Art Nouveau illustrations with Copic marker

What you need:

• Copic marker
• Copic multiliner
• Marker paper
• pencil
• eraser
• triangle ruler

Find a motif

Most people first associate Art Nouveau with Mucha's beautiful depictions of women with detailed ornamentation and slightly broken ones Colours. In fact, you can use it as a guide if you are looking for a motif for your own Art Nouveau illustrations.

• If you are a woman, you have the choice between women you know (for example, if you have a Birthday card), characters from film and television, celebrities or - what goes particularly well with Art Nouveau - old people Vintage photographs. The women in these photos already show the right outfit and the faces and hair also go perfectly with Art Nouveau.
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• Of course, you can also choose models of the male gender. Movie characters, stars, friends and vintage photos are also available here.
• In fact, you don't have to search for a template for your Art Nouveau illustration just among real people. Cartoon and manga characters also make great templates.

The background of the illustration

In many cases, an Art Nouveau illustration consists of a figure and a background. How complex this will be is of course up to you. But what should be considered here?

• An Art Nouveau illustration requires a lot of planning so that the figure and the background / frame fit together well. It is up to you how detailed and filigree the background is. Round lines, flourishes, nested ornaments and floral motifs are suitable.
• If you want to draw symmetrical ornamentation, draw one half. You then pause this through tracing paper. Then turn the tracing paper over and draw the now game-like ornamentation through. If you are working on thin marker paper, place the tracing paper under your picture and pause the second half. If you are drawing on thick paper that cannot be traced, proceed as follows: Trace the first half of the drawing with a soft pencil. Then turn the tracing paper over and place it on top of the picture so that the traced ornamentation is in exactly the right place. Now you can trace the lines again with a hard and sharp pencil. This will press the lines you previously made with the soft pencil onto the picture. The ornamentation is now symmetrical on both halves of the picture.
• Floral frames are very nice in Art Nouveau illustrations. Let Mucha inspire you, for example. You can put many of its flowers in your own picture until you have enough practice to create your own floral designs.
• The figure and frame should fit together well. The figure partially overlays the frame, perhaps even breaking out of the outermost frame that delimits the picture. Everything should be well interlinked: the figure with the ornamentation, the ornamentation with each other, the ornamentation with other picture elements, etc.

How to frame the picture with Copic markers

You have now drawn your figure and the frame design in pencil. And what happens now?

• You now outline the figure and the ornamentation as far as you want with a very thin Copic Multiliner. In fact, you get multiliners that are 0.5 millimeters thick - these would be perfect for an A4-sized image. If your picture is to be kept in pastel colors as far as possible, you can also use a gray multiliner instead of a black one - then the contrasts are less pronounced. Be very careful with lines on your face. Limit yourself to the eyes, a hinted nose and the frame of the face.
• Copic has various wonderfully matching colors in its range. Slightly broken colors are particularly suitable for Art Nouveau illustrations. For beautiful transitions, it is helpful to use two colors, where one is a darker version of the other.
• With the ornamentation you can achieve a certain three-dimensionality by crossing at each other Paint the lines to the right and left of the intersection a little darker - of course on the line at the bottom runs.