Tonight I felt like playing with tiny stamps. Rick has tilled my little garden, and I'm ready to think about planting. Believe it or not, it's still possible to have frost up here, so anything planted needs to be hardy or covered if it gets cold. All of that to say that I chose some Itty Bitty vegetable images to work with, and I colored one of them step-by-step for you. Keep in mind that the three images on this card front are 1" square, and you are seeing them much larger--warts and all! Still, I hope that the process will translate into something that helps on a larger piece as well.
First, I stamped the IB Radishes on white cardstock (I use PaperTrey Stamper's Select White or Neenah Solar White with my Copics, generally) with Black Brilliance ink. I then colored then all over with R83 and YG11 Copic markers. If it were a larger image, I would probably leave some white space. In an image this small though, I simple covered the entire image with my lightest colors.
Next, I used a shade darker in both colors R85 and YG03) and added the first hint of shading--the midtones. I was not especially careful--just wanted to get the color on the cardstock. (Don't worry: It will look better by the end!)
I went in with my darkest shade (in this case, R89 and YG63) to add some shadows. Again, I didn't fiddle with blending at this stage. I just wanted to get my colors on the cardstock. If this were a larger image, I would probably take more time to blend as I went along rather than blocking color in like this, but I know that I'll be able to soften these lines later. It takes some time to know what your markers will do, but after you get used to them, they're amazing. . .
Next I used the lightest colors (NOT the colorless blender yet!) to soften the hard lines and get a more blended look.
Now is the time to pull out that colorless blender! Use it to pull highlights out of the darker colors. Just a touch of the blender will generally fade a color perfectly for a highlight. (If I had used it to blend the darker colors in step 4, it would have faded them.)
I used my Spellbinders Classic Square to cut this image to about 1", then left it on after embossing and used it as a mask to airbrush on some Copic BG11 with my airbrush system. Other than the die, I did no masking; I simply chose a background color that was pale and that would not look bad layered on top of the colors that I had used.
In the other two inchie squares, I used a YR31 marker to airbrush the background. (A blue-green shade on top of carrots would have made the orange looked grayed and dingy.)
Here is a close-up of the finished, airbrushed square mounted on the card front. I added something and wish that I hadn't: do you see it? I went back with a white gel pen and added tiny dotted highlights. But on an image this small, even small dots are a bit much. I probably should have stuck with the highlights that my clear blender gave me--much more natural looking. I really like the crisp edge that I can get using my Spellbinders dies as a mat for my Copic airbrush system--very compatible and fun toys!
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Credits
Stamps: IB Radishes, IB Carrots, and IB Pea (Stamped twice) by Lockhart Stamp Company
Cardstock: Arturo Buttercream notecard, PaperTrey Stamper's Select White, Prism Ferro
Ink: Black Brilliance
Copic Markers: R83, R85, R89, YG11, YG03, YG63, YG95, BG11, YR31, Y17, YR07, YR09, 0
Accessories: PaperTrey Lemon Zest Satin
Tools: Spellbinders Classic Square Dies, Copic Airbrush System, Cuttlebug dots A-2 embossing folder
*For more about inchies, check out Inchie Inklings and Inchie Arts.
