Technique Tuesday - Photo to Copics

Kymberlee posting here today from The Paper Midwife. It's the First Tuesday of the month here at PCWC so you know what THAT means....

TECHNIQUE TUESDAY!!!

I am so excited to share with everyone here today in my very first Technique Tuesday Guest Designer post! I can't thank Caroline and Allison enough for this opportunity. LOVE you guys <3

Okay enough with the sappy stuff and on to what I have for you today...

I took a Copics basic and intermediate certification class back in September and since then I have been a voracious MONSTER learning all I can and playing, experimenting, and playing some more.  One of the things I was really interested in was realistic coloring, more specifically making photos into line drawings to color.  Now I am no pro photographer but I happen to have a daughter that IS and as an added bonus, she also has some pretty adorable subjects that I wanted to color.  BOOYA!

I struggled trying to figure out HOW to convert my photos using Photoshop but rather than me making this long post even longer I am going to give you a CHEAT and HUGE shortcut to circumvent the learning curve.  You can find a step by step tutorial from photoshopbuzz.com HERE or just download the FREE ACTION HERE

Now that you know how to turn you favorite into a  line drawing, you may need to tweak it some using your contrast adjustment layer to lighten or darken the photo depending on how much guidance you want in your coloring.  I went for broke and just wanted the major landmarks so I took this original photo of my grandson "Roo":

Stripped it down to THIS:

then printed it out on my LASER printer onto BeePaper 110# Artist Marker paper

Then using my Copics and the original photo as my guide, I colored it to THIS:

I did the other grandson too so I can frame them for my daughter for Valentines.

I need some practice but I am pretty happy with this first attempt.

and a self portrait...

Now grab your favorite photograph and your markers and don't be scurrrrred...GO FOR IT!!!