Monday 11 June 2012

Colouring Challenge: non-blended hair


Hi everyone!  Hope you all had a good weekend and that the week ahead has only nice things in store for us. Thanks so much for the lovely comments for my last card, you make my day you really do.

News

It's all change at Make It Colourful. The fortnightly challenges have now ended BUT the colour addicts still love a challenge so we've all moved over to the Make It Crafty store blog and have become Colouring Inspiration design team members. We'll be choosing our own colouring challenges from a list that Zoe has given us, and as we all post on the blog on different days during the month there is something new to see and hopefully be inspired by every couple of days. Look for us in the Colouring Inspiration section.

Also on the store blog, you'll find inspiration for using Make It Crafty projects in the Design Team Inspiration section, and lots of colouring and craft tutorials in the Techniques section. So something new to see every day.


My card

My card today is my first project in my new role, and it is hopefully OK to blog as it should have arrived at it's destination by now (wink!).  I chose Zoe’s challenge of Hair With Fine Detail, i.e. no blending, and I used Copic markers with a little pencil overshading in parts. The hair I did with Copics only.

The digi image I chose to colour is Ginger House Wife and it doesn’t have a lot of fine detail in the hair, so it can be coloured fairly quickly without blending. I used short, light feather strokes with just the very end of the tip of my copic markers to achieve this layered look. The shades I used were: Y17, YR23, YR27, E37, and E19. Y17 is the colour that I wanted my hightlights to be – the parts where the light catches the hair and we see a shine. So I laid down a base layer of this colour first. Then I took the next colour (YR23) and made feathered strokes from the hairline towards the highlight and from the ends/outside of the hair towards the highlight, then with the next darkest shade I went over the same areas but with slightly shorter strokes so that the lighter-coloured layer underneath still showed through. To make sure that the inks didn’t blend I let each layer dry before putting the next colour on, just to be sure that I complied with the challenge!

Ginger was merged with another Make It Crafty image, Home Sweet Home. I think they go well together, don't you?


Tip: Get the stroke right

When making these feather strokes, practice using only the very end of the tip, keeping your stroke light – you are hardly touching the paper at all really. At the end of the stroke, lift the marker upwards so that the marks on the paper taper off to a point. This gives finer strokes with a tapered end so that you can more easily achieve the effect of strands of hair and texuture with strokes that are defined and not smudged together. This is the sort of line you are aiming for:

You can see how the copic marker brush tip makes a much finer tapered point than does the promarker regular tip, I don't have a fine promarker tip to compare (sorry).

If you're going for defined layers, let your ink dry before putting the next colour on - you can see the effect of feathering onto wet and dry inks:

The wet ink on the left causes the strokes to blur into each other, whereas the dry ink on the right makes the strokes much crisper.



Marker Recipe:

Hair: Y17, YR23, YR27, E37, E19
Skin: E00, E01, E11, R20, R22
Dress & Shoes: R32, R35, R37, R39
Stair carpet: YG61, YG63, YG67

I kept the card fairly simple as the coloured image is quite large, so just a couple of sheets of Papermania paper, some gold mirri card and a Prima flower were enough.


I'd like to enter this in these challenges:

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Girls Girls Girls
Crafty Ann's - It's a Girl Thing
Oldie But A Goodie - Anything Goes (my papers are a few years old)
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Stampin Sisters In Christ - option 2) Just an image on your card (no sentiment)
Touch Twin Challenges - Getting Hairy

Thanks for dropping by today and for any comments you'd like to leave. Have a good day and happy crafting!

26 comments:

Hazel said...

Hi Carole

This is just brilliant - her hair is so so shiny - awesome card.

Thank you for dropping by my blog and leaving me some comments - I really appreciate it.

Have a great week.

Toodle pip

Hazel xx

Stamps and Paper said...

Fabulous card and coloured to perfection...thank you for the tutorial on the hair...not easy to do so need to practice!

Anne

Jackie said...

Good morning Carole, what a wonderful card. Your hair colouring is amazing and thank you for the great tutorial on how to do it :o)
Jackie xx

Janice said...

Brilliant colouring Carole & some excellent tips there too - love your card. Thanks for sharing it with us at an OBAG, Jx

Renkata said...

Such a sensational colouring on her hair Carol.
Fantastic scene.

Doreen said...

This is gorgeous Carole,love the image and beautifully coloured.xxx

McCrafty's Cards said...

This is fabulous Carole, her hair looks lush, I like the scene, thanks for the tips.
Kevin xx

chrissy xx said...

WoW! Carole...
Fabulous images..Fabulous colours.
I will be back again lol..to study this tutorial, Fabulous to see how the colours change when you let it dry before adding more.. Will be having a go today!!
Hugs & W.
Chrissyxx

Janette said...

Hello Carole, Have ya missed me...lol...have been awol due to my pc throwing a hissy fit and not playing at all....oh the screams could be heard for miles...lol....anyway, after much faffing and messing by many family members and a couple of strange blokes....I am back...lol...

You have made a perfect job of your card, as always Carole your colouring blows me away, it is soooo fabulous, what a fab image to, do like it...xxxx

Michelle said...

What a great card! Your coloring is amazing! Love the hair on this lady. Thanks for explaining how you did it and what colors you used. Thanks for joining us this week at SSiC.
Blessings,
Michelle

Ann Whitfield said...

Great card Carole, thank you for sharing it with us at Crafty Ann's
Ann x

coldwaters2 said...

This is fantastic Carole, great tips which are always needed, the card and image are beautiful.
Hugs
Lorraine x

Joan Ervin said...

You have colored her hair sooo beautifully, Carole...I have got to try your technique!!! You make it look sooo easy yet when I do it, everything runs together...yikes!!! I think I need a lot of practice!!!!! Hope all is well with you...has all the excitement died down a little this week?? We sure did enjoy watching all the jubilee fun on TV...the whole country was rockin!!! It's our 19th wedding anniverdary tomorrow...I have been trying to convince George that the 19th anniversary is the diamond year but he is having a real hard time believing me...LOL!!!!!Hugs!!!

June Nelson said...

Wow its brilliant darlin love the scene and your colouring is fantastic as always xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jane said...

Fabulous work Carole!
Hugs
Jane

chrissy xx said...

Where's Tilda lol...?? I've been trying all day to see...
Chrissyxx

Heather said...

Hi Corale, a brilliant scene and so brilliantly coloured, love your image. I'm in tears - had internet problems recent locally - now my MIC images have disappeared an empty file??? I just have two printed I not coloured as yet!!!Oh well - no goos crying!!
Take care & hugs
Heather xx

Vicky said...

Fantastic card, I love the images together. Thanks for the info on copics and promarkers. I think I might have to get some copics

hugs Vicky x x x

Joanne said...

WAY TO GO CAROLE!!!! I can't wait to learn lots of coloring tips and techniques from you!!! I told you I wanted personal lessons, well, now I feel like I will be getting them! Lovely card, the image reminds me a bit of the 50's retro, tooooo cute! Great color combo too! Oh girlfriend, did I ever mess up!!!! Thanx so, so much for your sweet comments on my Steampunk card ~ I didn't set my schedule right and it published prematurely!!!! Om My! So I have to remove it. I think I was just too excited about the card and did it accidentally on purpose!!! LMAO! I love that card! Big hugs, and keep up the super coloring! Aloha, J:)

Helen said...

Wow! Your card is beautiful and your coloring is amazing! Thanks for the tips on coloring hair! Thank you for sharing your card with us at Stampin Sisters in Christ! Have a blessed day! ~H

Jen said...

Super card and great tips. Thanks for sharing with us at Crafty Ann's.
Jen x

Franz♥ said...

Wonderful Carole!

Love the way you coloured the hair and thanks so much for the tutorial!

Big hugs, Franz.

Anonymous said...

WOW! So gorgeous and beautifully colored! hugs, Angela

Anonymous said...

WoW tres chic! what a great image and love the colouring. I do not for one minute believe that lady eats any of those cakes with that waistline :o)

Just love it
Huggles Sis Storm xxxx

Janette said...

Gorgeous colouring as always Carole, just fabulous.xx

Pia S said...

I think your card looks fantastic. Awesome coloring!