Hi friends! Before I get started, I wanted to let you know Colorado Craft Company is having a Black Friday to Cyber Monday 15% off sale! Use Code BF2CMAC at checkout. This code is good through November 30th, 2020 at Midnight MST.

A few weeks ago, I got my hands on Colorado Craft Company’s Slimline Gnome. It was love at first sight. I was so intrigued with his facial features… and his hat! His hat has so much detail! As much as I wanted to just dive in and start coloring, I made myself wait, and really thought about what I wanted to do. It came to me a few days ago, and I sat down for a fun coloring session. I want to share I a few tips with you on how I colored him.

You see what I mean about his hat? I love it! First thing I did was stamp him with MFT Milk Chocolate Hybrid Ink onto X-Press It Blending Card. I’ve mentioned this paper before. It has a silky smooth texture, perfect for color-blending. It handles alcohol ink so well. There’s no bleeding outside of lines, unless you really over-saturate your paper. I HIGHLY recommend picking some up if you see it. Milk Chocolate ink is my go-to ink for Copic-coloring. I love how brown really softens the lines. I think it gives almost an antique look.

I started by coloring the lightest areas first: skin, beard, and snow. The beard and snow I used warm grays, starting with W5, and working down to W00. For the face, I added shadows first. My favorite marker to do this is with E04. This is actually my favorite Copic marker in my stash. It’s so versatile! I use this marker during every coloring session. I started around his face, following his hairline, getting the creases around his nose and under his cheeks. I used E13 and E11 to blend to colors out to almost the middle of his face, and used E21 to finish the face. The cheeks are R22 and R20. I did the same with the hands, Starting with E04 for the shadows, and blended with the other colors.

Moving on to the clothes, I used B91, B93, B95, B97 for the shirt, and E29, E37, E35, E33 for the pants and belt. This stamp gives you marks for you to know where to add/color creases. This is where I put my darkest colors. I love when stamps do this, because it helps me learn how to read light. We see shadows everyday, but it can be so hard to sit down and add them to our creations. This takes the guessing out, and prepares you for future projects. I pulled some of the creases out farther than the lines drawn for a more dramatic look.

For the hat, I use R59, R29, R35, R32. I started with the sides, working from darkest to lightest. I followed the crease lines, and made a few small ones myself. Once I finished my coloring, I pulled out my favorite colored pencil to finish my coloring.

I use Faber Castell Dark Indigo colored pencil to really darken the creases. The dark blue was used everywhere. I feathered underneath his cheeks. I colored in the deepest parts of the creases. I intensified the shadows on the hat. This pencil works with all colors. It’s just as valuable to me as Copic E04. And of course, a SHARP tip is the key! I keep my pencil sharpened at all times. I also hold my pencil near the top, and color at an angle. I color in small circles, with a soft hand. This really helps with tip breakage. When I need fine lines, then I hold the pencil closer to the bottom.

To make the background, I masked the gnome, and used a blender brush to ink-blend MFT After Midnight and Blue Breeze dye inks. Because this paper is so smooth, it blended easily. I removed the mask, and used MFT stitched slimline die to die-cut the panel.

I didn’t forget about the inside of the card. I stamped a sentiment from the stamp set, and another gnome, this time using black ink.

I hope I have helped with tips on coloring shadows. Colorado Craft Company’s Big And Bold stamps are perfect to practices shadows.The images are large, and gives you tons of room to practice with light. Click HERE to see another blog I did featuring Big & Bold stamps, this time with watercolors.

That’s all that I have for today. Thanks so much for stopping by!