I'd Follow You Anywhere

Hi and welcome to my blog!  I have another Christmas card to share with you today.  I used my new "I'd Follow You Anywhere" image I illustrated for Whimsy Stamps.  This one is a rubber stamp, deeply etched red rubber of the highest quality.  The sentiment is by Raindrop Echo Designs and is found in this beautiful set called Winter Letter Seals.

I must say that I was really inspired by Annika's card on her blog.  I copied her card a little bit  and I even wrote to ask her what colours she used on the polar bear fur.  And she graciously filled me in!  Thanks Annika, waving!!

I find polar bear fur is always a bit of a challenge to colour.  Polar bears really are a creamy golden off-white and not pure white.  However, if you use Copics and make the whole bear yellow, its going to look really odd! 

White really does show some colour, as it reflects a lot of its' surroundings -  especially in the shaded areas.  It is just difficult to decide exactly what colours to use sometimes!  

 I did something a little different this time.  After I had coloured the fur using Copics, I took out a small round water colour brush and went over the whole body with single strokes of Copic White.  I had a base coat of E50 all over the entire body, and had used some greys and B60, 63 in the really dark areas. So when I made small fur strokes with the Copic White, it really stood out with the darker colours underneath. 

 I love how Copic White is the most opaque white I have.  It is even more opaque than my Acrylic white.  So it really gives great coverage and shows up really well against colours.  That's why it worked so well here. I also added a few white strokes of Copic White on the penguin's tummy and face and also made the snowflakes by just dabbing the tip of my brush all over the background and ground. 

Here is the list of Copic colours used on the image:

Polar Bear fur: E50 all over, then E53, B60, B63, W1, 3, 4, N0, 1, 3

I used those same colours on the ground underneath the characters too, and added B66 and N6 in the darkest shadows under the feet. 

R00, 01 and 12 for the cheek blush

Hats and scarves: R20, 22, 24, RV10, 21, FRV1, G20, 21, 24 and N6 for the deepest shadows on the pink parts of the hats.

Penguin feet and beak: E93, 95, 97, 99

Penguin body: N0, 1, 3, 5, 6

Background above the characters:  R20, G20, B60 - I used a lot of blender in this section.  I wet a small section first with the blender, then just dabbed on a few dots of colour, and blended it out for a subtle look.  I added a wee bit of light purple pencil crayon in places where I didn't get a soft blend.  Then Copic white in spots overtop for the look of snow falling. 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges: 

Incy Wincy Designs:  Non-traditional Colours

Fab 'n Funky: Christmas is for the children

Cupcake Craft Challenges: Non Traditional Christmas

Riley and Co: Metallics

Creative Card Crew: Anything Goes

Artful Inkables: Punches or die cuts

A Spoonful of Sugar: Christmas

And don't forget it isn't too late to enter my challenge at Sundays With Crissy!   We're doing "Christmas or Winter cards" too! I have a couple of digi's to give away to one lucky participant. 

Thanks for looking and I hope your Christmas preparations are going well!  I got the last of my cards out in the mail today.  Just a couple more things to purchase and I'm all set! 

Bye for now!