Birds

Hello! I've been fooling around with my Copic markers lately, colouring in a bunch of stamped images. This image is by Stamps Happen and I coloured using a whole bunch of different markers, too numerous to mention. I will say that the scanner makes it look greener than it does in real life. Also, I discovered that my mother was right (but ssshhhh don't tell her I said that) - if you add the complementary colour on the colour wheel, it will make your main colour look more interesting. Case in point the blue on the birds looked really flat despite me having used at least four or five shades of blue and gray and purple (sorry no before and after shot). Probably more like six or seven. Then I added in some orange (opposite on the colour wheel to blue) and bam! - brought them to life. You don't look at it and say "blue and orange birds??", you just see texture and depth and it no longer looks flat. Who'da thunk??? So the next time your Copics are looking a bit flat at lifeless, add in a bit of an opposite colour and see what happens. It's pretty neat. Mind you, I like my Copics to look more artsy and less comic-book, so if you prefer a purer the 3-colour effect from light-med-dark of neighbour markers, then this might not work for you. Myself I quite like the almost painterly effect. Plus with Copics you can add and add and add for hours, shading all through the final episode of An Idiot Abroad and all of Top Gear. I will confess to having started watching Top Gear, after having ignored it for years. I thought it was all a bunch of know-it-all men spouting off about cars. Well it is, but they also do hilarious stunts and two of the three are quite entertaining to watch, and the stunts they get up to are really fantastic. Almost Red Green-esque in their execution (Canadian ref., sorry). The third requires significant amounts of Copics and colouring to tolerate. Also, it's kind of fun to watch people who are so clearly passionate and knowledgeable about an obscure topic like cars. It kind of reminds me of when we stampers get going around the table discussing more mainstream hobbies, comparing the relative merits of this ink or that and how different heat tools perform in various conditions. Also we've been watching An Idiot Abroad with Karl Pilkington, which is quite good, if you like that sort of thing. Think the Lonely Planet but instead of Ian Wright getting all involved in the local culture, picture more of an Eeyore personality literally choking down some local delicacy or making some ascerbic observation with a wickedly deadpan comic delivery.

And back to the card. It's stamped in Memento black, coloured with about 3000 copics, on Heather's 130 lb cardstock. Edges sponged, matted to soft gold glossy cardstock (with a nod to the incomparable Jo Capper-Sandon, see sidebar for her blog, where you will find marvellous creations, several with gold mats like this), mounted on Crate paper card, stamped with a border stamp (The Stamp Barn). I also put glossy accents on their little eyes for some shine, but decided against stickles, though I may change my mind. I do have the new colour of medium blue that might look great on them. Or it might compete with the mat. I'll decide tomorrow.

And with that, I'm off to bed. Thanks for stopping by!