As part of my Copic coloring series on YouTube and coloring along with Kathy Racoosin’s latest 30 Day Coloring Challenge, I have been practicing a lot more and pushing myself to try new color combinations and techniques. In doing so, I have discovered that for my general aesthetic I really like the look of full depth and ranges of color in Copic hair coloring (this is strictly a matter of taste and style, as in some instances a less deep but bright graphic quality might be what you want).
In any event, I thought I would share a more detailed look at how to achieve that deeper look and share a Copic hair coloring video of coloring caramel blonde (or “bronde”) hair with more dark tones than in THIS champagne blonde hair.
As a comparison, I colored up this image of Rose from The Greeting Farm’s Bloom Kit with the following Copic colors for Day 25 of the 30 day coloring challenge: Skin: E51, E53, E21, R20 and BV000; Roses in her hair: Y000, G20, W3 with Prismacolor color pencil yellow highlights with Yellow Chartreuse; Dress: G40, G43, G24, G02 and G19 with Prismacolor color pencil yellow highlights with Yellow Chartreuse; Hair: YR14, R05, R24, and R29. Now I know I generally have a heavy hand with coloring anyway, but I was not totally satisfied with the level of highlights left in her hair at the end. She would be great for a graphic pop on a project, but I was hoping for a little more subtle detail.
So on the next day, I colored up the same Rose with all the same colors, except that I added a couple of additional Copic colors to her hair coloring (a light highlight and a deeper shadow). This time, I used the following Copic colors for her hair: Y000, YR14, R05, R24, R29 and E09. I was channeling Disney’s Ariel for the color scheme. 🙂
Lastly, I thought I would share how to get a full depth and range of color for a blonde so I used the following Copic colors for Jolene from The Greeting Farm’s Bloom Kit (top image): Skin: E51, E53, E21, R20 and BV000; Hibiscus flowers: RV52, RV17 and C6; Dress: BG11 and BG13; and Hair: Y21, YR26, YR24, E25 and E29. Jolene was really fun to color up, and surprisingly, I thought the partial coloring of her hibiscus flowers really made her pop!
The following is a process video sharing this hair coloring:
