Crowntail Betta Fish

Hi Everyone, it's Saskia here.

A Crowntail Betta fish is maybe one of the most beautiful in the world.

Betta fish originated in the warm waters of Thailand, formerly known as Siam.

Crowntail Betta fish (Betta splendens), also called Siamese Fighting Fish, are a very popular breed with fish tank owners. Deriving the name from their unique tail fin characteristics, male Crowntail Bettas create a dramatic first impression with their vivid colors and flashy fin extensions.

Today I want to show you how you can draw an easy ocean background.

 

Step 1: First, you colour a fairly thick line with BG10.
Step 2: With BG11 you draw thin flicks to about two-thirds of the line you put with BG10. (You do not have to blend it yet. That will come in a later stage)

 Step 3:  BG34 you draw little swipes, about one third of the bottom of the line.

After this step you start to blend.

First start with BG34, after that you start to blend with the other colours.

Step 4: First, you colour a fairly thick line with BG0000.  

 Step 5: With BG000 you draw thin flicks to about two-thirds of the line you put with BG0000. (You do not have to blend it yet. That will come in a later stage)

  Step 6:  BG01 you draw little swipes, about one third of the bottom of the line.

After this step you start to blend.

First start with BG01, after that you start to blend with the other colours

Repeat all steps until you have done the whole background.

 With these photos I want to show you how I coloured the head and body of the Crowntail Fish.

First of all, I start with a base and then I continue colouring. Everything goes on feeling.

I'm not trying to think but just go with the flow.

  

The image is a digital stamp "Betta Fish Crowntail"  from Fabrika Fantasy.

I used the following Copic Markers to colour this print.

Crowntail Fish: Y35-38 and YR04-07-09

Background: BG0000 - 000 - 01 and BG10 - 11 - 34

Copic Opaque White for the dots

On the bubbles: Mod Podge Dimensional Magic.

I hope you have read this post with pleasure.

Until next time!

Making a Background with Various Ink

Hi Friends, Cicci Here :0) 

Today I'm going to show you how can do an easy background.

You don't need much, just some Various Ink and some paper towels.

I have used an image from a great artist; Alessia Innocenti, it's called New Beauti in the Moonlight

Here's what you need:

Copic Various Ink

Some paper towels

White Posca Pen

I have used 2 Copic Multiliner but you don't have so use that if you don't have them

Multiliner BS Yellow and BS Wine

Here's the Ink I have used for the background:
E00, RV00

FYR1, Y26, Y28

E44, a little E29, E81, E04

R14, R89

YR20, E93, YR20

YG11

B00, B000, B02

E93, YR31

Copic Combo for the Image
Skin: E50 04 13 15 51 53 R20
Dress: Y00 02 YR24 YR21 E29 E15 Y26 28R YR31
Flower: E93 R20 Y00 R12 E000 00
Wings: E15 47 49 E04 E70 71  RV00 R20  Y21

Create the background like this:

Drop the Various Ink on the paper towel and pull the towel on the paper that you work on.
It's better to start with the lighter colours. And it's better to take a little of each colour, you can always add more ink later. Remember, it's harder to remove the ink!

I start with some E00 on a paper towel and just pull the towel with the ink on the paper you work on.

As E00 is light, you hardly can see it, but for this colour scheme and image I think it's a good colour to start with. I added this colour around the image and little further down on the right and left sides.

I'm going to add several more colours now in the same way as before. I have listed the colours above, so I don't take a photo at each step. You use the same tehcnique all the time.

If you want to try this you can use any colours you like :0))

E00, RV00, E93

YR31, Y08, Y26, Y28,  E81, E04

R14, R89, B00, B000, B02, YG11, FYR1

You can't see YG11 here but I have used it on the edges

I have used a white Posca Pen to make lots of dots. Add dots with your pen and then use your finger to make some nice structure. I also added some strokes with the Posca Pen, the Multiliner
and Varous Inks; B000, B00, B02.

Now I think the Background is ready!
Have fun with your Various Ink...

HUGS and Lots of Love!!

Have a great day Everyone¨

See you in September

:0))

Cicci With the Pen

various ink on a gelli-plate

Hi Everyone, it's Miranda here.

Did you know that you can use your Various Ink on a Gelli-plate? This technique is really easy and fun.

What do you need?
An alcohol based hand sanitiser
A Gelli-plate
Several colours of Various Ink
A Brayer
Derwent Inktense blocks and a small grater




Put a thick layer of the hand sanitiser on your Gelli-plate.



Take three different colours of Various Ink and add a few drops to the hand sanitiser. To blend the colours a litttle more you can move the Gelli-plate a tiny bit around.

Use the grater and a colour of the Derwent Inktense blocks and make some crumbs on the Various Ink. Put a sheet of paper on the gelli-plate and make a print.



 And this is the print you'll get. I really love this grungy background technique and adding some Inktense crumbs really adds some extra depth.

The next  two photographs show you some of the backgrounds I created using this technique.




I decided to use two of the backgrounds in my art journal to create some pages.
I coloured some fabulous images by Vera Lane Studios. In the next photographs I will show you in detail how I have coloured one of the images. The other images are coloured in the same way.

For the skin add a thin layer of E50.

Next use the BV00 for shading.

Add a layer of E00. This will make the cool shadow look a bit warmer.

Then blend all the previous layers together with the E0000.

I might decide later to add some more W1 and BV00 to make the shadows darker, but I normally will do this after I coloured the rest, becaue otherwise you might make them too dark.

Use B04 for the dress. 

For the darker parts add some B09 and B39. Blend all colours together with the B04. 

Use the same colours for the eyes. 

The hair was quite a challenge. It was just one big area. So I started by adding a thin layer of Y13.

Next layer is Y19, a little bit darker. 

Add some YR24  and W1 for more depth. 

For the blood and the scar I used R14, R59 and B39.

And this is the finished page using the Various Ink Gelli-plate background and the Vera Lane images (Alice in Wonderland). 

And this is another page I have created in the same way as the Alice in Wonderland page.

I hope you have enjoyed my post and that is has inspired you to get crafty.

Have a great day.

Miranda x

Mermaid Love

Hello everyone! It's Delphine here today! I hope you like mermaids as much as I do because my card today is about mermaid love! The image I chose is called Mermaid Sparkles by Make it Crafty. 

As always, I coloured the skin first, using E000, 00, 04, 11. I considered the light source was coming from the top left corner of my image.

For the fin, I used an aqua/purple combination - I just love these colours! The aqua colour was done using BG09, 11, 13, 45, 49 and a bit of C7 to add more depth. The purple is my all time favourite combo of V09, 15, 17.

Then I moved to the last part of the image, colouring the leaves in BG72, 75, 78 and a bit of C7 again, the star in Y11 and Y26, and the hair in 100 black, C7, 9 and BV04 for the highlights. I then fussy cut my mermaid. 

Because the mermaid is sitting, I wanted to add something for her to sit on, so I picked a Make it Crafty Scribble Circle Chipboard Frame. I wanted silver and gold for the frame to go well with the blue and used my BV20 Copic to colour it - a grey colour with a bit of violet as in the image. I then used Faber Castell Texture pens to colour the golden stars and the pearl circles. I also covered the whole frame in Star Dust Stickles to have a lot of sparkle - sorry, the photo doesn't show well.

I glued the frame to a piece of Bo Bunny DP, put my mermaid on foam squares to sit on the frame, added a Make it Crafty Heart Chipboard coloured in R37 and did a few "pearl" dots with my texture pen. Here is a close up on the image and summary of all the colours used:

Skin: E000, 00, 04, 11, R20

Hair: 100, BV04, C7, 9

Fin: BG09, 11, 13, 45, 49, C7, V09, 15, 17

Leaves and star: BG72, 75, 78, C7, Y11, 26

That's all from me today! Thank you very much for your visit, have a fab day! Hugs,

Delphine xx

I'm always here for you!

Hello everyone it’s Sandra from Portugal.

What do you think of these two lovely mischievous pandas? Kind of remind me my younger boys: they always get along great when they have an opportunity to misbehave.

The image is a digistamp from The Paper Shelter, called “Team Work”.

I had to colour it and ended up turning it into a friendship card.

I started by outlining the die cut shape I would be using in the end, setting some boundary to the image so I could know where exactly to colour the sky and ground.

I then designed the ground with YG01 (layer for grass) and E43 (layer for soil). 

I used very fine flicks on an upward motion, from earth to sky, from lighter to darker greens allowing some drying time in between to avoid blending: YG03/25/17/67. I finished the grass flicking again all over again with YG03. 

To colour the soil I dotted E81/84/87 and then E44/47 and some E43 all over it to smooth it all a little bit. To colour the sky I layered B0000 three times.

For the bamboo sticks, I picked YG67/25 and 93 (to dull it in the end), with YG91/93 in the junctions. You can see the upper right bamboo piece with just YG67/25, it's so much brighter than the other ones:

And compare it with how it looked like after I toned it down with YG93:

I coloured the leaves  with YG67/25/23 and some YG95 at the leaves tip.

To colour the pandas “white”, I chose W00/0.

I coloured their "black" with N3/5/7/9. I then used R20/21 for the tongue and R20, E93/95 to finish their paws. But I guess YR61 would work great for the paws too, I just figured it out after I did the colouring.

 And finally the tree, with no leaves, was “asking “for a dull brown, so I chose E43/44/47/49.

I die cut the finished work:

And then assembled it onto a kraft card:

Here is a full list of all the markers I used:

Grass: YG01/YG03/25/17/67

Soil: E43/E44/47/81/84/87

Sky: B0000

Bamboo sticks: YG67/25 /91/93

Bamboo leaves: YG67/25/23/95

Pandas: W00/0,  N3/5/7/9 and R20/21 E93/95

Tree: E43/44/47/49

I hope you like it!

Have a great summer!

Hugs,

Sandra