Pansy

Warning this is a long post but only as I am sharing a step by step as to how I made this card.

(click on any of the pictures to enlarge)

I am colouring 'pansy' from Aurora Wings Stamps. It is a digital stamp and can be found here.

When i start to colour an image i dunno why but i always seem to begin with the hair. perhaps so i can find the basic structure of the image especially with the aurora wing images as there is always a lot of detail in them and i don't want to come to the end to discover i have coloured half of the curls green thinking they were part of the plants.

Here i have chosen brown hair and used these three browns (walnut, burnt sienna and bistre) from my polychromos. I always start with the darkest shade first and blend out to the lightest.

Here i have decided to finish with yellow ochre for the highlights in her hair.

Google images is my favourite place to find inspiration for natural flower colours. I chose a pink/fuschia pansy and got colouring as you can see. Sorry i must have skipped an image as i was going along. I basically tried to match my pencil colour to the colours i saw in the photograph of the flower i found. The bottom of the flower had yellow and chrome yellow was the best match so that is what i went with.

Next was the leaves. again trying to match the greens to an original pansy leaf and like the hair i usually start with the darkest area of the leaf and blend into the lightest area. The darkest section of the leaf is the creases/veins. the area obviously which isn't getting the most light.

Next obvious section is the face. I think of my light source and where the shadows of ones face will be cast. If you have trouble find some images on google or look in the mirror :)

I start with the cheeks with the colour medium flesh. I colour like i am adding blush make up :)

next i try and define the rest of the face like the nose and upper lip.

Usually at this stage my next go to pencil colour is cinnamon 

Once i am happy with the features i start the shading. Burnt ochre is next. Its a yellowy colour but darkens the feature lines.

Next i start to fill the area with light flesh. this is a very light pink so not the last colour to blend just yet. I usually finish the lightest areas with the second pencil from the whole set, Ivory.

I usually go over and over the shading until I'm happy. I even went  around the edges and cast shadows with indian red.

Her eyes i decided on green to compliment the finished garden look i wanted. I find colouring the top part of the eye in a dark green and then shade just under that with a lighter green works well to give a natural looking eye. A black line directly under along the top eyelid gives the sense of depth to her eye. Don't forget a nice shade of eyeshadow.

 Then last of all i coloured her eyebrows with Van-Dyck brown and a touch of walnut to darken them. 

To finish and smooth the majority of the colouring i went over the skin flowers and leaves with a pencil stump.

Next the background. I bring in my inktense pencils for this. I love these pencils from derwent.

I wanted a garden feel so i mixed a wash of green in a plastic palette  and applied liberally here and there making sure i shaded around the edge of the image.

Looks pretty good if i may say so myself :)

I spray my colourings with fixative just to avoid any accidental smudges and to seal it.

The bubbles in the image needed to pop a bit so i covered them all in glossy accents to give them the glossy 3D look they needed.

Now ages ago i found a sizzix pansy/violet flower die set and thought, hell, i need that, lol. 

It was perfect for this so i got to work cutting out little violet petals and leaves. i rolled, twisted, bent....whatever it is you call making paper flowers and stuck all the bits together to make the embellishments for the card.

All the cardstock i used is from kaisercraft. The green colour is fern and grape and wine are the purple shades.

The sentiment i printed on the image with the computer.

oh almost forgot i used a white gel pen to draw a thin white stripe across each of her eyes for the light reflection. I also used a silver polychromo pencil to shade her earrings.

I will be entering this card into the following challenges

Aurora wings challenge #13 Anything goes

Crafting from the heart #54 Anything goes

Lil Patch of crafty friends #7 anything goes

wish me luck :)

and don't forget you can follow me on Instagram @ericabruton

Erica xx