Two posts in one day--better call the newspapers! I was working on this little Lockhart basket last night and ran out of time to finish. So I finished up today and wanted to go ahead and share it. I stamped the basket image on SU's Very Vanilla card stock with Palette Noir Ink and let it air dry for a few hours. (I admit it: I got busy with something else and forgot about it! You do need to let Palette Noir dry for quite a while on either Whisper White or Very Vanilla, or you need to heat set it on these particular card stocks. Otherwise the ink will smear when you apply the markers.)
I began by using my Copic airbrush system to slightly tint the background a soft saffron color, YR31. Next I added a touch of shadow at the base of the basket with a cool gray, C1. To color the basket I used a base of E-31, a light tan, with touches of E27, a darker brown. For the leaves I used a base of YG03 and selectively deepened the color in certain leafy areas with G95 and G99. For the apples, I used R29 and a shadow of R-59. One of the really neat things that I have discovered that I can do with these markers is to actually remove color with the colorless blender. So if after all of your blending you realize that you have lost your highlights, you can take the colorless blender and lift some color out to restore highlights--pretty neat, huh?
For the knobbly little winter squash I used a Y19, Y17, and a touch or YR09. For the pumpkins I used Y17 as a base, followed by YR09 over most of the pumpkin. I wasn't sure if the crook-necked vegetables were Summer squash or gourds, so I opted to color them as gourds because I had enough yellow fruits in the basket already (YG03, YG05, G99). Finally, I decided to make the small fruits plums because the purple would be a nice color counterpoint to all of the warm colors in the basket. For the plums I used V01 and V09.
I was very happy with the picture at that point, but I made one more decision that I'm still debating: I decided to make the image a cracked glass image. I mashed the finished piece into Versamark and sprinkled with clear UTEE (two coats); then I placed this in the freezer for a couple of minutes, pulled it out, and cracked it right away. What do you think? I like the cracked glass look, but I lost some of the sharpness of the coloring. I assume that the Versamark reacted slightly with the markers. Still, I think I'm pleased. . .
I matted the fruit basket with one of my Spellbinders cutting, embossing, and stenciling oval nestabilities dies, and finished with a background of Basic Grey Fruitcake paper and a length of the new SU ivory taffeta ribbon--love that stuff! The gold brads are from Cindy Lyles e-Bay store; they are a bit larger and much shinier than regular gold mini brads.
Thanks for visiting, and have a lovely day!
