Autumn Harvest Ride

Hi Precious Peeps!

How are you enjoying fall these days?  I feel like I missed a lot of it because I was indoors recovering from pneumonia.  I am all done with that now, thank you Jesus.  And thank you to anyone who prayed for me! 

 I have also missed making cards and blogging though, and it is good to be back!

You may or may not have noticed that I draw a lot of horses (no duh).  I happen to be of the opinion that they are the most beautiful of all the animals God made.  I have always been fascinated with these creatures, and have been drawing them since I was a kid.   My favourite ride at the fair was the real pony ride, but the merry-go-round, aka carousel came in at a close second!   Here is another one of my carousel horses (a digital image I did for Whimsy sold here) to celebrate the fall harvest and Thanksgiving time.  Here in Canada, we already had our Thanksgiving weekend, but I know our neighbours to the south still have that weekend coming up in November.  

I enjoyed playing with shadows and light on the Clydesdale's body to make it resemble the true muscular form of a work horse!  I studied photographs of these beautiful creatures to suggest where the light and shadows would go. 

The blender pen came in handy in this case, to lighten up areas that needed to have that shiny appearance, suggesting areas that reflect a lot of sunlight.  I loooove my blender pen for that purpose!  Makes my job a lot easier!

I have coloured Autumn Harvest Ride with the following Copics (get ready, its a long list, lol!)

Horse's body: 

E07, 08, 09, 19, 49 plus blender pen to highlight

Horse's muzzle: 

E50, R00, R20, W1

Horse's fetters (fluffy white lower legs): E50, W00, 1, 3, 4

Pole, harness and bridle: 

I started off making it blue with B21 and 23, but decided to change it to more of a blue-green by adding Y11 all over it.

Green summer squash: 

G28, 29, 40, Y11

Pumpkin:

YR15, 16, 18, 00, 23, Y35, 38, E37 in the deepest shadows

Red apple: 

R35, 37, 89, blender pen in the highlight

Metallic buckles on the harness: 

Y11, YR21, 23, Y28

Mane:

W00, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10

I added some very thin lines with a Copic liner pen in the mane, plus in the fetters, just to add more of a texture to the hair. 

I used some B0000 around the horse, but also I added some blue, yellow and pink pencil crayon to the background, and blended it with Turpenoid (odorless mineral spirits).  I was careful to use them only after I was finished with the Copics.  Never use Copic markers on top of pencil crayon! The alcohol will melt the wax of the pencil crayon, and it will collect on the tip of your marker, eventually clogging it. 

I also used some Distress inks and sponged them on the background while it was still in the Spellbinder die. 

The sentiment is by Raindrop Echo Designs and it is also a digi, found here at Whimsy Stamps.

Here is the complete card:

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Sundays With Crissy - buttons and bows (the wooden leaf is actually a button!)

Copic Creations - Colourless Blender Technique (used to get the highlights on the horse's muscular structure)

Paper Playtime - Pumpkins or spiders

Basic Grey - Autumn/Harvest Time (the orange bg layer and the distressed green mat layer are both Basic Grey papers)

Daring Card Makers - Autumn Leaves

Creative Belli Blog - Pumpkins and Fall Sketch

Stamp Something - Digi day

No Time To Stamp? - Count Your Blessings  (I am thankful to have my health back and for the harvest of blessings in my life - they are abundant for sure, too many to count!)

Paper Garden Projects - Holiday card.  This one is for Thanksgiving (no duh)

Thank you so much for stopping by for a visit!  I hope you come again.

God Bless!