Ancient Days Wash

Another humorous offering from one of the Ancient Days sets, this one being from the Ancient Days Wash set!  I had a blast colouring up this little scene that I created with three of the stamps from the set - the mammoth, the skunk, and the sentiment.  I kept the scene simple by using only a grey shadow under them so your eyes would focus solely on the characters in the scene. 

I used a different technique to colour the fur on this mammoth that is a lot easier and faster than what I have done in the past.  I used to spend a lot more time colouring in very small, almost individual "hairs" using tiny, light strokes of the marker tip.  This is both time consuming and takes a very steady hand.  I wanted to show that you can get the same effect in making a critter look "furry" without going to the trouble of drawing individual hairs!  So in this example, you can see that instead of tiny lines, I coloured patches of colour, using a pattern of "M's" or "W's".  I started by colouring the entire mammoth with the lightest shade of brown, (E53 or 42 will work well). I filled in the entire image with this light colour.  I then picked a shade or two darker for the next layer and kept in mind where I wanted the highlights.  When I got close to the place I wanted a highlight, I drew the marker in an "M" shape (roughly) just under the edge of the highlight - you can see this especially on the top of the ear and on the top of the mammoth's head.  So I was careful not to colour with this second shade into that area, so that the highlight is "preserved".  There is no blending with this technique, but rather you "save" the area you want lighter by leaving it alone and not colouring into it.  

I then grabbed a third marker that was another step darker than the previous one, and repeated the process, leaving some areas showing that had the second marker (see again the top of the head, right above the eyes, and you can see how I left that second marker un-touched.  I did grab a fourth and possibly a fifth marker, getting successively darker each time, but basically using the same technique with little "M" shaped areas left.  An exception to this was on the trunk where I did get a little bit "hair-y-er", lol, and made little flicks for hair like I used to.  I think it worked out well enough to use both methods, and I would do it again.  This technique is just SO much easier than trying to fill in the whole picture with tiny little strokes for individual hairs!  So I highly recommend giving it a try. 

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Ancient Days Wash Clear Stamp Set

Digital Paper - Snowdrops