "palette
blending" and "feathering". This video and this one by Kristina Werner are great with faces
and hair.
There are hundreds and hundreds of videos out
there - I just selected these few to give you a taste of how Copics can work.
