That has GOT to be a card title never before used, right?
I made a little bonus card with the Gerda Steiner stamp that I showed the other day – Namasleigh. Y’all blew it OUT OF STOCK! Whoa! I didn’t know that many folks would be yoga fanatics. 🙂 If you didn’t nab one go sign up for notifications and Gerda can let you know when a reorder is in hand.
Since I’m announcing winners later in this post, I thought I’d also post another card with this set – warning: TOTALLY SILLY!
I’m trying to use up a stack of cut paper – and this paper was not what I thought. As a matter of fact I dont know what it is! So hard to work with. I wanted Stonehenge but…..while the surface seemed right, it was thicker, and since I’d then already stamped it, I proceeded – first coloring the disco floor. Then I masked the snowman and a circle for the discoball and went nuts with my airbrush, because that doesn’t care that the pencil didn’t like the paper. Airbrush goes on lots of weird surfaces! Some white pen magic…and this one’s ready to go in the mail to a special friend. Who shall remain nameless for the moment. Ha!
WINNERS!
Card: June Stengel Stamp set: @tzcarddesign
You can both email me your mailing address to receive your prizes! CONGRATS!
Yes erasing! I know lots of us use white pen, and while that’s often a great way to go – there are special eraser tools that can also be a huge help in creating a realistic scene with snow.
Supplies for this project are linked at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links may be used at no cost to you.
Electric eraser: it’s battery operated; think of it as a teeny drill. The edges get dull quickly, so you need to “sharpen” it regularly – just turn it on and let it “erase” a desktop or counter for a second and it’ll shave it down. The package I bought had a bunch of erasers in it, and replacements are cheap too – but I’ve just ordered the $40 one to see if it’s worth the extra money or not. Hang on and I’ll provide results for testing in 2022. (Sabbatical starts in December so I don’t think I’ll get to it by then.)
Tombow Knock Stick eraser – green plastic case. I’ve had this for years, I use it for larger areas of targeted erasing.
Tombow Mono Zero Eraser, flat Tombow Mono Zero Eraser, round
The Polychromos colors used for today’s project….
The finished card is 5×7 due to the size of the train station – eeep! Horizontal would have been better for an A2 but I couldn’t fit in trees if I did that.
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
How many colored pencil layers does it take to achieve a good color match? Spoiler alert, I still don’t know. ha! (But someone might be counting so let me know in comments if you get a number!) It’ll be different with different subjects, on different papers, and with different pencils…so it’s less like a lollipop for sure!
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! There’s something kinda special going on today – my friend Ellen Hutson is starting a “Meet the Maker” series, and she invited me to participate! So in addition to today’s post that you’re reading right now, there’s a lot more over on her blog – but more about that once today’s project is complete. Pull up a chair and let’s chat a while!
First – a word about that photo right next to this text: I got new glasses! I’ve needed them for almost 2 years; the last pair wasn’t made properly, but, well….pandemic! I had put it off, since it was distance vision that was terrible, and I haven’t gone many places so I just lived with it. But now I can see and I’m tickled!
48-hour Sale on CCC goodies is OVER, sorry!
Removed that info to save confusion.
Sale on my classes!
I have a coupon code just for my fellow Ellen Hutson friends! A few recommendations on just a few of my seasonal classes: The Winter Wonderland class is a mini intermediate class that’ll teach 5 different ways to make trees and snow. Mini Autumn Scenes in pencil is also intermediate (there’s also a watercolor pencil and copic version) – 5 more tree scenes and way fun techniques in colored pencils. And the newest class is Winter Copic Enchantment with more advanced scenes than the mini classes, but if you’re game for it, there are ten fabulous lessons to create winter magic on your holiday cards!
Use coupon code ELLENSFRIENDS at Art-Classes.com for 25% off any adult class that is not already on sale. Cannot be combined with other coupons. Offer ends at 11:59pm Pacific on 10/24/2021.
Let’s get on to today’s video tutorial!
When the Autumn Scenes Mini Colored Pencil Class launched, I shared a video with a ‘rejected’ scene — I had filmed it and loved it, but it just didn’t “match” the look of the other scenes in class so it’s free on YT. When I came across the sketch again, I decided to use that scene with the rabbits from, believe it or not a Valentines stamp set! It’s Lots of Love from Colorado Craft Company, and though it’s for VDay, it’s quite suitable for any season of the year.
In the video I share a couple tips from the fall version, but the focus is on the winterizing. Watch the video below or click HERE to see it on YouTube.
The fall version is different than the sketchbook version for a couple reasons – 1, I used different colors, and 2, I made it much more quickly. Still cute!
The winter version has desaturated blue in the background – but saturated in the foreground, adding more depth by separating areas in the distance from those closer up.
Go see the rest of “Meet the Maker”!
The other portion of Meet the Maker is over on the Ellen Hutson blog today – Copic coloring, chatting about creative block, plus some other featured fun! Click to go see!
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
The stencil allowed for great powdered pencil work – wet (with Gamsol) or dry, applied with a cotton ball, it made gorgeous soft blends. A little bit of sketchy lines, and the trees came out lovely!
I tried a couple techniques with pencils – and while I probably made my trees too thin, the texture and color blending just wasn’t as elegant as the stencil! It also took longer to make a smaller group of trees this way than with the stencil.
I’m pretty comfortable conceding, but I know some will vote for me out of pity. And I love you. Ha! What other things would you like to see me try to replicate without the crafty tool?
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
I’ve seen a lot of sketch artists (not sketchy artists, they’re legit talents, ha!) who’ve been using a really weirdly sharpened pencil; at first I thought they were the purists using knives to sharpen….I remember a friend in art school who insisted on that! But then I went to one artist’s profile link where they liisted supplies -and this crazy sharpener was there. And you know me….I had to give it a try. If that many people were using it, maybe they know something I don’t!
Video
As always, I give my tests a real-world spin, and in this case, I decided to color on vellum. I’d been wanting to try it anyhow, so this seemed a good project to test!
Surprisingly, the pencils didn’t instantly break on me! I was using heavy pressure too – just to push the pencils and put the points to the test. I felt comfortable enough after ‘sacrificing’ my first few pencils to go add a few more to the family of long-pointed Polychromos! I’ll have to run more tests with other brands.
I did use a brush with the Gamsol here – with a brush! On the vellum, it moved the color a little TOO easily since it was so wet and the vellum is a bit slick. Here’s the Tiny Tutorial about blending supplies that I talked about. (I post them on Instagram every Thursday if you like that kind of thiing! Find the old ones in the “highlight” (one of the yellow icons) on my instagram page.)
Coloring on vellum is a different beast – be careful not to brush your hand over the color or it’ll definitely move; I’m not sure there’s enough fixative out there to secure it. But – since vellum is semitransparent, you can put the pencil side facing downward! The red flowers then truly POP when colored on the front, too.
For the sentiment, I just stamped it on a square and tied a bow over the top to make it seem like a tag without having to thread it through anything. And the fact that this card has red and green on it – it’ll be a great card to send during my heavy mailing season: thanksgiving and holiday cards sent to all my patrons! I now have *one* done. *gasp* I need to get busy! ha.
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
