Santa by the Fireplace

Hi everyone!
Any Christmas mood out there yet?
I realized that when I´ll post my blog post for December the Christmas will be over so there will just be one Santa from me.

I love stamp images with Santa. And I love when he´s not perfectly drawn, when he´s a bit ugly and not so cute. I buy many stamps second-hand, so I don´t know where this little guy comes from.

I´ve stamped my image on Perfect Coloring Paper with my Memento ink.

I wanted him by the fireplace so I started to sketch in the background used a light grey, C1.

I want an open fire so I have to get it some wood as well.

Started to paint the flames with Y00, a light yellow that will blend in to the white area.

Went in with Y17 - YR07 - R08 on the edges of the flames.

To define the flames a little I used T7.

My first layer for the wood was E35,

Started to draw the bricks in with E07.

 
It doesn´t matter if your not happy with the sketch you made with C1. It´s just a guide for you, and you don´t need to fill in right on top of those bricks, when you are finish with the whole fireplace there will be no C1 left.

The masonry got the color of E42.

Some shadows and shaping for the bricks, R59 - T5.

Defined the wood with E79 - R08 - T7. And darkened the bricks inside the fireplace with W5.

And I also darkened the bricks outside with W5 so I got an angel where the light don´t hit. I tried to get the light just around the fire.

Defined my flames by using more of T7 in the background.

Went in with my first red shade, R07. It has some yellow in it so I don´t need to put in two layers of colors.

Got on to R24, it is still the light area but not the one that the firelight hits.

And here I struggled with my reds. My nibs are clean, but the pigment will not sink into the paper but lays on top of the surface. And then I was wondering about if the area below his belt should be white?!
.

While I was sitting there, I started to color his pants, and forgot to take pictures.
But I started with Y17 on the edges of his legs. On top on that I went in with W3 - W5 - W7.

And I does the same for his boats. So here is Y17.

On the boats I got a new layer of C3.
To darkened the jacket I went in with T5.

My darkest, my shadow, color for the boats is C7.

My mid-tone for the boats is C5.
The same is for the belt Y17 - C3 - C5 - C7.

The first color for the belt buckle is Y21.

And then YT23 - Y26.

The beard got a first layer of W1 and on top of that W3.

Some C3.

The white areas on the jacket sleeves and the hood is: C1 - C3.
The red on the hood is the same as in the jacket.
The skin color is: E000 - BV20 - E50.

Made bricks for the chimney with E07 - E42.
I darkened the top with W3 so there will be a glow from the spruce branches.
The color for the branches is YG61 - YG63 - YG67.

Wall: V91 - V93 - V95
Floor: E70 - E71 - E74

Bow: Y32 - YR23 - Y26 - Y28
Gift: B000

Finished without any Gelly Roll details.

I wanted lights in my spruce branches. Used Gelly Roll Dark White. First I made a large circle and before it had dried, I blurred it by sweeping it of. And in the middle of the blur I put in a dot for the light centre.

And I put  in a line round the opening of the fireplace, to highlight it. But it´s not an even line, it´s broken, the light will not hit the edge even.

I wish I have inspired some of you to color a Santa today. And I wish you all a Merry Christmas as I will be back just before New Year.
Love
Helen