Stamp Coloring Doodling...

Hey everyone!  Today I have some doodling I'd like to share.  I used the darling stamp entitled "Puppy Girl" from the Pure Innocence line by My Favorite Things, my Letraset alcohol markers, and my fine tip Sharpie markers for this project.

Now, just as a reminder, I am by no means a professional when it comes to coloring stamped images.  I am strictly a student, teaching myself as I go along.  This post is merely to share some doodling I did the other day.  I didn't want to waste my good cardstock, so I decided to try some different techniques I had been mulling over in my head on the backside of my desk pad calendar.

I had this idea to create a shadow behind the image.  I went a little crazy with this shadow--to say it is over-sized is an understatement, but it was fun to exaggerate the shadow in order to hone in on some shadowing detail work.

Besides creating "motion" in the puppy's tail, I also took a little creative license in shading her dress.  I wanted it to be a slightly full skirt with gathers at the waste.  I used several different colors in order get this effect, beginning with pale yellow and ending with dark green.  When I was happy with the result, I used my fine tip Sharpie markers to define each gather at the waste and to define the way the skirt fell at the hem.

Taking particular delight in defining clothing details comes from being a lifelong, self-taught seamstress.  For years I have enjoyed creating and sewing for my daughter and other friends and family.  I have always had fun designing my own gowns.  Again, I am no professional--I have only ever sewn for pleasure (and out of necessity to save money on expensive gowns for various school dances).  Now that my daughter is grown, my clothing design is mostly limited to drawing.  ;o}

In looking at this little girl, I decided that I really liked the way she turned out and wanted to use her on a card.  However, it was easy to see the calendar numbers through the paper, not to mention the fact that the shadow made the image very wide, so I ended up recreating her without the large shadow in order to crop her and use her on a card.  That will be in a future post.

For comparison purposes, I have included some photos of other images I have recently colored.  You can see that I have played around with many of the shading/highlighting in the various places in each image.  And Puppy Girl needs a variety of clothes, don't you agree?!?  I suppose there is no right or wrong way to color--it's all in the way you want it to be, right?

I hope you enjoyed my doodling.  If any of you have any coloring and/or stamping tips or tricks, please let me know.  I am relatively new to all of this and I can use all the help I can get.  :o}

Thanks for stopping by today and I look forward to seeing you again soon!

Merilee