Can you handle one more Anita Jeram release in 2022? I hope so – because that’s what I’ve got for ya today! But there’s no coloring tutorial….I’ll be walking through 6 cards I made and sharing my thought process as the seenes developed – and giving you a list of 14 ideas to consider when creating scenes for your cards!
Tutorial: 14 ideas to spice up your card scenes
Let’s talk DESIGN!
Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!
15 Tips to try!
STAMP IN LIGHT COLORED INK
Anything like a tan, grey, or pale color that goes with what you’re expecting to color (light red to use for a rose, browsn for animals, etc). That way you can make adaptations without having to deal with a big black outline.
CHANGE A SPECIES
Penguins are super easy! Just give them two white areas around the eyes, a beak, and black “paws”……making an animal into a bear is also easy since it’s just big blobby fuzzy shapes!
TRY A SOFT BACKGROUND FIRST
You can always change to a dark one later on top of the light one – but sometimes the light background can make the images stand out more.
BE OPEN TO RETHINKING IDEA #1
The first idea is not always the best idea! I had a boss who made us show 15 ideas every time, just so we’d get all the “expected” ones out of the way first.
CHANGE PERSPECTIVE!
Try stamping in a different place on the page – does that encourage you to wonder how or why the images are there? What story can that tell?
TAKE INDOOR IMAGES OUTSIDE!
Or outdoors inside. See what happens if you imagine the characters in the opposite setting!
TEST STAMPS ON POST iT NOTES
Sometimes a quick stamping on a sticky note and moving images around can inspire you to think of the characters as move-able – what happens to their relationship if they’re close together vs far apart?
MOVE DISTRACTION AWAY FROM FIGURES
Unless a background is a large, simple type of image, like a big night sky, it can often detract from the figures in front of it. In this design, a low line of trees would just make the heads of the characters disappear.
VARY THE VALUES – LIGHTEST FAR AWAY
If a mountain is in the distance, make it REALLY far by making it super light. This works great also for making your figures appear larger since they’re darker.
SINK OBJECTS DOWN INTO SNOW
The rails of the sled are partly covered by snow so they seem to sink into it. Try that with feet, the bottoms of buildings, car tires…..
USE SMALL FIGURES IN THE DISTANCE
Size can convey how close an image is – a tiny mouse looks automatically far away!
TELL A STORY BY CONNECTING IMAGES
Create a pathway or trail between characters so they become related.
AGAIN, TAKE THE INDOORS OUTSIDE
Stockings in the stamp are probably “stolen” from a fireplace mantel, but when outside, they tell the story that Santa visits even the woodland critters!
USE A STAMP SIDEWAYS!
Just because it was intended for one use doesn’t mean you can’t change that up!
CREATE PERSPECTIVE
Don’t sweat over math or rulers – but give a little perspective to a building/window like this one. It doesn’t have to be perfect – just believable!
SOLVE A PROBLEM!
If you caome across a stamp that seems like it doesn’t belong – or the character might have some challenges…..solve it for them by adapting a scene.
Which scene did you like most?
Over at CCC you’ll find all these stamps for your creating pleasure – which one is first on your list?
Did you learn something?
I hope so! It was a fun challenge to find ideas from scenes made with these stamps that I could share with you to encourage stepping outside the box!
GIVEAWAY
I get to give away stamp sets! I’m giving away one each of the stamp sets to 6 people…6 winners! Just leave a comment with which is your favorite card idea, I’d love to know!
Before I get started on Yukon Cornelius – I totally forgot all about Cyber Monday – how could I?!?! So I’ve put together a special sale just for the day – on gift cards!
I also made a fun and EASY printable if you give a card – you only need to print, fold, trim, BOOM– then decorate it! Measurements for this gift card holder shown: Cardstock 4-1/2 x 11, score at 4-1/2, 5-1/2, 6-1/2. Add a thin strip of adhesive at the bottom of the back, cut a slit, and slide in the card. Tap the pic at the right to see a video or watch IG later for a reel.
Gift cards are on sale for 15% off with code GIFT15 at checkout!
I learned a lot about Yukon Cornelius lately…..a bunch of people suggested him for my Rankin & Bass drawing list for this holiday season, and I do like him (well I like his transformation from being a pain in the butt to being a good guy!)…so I had to do some googling to see what he wears, how he stands, etc.
Watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Tuesday evening Nov 29th at 8pm on CBS (check local listings) you can see Yukon Cornelius in action on tv! Watch for some of the things I talk about in the video – did you notice them before?
Tutorial: Colored pencil blending techniques
There are so many ways to blend with colored pencils – let’s see just a few of them in today’s drawing!
Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!
Blending solutions
There are all kinds of blending solutions – I’ve used gamsol often but I’m just about out so I invested in a few brands. I did do a test of them a while back, but if you have gamsol, there’s no need to get a new one from my tests so far. I did like that this one seems to work more rapidly than gamsol, it made the blending on that jacket work great.
A delayed THANK YOU!
I meant to mention it in the video but THANK YOU for shopping my Virtual Craft Fair as well as the Art-Classes sales all weekend!!! I’ll be traveling this week and having the sales behind me makes me feel better about taking some time off. Purchases of tangible art that were made before Sunday night are getting mailed out today – anything new will be sent out when I return, in plenty of time for Christmas. So if you still want to shop – have at it!
I’ll be adding new items to the shop when I return and having another big sale. Yukon Cornelius will be available then! Two versions of him since I had a ‘practice’ version that the filming went bad on. But redoing him meant adding in the pup so it was well worth it.
Who else should I draw?
I have another planned for next week – but what’s after that? Lots are suggesting things that are not claymation types of characters like Rankin/Bass, but if I can I’d like to stick to these kinds for this season. Leave me comments — go search Rankin Bass Characters and scroll around!
I’ve got a little bonus post to share today….a bloghop with Colorado Craft Company!
They know that I’m a big Anita fan, so little packages of goodies arrive when they’ve got new Jeram stamps…and while I only just got them, I did some super quick coloring with just a few Copic greys and one orange, and a black clored pencil.
I decided to add a little detail to them since I kept the coloring so simple – and added lines to each one with a fountain pen, but you could honestly use any pen you’ve got!
Details about the DOUBLE giveaway is later on in this post!
#short video!
This one’s just a shortie, a quick preview of the stamp sets then the cards that are below. The link to a Short on YouTube is dodgy, so it might not play here….just head over to my channel.
6 ways to add linear elements!
Each card uses a linear element in a different way – and each totally gives the cards a different look. IN this card, it’s the ground – each one has a wonky pair of lines at the edge, and the lines themselves use no ruler – just keep it loose.
A bit more coloring here! And some masking to make the different dressed-up cats look like they’re in front and behind each other. The sky is colored solid black, and I punched a circle from the background and flipped it upside down.
The lines can also be the background – a wall the characters are walking in front of. Also notice – I’m using a really really limited palette – toned Neenah cardstock with just 3 greys and an orange. And a white pen.
There’s one thanksgiving stamp in this collection; I used a pen to add the leaf and pumpkin stem on top.
A tiny strip of lines works well too – leaving a CAS card as the focus but with that sweet hand drawn addition.
And finally a wider strip of lines. Experiment with how much to use on a card! Here I also added “motion lines” around the bat and pumpkin so they’re clearly flying around.
Shop quick before they sell out
CCC has had some releases sell out, so if there’s anything on your must-have list, I’d recommend shopping quick. Visit the CCC siteto pick out your stamp sets – it’s a super cute release!
Colorado Craft Company Bloghop
CCC is doing two giveaways…You have until October 1st at Midnight MST to enter both of these!
a HUGE complete bundle giveaway to ONE lucky winner….to be entered you have to use MY affiliate link to shop! (My link generates a wee bit of income for me but is at no cost to you!)
a give away of one stamp set to a commenter here on my blog!
You might like to go see what everyone else has made with these too – there’s also a big kitty and pumpkin I haven’t had time to make something with yet but stay tuned and I’ll see if I can get something done shortly on social media 🙂 Here’s the blog list:
It’s the end of my June week of snowmen and snow scenes – and I think you might like the fun textures in this one! I’ve got little tips throughout the video – so even if you’re not going to make a picture this big (8-1/2″ x 11″), you’ll find some goodies in here to use in your own projects.
This post is sponsored by Toheto – they emailed and asked if I’d like to try one of their light pads. I almost said no but….in a recent purge of the studio I tossed a bunch of cords I was “sure” no longer belonged to objects here, and…well, my old light pad was rendered useless by that decision! So thank you to Toheto for bailing me out. I like this one better than my previous; you can charge it then use it without a cord getting in your way which is super helpful! It has a few light color settings too. And it’s a nice big size – the finished drawing shown is a letter-sized sheet, so it is a good size!
Crunchy snow textures in colored pencil were at the top of the list.
Using my “vintage” Prismacolor pencils – Beryl, Sanford, and Eagle
That hat and scarf!
The light pad arrived just before I started – and it actually really helped in making masks!
I think I met them!
I’m debating printing my Christmas cards this year – just making some special ones by hand….I’ve never done that before, but if I have the budget to print them, this little guy might just be the ticket!
I switched to a different storage system for my pencils – not just colored pencils but a lot of different drawers full of them! And the bottom three contain my pastels. I do like these because I can lay them on the desk – they aren’t helpful to take to the sofa, but I don’t often do much art that way anyhow. The trees portion of this project was perfect for that because I could just take the blues and a black with me and do a large section.
ICYMI
In case you missed this week’s social posts related to the weekly theme:
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
I know many of you have HEAT in June…at my house my furnace still comes on in the morning! I wish summer would get here, but in the meantime, here’s some wintry inspiration for those who need to cool off a bit!
New class
This came about because of the new Colored Pencil Winter Wonderland class – when I got out my Gamsol I noticed it was below 1/4 full! While that’s plenty for a few drawings, I always panic when things start looking low…and I started looking around at other colored pencil artist sites to see what solvents they like – and picked out a few to try.
And now…the Video
Spoiler alert: Gamsol was not immediately surpassed by any of these in performance, especially not by price.
Sketch out a bunch of snowballs – stacking 2 seemed to be cuter than 3 to me, as well as easier. Color up the blobs with blue – I started with dry blending from powder first, then added the solutions to each snowman.
Make hats and scarves for them! Different styles, materials, textures. Have fun! And don’t forget to use the leftover pigment on the brush to make the fluffy pompoms on hats.
Then add mittens – and give them things to hold! How cute are they with their art supplies?
Supplies
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
TGIF! What a brutal couple of weeks it’s been eh? I had to find something to help get me through it and often just doodling does me a lot of good; not a ton of thinking to do, and I can still come out with something beautiful as I process thoughts about all the violence happening nowadays.
I stuck with analagous colors so I wouldn’t be fighting neutral mixes. Blending was almost entirely pencil until I got to the end – a few spots needed more contrast, since pencil on Yupo doesn’t get very dark, and a couple marker strokes helped. It was super hard to blend into mediums to get transitions though, so I wouldn’t use much Copic for something like this; I had to fight to fix some chunky marker lines.
This is the before and after…
ICYMI
In case you missed the socials this week, here you go!
