The Monday Technique Lover’s Challenge on Splitcoaststampers was to split the image in some way for our project. I decided to create a forest of trees with the Lovely as a Tree evergreen and split the scene into three panels. This is a simple card and perfect for a guy. A sentiment can be added for whatever the occasion calls for.
I always enjoy creating lifelike trees for my projects. I thought I would share a simple tutorial on how I add color to the tree image to bring it to life.
1. I start by stamping the tree image with dark green ink and heat dry. I want to set the ink so it won’t run when I brush on the color to fill in the tree.
2. To add green color I use a fairly large dry brush that I swipe directly over the ink pad to pick up the ink and start applying it to the image in a stipple type motion. This dry brush technique allows the color to be applied without making the water based ink run and blur the lines of the image. It takes repeated swipes of the brush across the ink pad to totally fill in the tree but is well worth the effort. Once the image is totally colored I heat set to totally dry before moving on to apply the brown ink.
3. To add the brown color to the trunk and limbs I use a much smaller brush. I still use the same dry brush swiped across the ink pad technique to apply the brown. Lots of the tree trunk is simply a brown shadow in the branches while other areas are more defined. To add the final darker lines I lightly dip a fine brush directly into brown reinker and lightly paint in the finer lines. I’ve included a closer view.
4. I finish by heat setting the brown ink before moving on to finish my project. The final step is to light sponge on a light color such as blue or yellow to lightly soften and highlight the image.
I hope you try this technique. It works great with many kinds of images. If you like more definition to your image feel free to use black ink and apply your color in the same way. It is still much softer than watercoloring or using markers.
Have a great day!
Such a beautiful design Kittie! I love the glowing effect from behind the trees that you achieved with the sponging. The dark brown grosgrain ribbon is striking against the green trees . . . totally gorgeous!
Beautiful!
wow, this is so beautiful, thanks for the tutorial on how to paint this, I’m definetly going to try it.
Gorgeous!!! Thanks for the instructions too- love this!
Always have loved what you did with this tree. Thanks for sharing how you get the beautiful effect.
it really makes them look real, great idea to use this for the panels!
Kittie, your postings are always so inspiring – and beautiful. I know it is more work for you, but I LOVE it when you include tutorials. You have taught me so much. Thank you!
Oh, I’ve always loved your scenes and especially the trees. They are always gorgeous!