Tag: . Colored Pencils

Polka Dot Pals Lisa

~ sproatmeyer ~ 3 Comments

I rummaged around in my old stamped and pulled out Polka Dot Pals Lisa to color. This is a retired rubber stamp from Little Miss Muffet Stamps. She’s one of my favorites and is signing “Thank you” in American Sign Language (ASL).

The background is a die from Gina K, I think. Long ago when I organized, I erroneously didn’t label my dies so they’re hard to identify. So this is just my best guest. The sentiment is a Make it Crafty chipboard embellishment and was colored with Copic markers and Stickles Glittler Glue.
Instead of using an add-on face from a Polka Dot Pals set, I decided to color in one of my own and try a new shape. This is how I come up with faces to add into new Polka Dot Pals sets. So if you see one that you love, hint, hint, then give me a shout out.
Here’s a progress photo. The only paper I had at the time was heavy, maybe 120# weight, and I thought it was for alcohol markers. Boy was I wrong! I don’t what know what it was but even colored pencils didn’t apply well. So this was a difficult and patience testing project. I wasn’t able to go as dark as I wanted but at least I was still able to get some shading and depth included.

Supplies Used:
(most of it is unknown)
Tsukineko Memento Ink London Fog
chipboard embellishments
Nuvo Crystal Drops
Stickles Glitter Glue

Stamp:
Polka Dot Pals Lisa from Little Miss Muffet Stamps (retired)

Coloring:
no-brand colored pencils

Great Catch

~ sproatmeyer ~ Leave a comment

For my project, I’ve used Annabel Haines’ fur tutorial and colored up this raccoon. I’m always impressed with her textures and would love to color like that someday. So I’m learning, practicing and learning more. I’m getting there. The stamp is Great Catch, a retired set from SugarPea Designs.

I enjoy coloring on Balsa wood with Prismacolor Pencils. They go on smooth and blend well. The only down fall is that once all that color is built up, it’s near impossible to add anything else. So planning the colors and layers is important.

Supplies Used:
Balsa Wood
Tsukineko Memento Ink London Fog
Prismacolor Pencils
Sakura Gelly Roll White Pen
Sharpie Black Pen Fine
Echo Park Jack & Jill 6×6 Paper
Chipboard Embellishments (sentiment)

Copic Markers: (to color the chipboard)
Y32, YR15, 27

Stamps:
Great Catch from SugarPea Designs

Going Catty – Scaredy Cat

~ sproatmeyer ~ 3 Comments

I’ve been studying Annabel Haines‘ style on fur because she does an incredible job. In fact, she does amazing on all her projects with added textures and details. So over the years, I’ve been working up the courage to give it a try. I practice here and there but this was the first time I’ve gone full furry on an image. It was good first attempt but I still have more to learn. The image I used was a retired Scaredy Cat rubber stamp which is now available in the Going Catty clear set by Whimsy Stamps.

Annabel has a fur coloring tutorial which shows step by step on how she colors the fur. It’s a great tutorial and is a lot easier than how I did mine. Plus hers turns out better so take your tips from her. 😀
For those who were looking for an eye tutorial on the dragon… well, here it is. Even though this is with colored pencils and not markers, the idea is the same. (1) First, the image’s eyes are usually white (if stamping on white paper) or you should color them white. (2) Then, since eye are not actually pure white, I add shading around the edges to make them look found. On a person, I add shading going from top down. But on this image, and the dragon image, I really wanted the eyes to bulge so I went with a round shape for shading. (3) Next is to color the irides. I like to have some dark at the top and light nearer the bottom. For this image and the dragon, I chose to have one large and one small. (4) The final step is to add black for the pupils and white for the highlight.
My coloring plan was to lay down a base of color for the cat, which you can see on the left side, then add all the fur texture, which you can see on the right. It worked ok but after having so much color down with the pencils, it was very difficult to get a sharp noticeable line for the fur. In some areas, especially the lightest and white areas, it didn’t look like I was adding any coloring at all. For the white, I decided to add more details with the white gel pen. Did it work? Eh, I’m not sure.

Supplies Used:
Balsa Wood
Lawn Fawn Jellyfish Ink
Prismacolor Pencils
Sakura Gelly Roll White Pen
Sharpie Black Pen Fine
Echo Park Jack & Jill 6×6 Paper

Stamps:
Scaredy Cat (retired) but now available in Going Catty at Whimsy Stamps

Forest Friends Rosa

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This is a blast from the past as my daughter and I color up Rosa the Rattlesnake from a retired set named Forest Friends Stuart & Rosa from Little Miss Muffet Stamps. We colored this one in Prismacolor Pencils and decided to color on dark blue paper to create a night sky scene. She also decided we should color a Scarlet Kingsnake instead of a rattler.

This was great time together and little did she know how much she was going to learn. We broke it up into three coloring sessions – the snake and snake texture, the ground and grass and finally the moon, stars and highlights.
This is Cassandra’s project – you can even see some scales texture added to the snake. I would show her the basic technique then she would color her own. She did a great job and I love how they both turned out!

Supplies Used:
Prismacolor Pencils

Little Miss Muffet Stamps:
Forest Friends Stuart & Rosa (retired)

Polka Dot Pals Harley

~ sproatmeyer ~ 8 Comments

Polka Dot Pals Harley is a hardcore character and also one that has many faces, literally! This is a challenge I did with Jennifer Dove to color a Muppets character using Polka Dot Pals Harley clear stamp. She went with Animal and I chose the Swedish Chef. This is considered extreme creative color placement.

Visit Jennifer’s Animal post HERE.
(and a hug thank you to her for the inspiration, wood grain paper, and much more!)

First of all, let’s start with what Polka Dot Pals Harley look like:

This is always a fun thing to see – the original image layered over the colored image. You can see how much was changed from his head to his toes. Below is what the actual clear stamp looks like:
Polka Dot Pals Harley from Whimsy Stamps
I first started with a lightly stamped image and sketched in my details. The face would be the important part and the eye placement worked well for my character. The hat, however, was a challenge to think through. I decided to taper the head and have the hair be hidden within the hat. You’ll notice the shadow I have is actually the top of the hair outline. I also pulled down the chin so there wasn’t a neck anymore.
Next was all about the coloring. I tried to get some texture in the face to match the Muppet but half way through my markers got all gummy so I had to stop. I would fix that later with colored pencils but for now, the face and hair will have to stand out badly.
After the image was colored (you’ll see the finished one below), I came back in to fix the face and hair with the colored pencils. As you can see, on the right is Copic only and you can see how gummy it got. The right side is smoothed out with the colored pencils on top.
Here’s the finished one – “Börk börk börk.” When I colored the stump, I decided to ignore the mushroom details since I already had plenty of details in the image itself.
Finally a challenge wouldn’t be as fun if there wasn’t an accomplice! Pop on over to Jennifer‘s site to see details on Animal. “I want to eat drums!”

Here the list of Copic Markers I used:

BG000, 11, 10
N0, 2, 4, 6
B000, 91, 95, 97
E000, 51, 53, 35, 02, 41, 42 (skin)
E21, 23, 25, 27, 29 (hair)
R11, 12, 93, 95, E04 (nose)
R35, 37, 32, 20
E41, 42, 43, 44
R12, 05, 14, 27, 89
YR02, 04, 09
E70, 71, 74, 77 (trunk)
YG21, 23, 25, 45, G24, 28 (grass)
BV23, 21
Plus some Polychromos colored pencils on the face

Whimsy Stamps:
Polka Dot Pals Harley

Paper:
Hammermill Premium Color Copy 100lb
Park Lane Paperie Woodland

Don’t forget to visit Jennifer’s Animal post HERE
…and we challenge you to join us! What can you create?