I’m excited to share my challenge creation today! Copic asked if I’d participate this month; they ask a bunch of different artists to make something with just three colors of the company’s choosing – and turn us all loose! Check their social media to see the rest of them all month long. And each month! You can participate too, they might share yours!

I decided to try some bokeh – which meant looking it up to get more info. First, it’s pronounced bo-ke. It doesn’t rhyme with bouquet. And it’s not bokUH either. It’s an eh sound – not a Fonzie “ay” but just the short e kind. Like if you were saying Kentucky without the ntucky! The effect is the soft blurring of spots of light in the background of an image; technically, it’s not those bright “shapes” that we often call bokeh – the shapes are not actually the bokeh, the bokeh is the effect. Photographers consider bokeh really beautiful when it’s a subtle effect, not jarring and “taking the stage” by being hard-edged shapes. So I learned a ton!

Spring Bokeh Branch in Copic Marker by Sandy Allnock

Mentioned in the video: I talked about the hex chart – you can get one HERE. And the Copic Jumpstart class is HERE. (all Copic classes are HERE)

I filmed two but only ended up with one for the video – this one suited what I had researched a lot better. I used Copic Airbrush first, then added leaves…. Watch the video below or click HERE to see it in HD on YouTube.

Bonus!

My earlier version footage was eaten by my computer. Oy, right? Alas. But on this one I had added the extra blobs of colorless blender, which I didn’t like nearly as much after creating them, so there’s that! It won’t stop me from framing these two pieces as a diptych for our spring art show at church.

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  • Copic Markers: YG23, New Leaf YG17, Grass Green G17, Forest Green 0 Colorless Blender EHBlick
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