Making up your face...

Today I'm going to show you how I get my face on.  The Copic colors I like to use for a Caucasian face are E000, E04, E11, E13.

The image I am going to use is by The Greeting Farm, it's a digital stamp named Jessica. Your first step is to use E000 and color all the flesh areas.  This color is very light but you will add more color to it.  You don't have to be real precise with coloring, skin isn't all one solid color.  I colored in a circling motion using the side of E000.

 Next I used E11 to start adding some shadow.  Naturally hair shadows your face, as do glasses.  I am pretending the light is coming from the right side so the left side of her face has a thicker line.

Now I used E13 and added a darker shadow on each side close to the hair line and under the glasses. You can see that I didn't make a heavy line with it so my blending won't require too much work but you can see the E11 and E13 on the E000. 

Using E000 again I start to blend E11 and E13 together. I use circling motions over all the colors. I smoothed out the colors so the degree of shadow appears natural, darker at the hair line, lighter as you get into the light.  Face blending is a personal preference, some people prefer to create their faces perfectly blended from light to dark.  I prefer my blends to be a bit rougher, more like a natural face. You can see with the sample below that the colors are blended.

The last thing I do is to use E04 and using the very tip I follow the hair line perfectly (well sometimes not so perfectly) LOL.  It's not super obvious but it gives an extra bit of depth right at the hair line.

Always keep in mind that the more you practice with blending the better and easier it will become.  Art is subjective.  What you think is great someone else may not like at all.  That's one of the best things about creating, there is no right or wrong.  Embrace YOUR creative style.

Happy Crafting,

Melissa O