The Secret Code: Working with Grays

 

You  may think that there are too many grays in the Copic Color wheel;  however, anyone who uses Copic markers should have a few grays in their  collection. Copic makes 46 different shades of gray, in 4 color  families. Each color of gray brings its own tone and feel to a picture.  Cool Grays are bluish or cool. Neutral grays have no tone, warm or cool.  Toner grays are slightly warmer, or more brown than neutral. Warm grays  are browner than any of the other grays.

If  you want something to feel cold, (shadow on ice, metal, etc) use a cool  gray. If you want something that feels warm or natural (wood earthy  things) use Warm gray. For everything else

us the other grays. One of the best selling colors besides black and blender is C3, a good basic middle gray.

If  you want to color something black, try using a series of dark grays.  That way you can still see your lines and shadows and people can tell it  is supposed to be black. (C5, C7, C9 / W5, W7, W9 / T4, T6, T8 / N5,  N7, N9)

Which gray family should I try?

Blue  and green are COOL colors. Copic makes a gray color family for cool  colors, cool grays. Grays dull down bright colors, so we can layer a  cool Gray over a bright, cool color to make it less vibrant.

For  WARM colors in your artwork, use warm grays. Layer warm grays over your  reds, browns, yellows, and oranges to tone them down and decrease their  saturation.

How do I know which gray value to try?

For  bright/light colors: try picking a gray that is the same, or one number  lighter than the color you are using (look at the last digit ONLY). A  warm gray one shade lighter than YR02 would end in 1, so layer W1 first  then try W2. Yellows are so pale that you should tend to go light with  those as well.

For dark colors: try a gray that has the same last digit or is slightly darker (otherwise the gray

won’t show up).

Layering Grays

Many  first time copic users choose vibrant colors as a starting range  because bright colors are eye catching. Once they start working on  projects, they quickly find their colors are too bright. Another problem  is that they are unaware that they should purchase markers in groups  that blend well together.

With  Copic, you can overcome these mistakes by layering colors that make  muted tones, or make totally different colors. Don’t worry about getting  one color on the tip of another, remember it will come out. You can  easily expand the versatility of your vibrant markers if you simply add  grays.