Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Coloring Corner: Poppy Stamp

by Sharon Jeffs

I stamped my image onto white cardstock and rather than worrying about which ink pad to use – since I was using a combination of water based ink and alcohol ink, I immediately embossed the entire image with a clear embossing powder.  This sealed in all the inked edges ready for me to color with whatever I chose to use.

To begin, I masked off my poppies.  Some prefer to use paper masks after stamping onto scrap paper then cutting it out to adhere down BUT I tend to be a bit lazy in that department and opted to use a latex art medium that does the same thing but is painted on with a paint brush then peeled off later.

I then began to color the bottom edge of the Background using a foam blending pad and the ‘Peeled paint’ Distress inkpad.  I concentrated all the color in the bottom left corner since that was where the foliage was the heaviest.



Next, I change my blending pad and applied a blended layer of  ‘Spiced Marmalade’ Distress inkpad through the centre of the image, ensuring to blend it down so their were no messy blend lines between the two colors.



Finally, I blended ‘Stormy Sky’ Distress inkpad along the top, again blending it down and into the ‘Spice Marmalade’ to ensure the color changed smoothly.  After this I then removed my mask so I could begin coloring my poppies.



I colored my poppies in with Copic markers the complete opposite of the Distress ink that I just used for the background).  I began at the very centre and using small flicking motions, colored in the dark centre parts of the poppy using R27 ‘Cadmium Red’.

Next, I went over this and extended out with the same flicking motion with R22 ‘Light Prawn’.  To finish off, I then went over the centre part one more time with the R27 to darken the very centre parts.

As a final finishing off, I used a small amount of ‘Brushed Pewter’ Distress Stickles in the centre of the two main poppies.  Real poppies tend to have a very dark granular appearance and I wanted to reproduce this.

3 comments:

  1. Holly M10:18 PM

    Truly beautiful. Please tell me more about the latex art medium that you used for masking. I have always used the sticky paper technique for masking, but it can get tiresome. I'd like to try the one you used. Thank you.

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  2. Anonymous3:03 AM

    I adore this product, especially since the lazy side of me gets to do less work! The brand I use is called Maimeri Artist Mask Latex and it comes as a tinted green paint like substance that you paint over the area you want to mask, then once dry work as you would over the top. Once you've done all you needed to do, it peels off just like a thin sheaf of rubber.i tend to just loosen a small corner then roll my fingers over the corner and it rolls off the image.
    I was originally introduced to it in a fine arts workshop where I was learning How to do watercolor paintings. It's used a lot for this type of work but is also perfect for masking out stamping areas so long as you wait for the stamping ink to dry first. I bought mine in an arts shop but after doing a quick google search, I also found it listed on the Dick Blick website.
    Hope this helps!
    Sharon

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  3. Gorgeous!!! Thanks for the masking tip!!!

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