Sunday, January 19, 2014

Color Me Creative - Challenge #85 - Use Texture!

The newest challenge at Color Me Creative put me to the test and really stretched my skills.  Paper Temptress is sponsoring our use texture challenge.  I honestly don't think of using texture when I color with my Copics.  Luckily, I had time available to "play around".  When I'm unsure about how to do something with my Copics, I turn to You Tube and watch a video.  That helped in this case too.

Using Birdie Brown's Winter Bear image, I figured I could work on creating fur and give the sweater texture too.  The image is a simple line drawing. You can see an older colored version on the artist's blog.

The thing I love the best about my work on the fur is the snout.  There isn't one drawn on the face, it's created using texture.  My original vision was to make a polar bear, but this guy has a whole lot more gray than any polar bear I've seen!  Oops!

The other texture I worked on was using a scrap from an old cotton sweater to give the bear's sweater a look like it had been knit.  The technique is pretty simple.  After coloring the image, wetting the scrap of sweater fabric with Copic Colorless Blender Solution and patting it on the image should give it the look of a knitted sweater.  My trouble came when I couldn't find my bottle of Colorless Blender Solution.  I resorted to trying to saturate the scrap by coloring it with my colorless blender marker.  It didn't saturate the fabric enough, but if you look carefully you can see texture on the sweater.  I then had the idea of coloring on the sweater scrap with one of my Copics and then tapping it on the image.  You can you see how that idea turned out on the bear's hat.  If I was feeling ambitious, I would have started over - but the whole image was already colored - and I was d-o-n-e!

The purpose behind telling you this story is because I hope it will encourage you to take a risk and try something new. The whole thing doesn't have to be perfect, but like me and my little bear, I learned some new things along the way and had moments of great satisfaction!

I am super-excited to visit the blogs of folks playing along with our texture challenge at Color Me Creative.  I know that I will be inspired by your work.

Challenges Entered:
Clear it Out - Layer it up/patterned paper stash
Creative Inspiration - Anything goes
Crafting By Designs - anything goes
Southern Girls Challenge - something new (new technique)
Digitally Sweet - anything goes
Digi Haven - Baby It's Cold Outside!
613 Avenue Create #55 - anything goes with an optional twist of winter blues
Make It Monday - anything goes

16 comments:

  1. GOrgeous! LOve your cute image Cathy and his jumper and hat look FABulous..Lots of great texture going on here..Never tried this ..but, will certainly give it a go now..Great design too.
    Chrissyxx

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  2. Cute card! I love the colors and the layering. Such a fun card! Thanks for sharing with us at Digi Haven!

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  3. This is so sweet, and your coloring is truly amazing!!! I've played some with texturing with Copics, but nowhere near to this level. Thank you for the tips -- I can't wait to try this. I look forward to seeing more of your sweet creations at Make It Monday! :-)

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  4. Adorable! Thanks for joining us at the Clear it out challenge blog

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  5. This bear looks sooo funny... it's perfectly coloured :-)
    Hugs,
    Alex

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  6. Adorably made card and image...Thank you for joining us at Digitally Sweet! luv aNNie {DT}

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  7. Fabulous card Cathy..love the Bear and colouring..so cute.
    Thanks for sharing with us at Make it Monday..

    Luv CHRISSYxx

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  8. This is a wonderful creation! Thanks for playing at Creative Inspirations this week! xxx

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  9. Wow you've coloured the image beautifully, well done. Thanks for sharing this with us at Southern Girls Challenge. Brenda

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  10. You colored the bear so well. Looks great!t caught my eye on MIM. Thanks, for sharing!

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  11. Thanks so much for taking the time to share your project in the Anything Goes Challenge [with optional "Winter Blues" theme]. Love how you managed making his snout - well done! I have a hint for you on the sweater... if you don't have colorless blender, you can use hand sanitizing solution! The alcohol content is enough to achieve the look you want. I also use that to clean excess ink off my pens and from the inside of pen lids. BTW, your coloring of the sweater even with out a lot of texture is beautifully done.
    ~ginny, DT for 613 Ave Create
    RubberMAD

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    1. Thanks for the tip, Ginny! I'll have to give it a try.

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  12. This is one cute fun card Cathy. I think you coloured the bear sweater beautifully. I spotted your card on the MIM blog and popped over to say hi and to get a better look. I am so glad I did as I also spotted Ginny's tip and am going to give the hand sanitizer a try. I am hoping it will work with promarkers too.

    Shirley

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  13. Super, super sweet. You did a fantastic job on the coloring! Thanks for joining us in our month long challenge at Crafting By Designs. Hugs, Sharon/DT

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  14. Adorable!! I love that image.. Love your coloring!! This is just wonderful!!! Saw you on MIM!

    - Susan
    {Scrap A Thousand Words}
    {Open-Minded Crafting Fun Challenges}

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  15. I love your colouring, thank you for the tips. Your bear is so cute, saw your card on MIM!

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Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate each and every one of them. Cathy