Spectrum Illustrator Review, First Colouring PLUS Skin Blend

I was very excited to play with the new Spectrum Illustrator pens – in my colouring journey I had reached the stage of beginning to replace the chisel nibs with brush nibs.  So far I’ve picked up all 6 pen sets and the Figure and Landscape 12 pen sets from the launch.  Spectrum Noir has currently released 96 pens (including some new colours) with the launch but is planning on releasing 216 in total.  That’s 18 pen trays for the storage conscious among you.

So what do I think? 

• New colours – I do like the new colours in the AB, VB and AP sets,  There are also dark oranges (BO) which we needed, a new red brown (RB) and medium browns (MB).  Spectrum Noir say that they are filling in the gaps that were identified on the current palate.
• Matching existing colours – one of the first things I discovered was that the new colours DO NOT line up with the corresponding pen on the original Noirs.  That means that most of your old colour combinations will not work!  This is easily noticeable with the flesh tones (FS).  Some of the pale colours are now dark colours, but there is a clear split of pink-undertone colours (FS1 – FS5) and yellow-undertone colours (FS6 – FS9).  In my opinion, you can think outside the box a little more with skin tones.  The colouring below uses a blend I have created and in my humble opinion the result is a much more realistic blend!
• Brush nibs – serious colourists need these.
• Fine bullet nibs – I thought that with a brush nib I wouldn’t need the fine bullet but actually it comes in VERY handy and I was surprised how much I needed the fine tip in the colouring below.
• Names and numbers – the pens have BOTH a numbering system (i.e. YG2) and a colour name (Olive Green) – but either way, the gloves are now off and everyone is encouraged to create blends from all over the colour chart and break all the rules.
• Pen design – the construction is much better solving the main issues of the predecessors.  The end of the pen does not come off when you pull the lid off, the printing of the colours on the lids seems to be more stable and less likely to wear off and the shape of the pen is far more comfortable for different hand sizes (I have small hands so I can rotate the pen and hold it on the narrow alignment)

So all in all I highly recommend these pens.  I am going to retire my Spectrum Noirs as I replace them and give them to my daughter who is also skilling-up in colouring!  You should buy these pens if you are serious about colouring in stamped images.  Skip the original spectrum noirs if you are new to colouring but see yourself investing the time to get good.  Otherwise if you get the noirs and then get good – you will end up buying the illustrator pens anyway.

Digi by Ching-Chou Kuik https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/gjzcck

• Skin: TN7 + MB1 + GB2 + FS7 + FS8
• Hair: TN8 + GB2 + LY1 + FS9
• Eyes: BG6 + BGR3 + IB1 + Blender
• Dress: BT9 + VB2 + VB1 + IB1 + IG6 + IG2
• Cat: BGR3 + BGR1 + IG6 + IG2
• Toadstools: IG6 + CR11 + CR5 + CR2 + GY11 + GG1 + GG2
• Leaves: DG4 + DG2 + LG3
• Trees: YG3 + YG2 + YG1 + CG3 + EB7 + EB2
• Path: GB9 + GB7 + GB4 + GB2
• Sky: TB1 (old) + Blender + IG6 + IG2
• Grass: DG4 + DG3 + DG2 + LG3 + LG1

Pebeo Mixed Media Canvas Set “LUCY” 4 of 4

Inspired by the recent Sheena Douglass shows on Hochanda I decided to give some of my daughters old wall art a revamp as I had everything in my stash.  The canvases were originally Disney princess pictures from the pound shop but I covered them up with black gesso.  All mediums used are by Pebeo plus a few bits and bobs from my crafty stash.  Here is a video on how I made the fourth and final canvas “Y”.  This has an under the water theme and I love the shells, sand and Punchinello.  This one was my personal favourite.

Scroll past the video for photos and a list of materials used…

Ingredients

• Pebeo Black Gesso
• Pebeo Modelling Paste
• Punchinello
• Shells (from a hobby store) and play sand
• Pebeo Mixtion Relief
• Pebeo Foiling Sheet in Green
• Pebeo Fantasy Prisme paints (in a green and a blue)
• Pebeo Dyna paints (2 of the blue/green colours)
• Glue
• Transparent Mixtion Relief (Pebeo makes one but I’m not sure what brand this one was)

Here is the finished set!  I love how they each have been made using the exact same techniques but each one has a completely different theme to it.

Part 1 “L” / Part 2 “U” / Part 3 “C / Part 4 “Y”

Pebeo Mixed Media Canvas Set “LUCY” 3 of 4

Inspired by the recent Sheena Douglass shows on Hochanda I decided to give some of my daughters old wall art a revamp as I had everything in my stash.  The canvases were originally Disney princess pictures from the pound shop but I covered them up with black gesso.  All mediums used are by Pebeo plus a few bits and bobs from my crafty stash.  Here is a video on how I made the third canvas “C”.  This one is covered in cogs and is actually Lucy’s favourite one in the set.

Scroll past the video for photos and a list of materials used…

Ingredients

• Pebeo Black Gesso
• Pebeo Modelling Paste
• Pebeo Mixtion Relief
• Pebeo Green Foil Sheet
• Pebeo DYNA paints
• Pebeo Fantasy Prisme Paints
• Sand paste made by mixing play sand in with the modelling paste
• Pebeo gilding wax in Empire Gold
• Cogs die cut from chip board
• Micro beads

Here is the finished set all together.  For “L” click here, for “U” click here.

Pebeo Mixed Media Canvas Set “LUCY” 2 of 4

Inspired by the recent Sheena Douglass shows on Hochanda I decided to give some of my daughters old wall art a revamp as I had everything in my stash.  The canvases were originally Disney princess pictures from the pound shop but I covered them up with black gesso.  All mediums used are by Pebeo plus a few bits and bobs from my crafty stash.  Here is a video on how I made the second canvas “U”.

Scroll past the video for photos and a list of materials used…

Ingredients

• Pebeo Black Gesso
• Pebeo Modelling Paste
• Paper flower embellishments (the ones without centres are Prima)
• Micro beads
• Pebeo Mixtion Relief
• Pebeo Gold Foil
• Pebeo Fantasy Prisme Paints in 2 colours
• Pebeo DYNA paints in 2 colours
• Pebeo vitrail glitter medium

Here is the set of canvases all together.  You can catch up on Part 1 here.

Pebeo Mixed Media Canvas Set “LUCY” 1 of 4

Inspired by the recent Sheena Douglass shows on Hochanda I decided to give some of my daughters old wall art a revamp as I had everything in my stash.  The canvases were originally Disney princess pictures from the pound shop but I covered them up with black gesso.  All mediums used are by Pebeo plus a few bits and bobs from my crafty stash.  Here is a video on how I made the first canvas “L”.  The buttons are a vey nice touch and the modelling paste really does hold them firmly in place.

Scroll past the video for photos and a list of materials used…

Ingredients

• Pebeo Black Gesso
• Pebeo Modelling Paste
• Random mixed buttons
• Pebeo Mixtion Relief
• Pebeo Gold Foil
• Pebeo Fantasy Prisme Paints in 2 colours
• Pebeo DYNA paints in 2 colours
• Pebeo vitrail glitter medium

Check back for the details on the other canvases.

5 Background Techniques with… Pebeo DYNA Paints Volume 1

What are dyna paints and why their own set of techniques in addition to regular acrylic paints?  Good question!  Pebeo’s dyna paints are part of the high viscosity acrylic paints that they do but are extra special – each one is made of a shiny pigment colour and a different interference colour, so when it catches the light they are effectively two-tone.  Even more magical is their ability to appear different depending on the colour of the background (i.e. white card vs. black card).  Until cameras and monitors become sophisticated enough to capture the shine I hope you will see some of the effect in the video, but believe me when I say that the effect is wonderful!  As with other acrylic paints feel free to pop on over to my acrylic paint background techniques as those will work with these paints too.  Click here for a full list of my technique pages.

Techniques covered in this issue are:

1. Simple blend
2. Stamping (on black surface)
3. Watercolour resist
4. Sponging (same two colours shown on black and white)
5. Gel medium tinting

1. These paints blend on surfaces very well and can take a lot of water to help with a smooth blend, not only do you end up with a blend of the base pigment but also the interference pigments too.

2. I have sponged two colours onto a background stamp before stamping onto black card to give this fabulous result.  Just remember to wash or at least soak your stamp as soon as possible.

3. I have stamped my background by sponging onto the stamp as before, but this could easily be any free hand paint on the background.  Acrylic will resist watercolours so I have washed over the top with aquatints.  You will still retain all the shine of the paints.  My personal favourite is stamping in a lighter colour and washing with a darker colour.

4. I’ve picked this technique to also demonstrate the difference between painting onto a black surface vs. a white surface by painting half the card with Pebeo’s black gesso.  Now you can see that the gold is actually green and the blue is actually pink in my example. 

5.  I wanted to test the effect out when mixed with gel medium.  This gives a different effect as now the colours seem almost pearly.  I’ve used a gloss medium for a high shine finished and both applied directly with a spatula and through a stencil.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and/or subscribe to my blog updates to get alerted to the next edition to this series.

Art Journal: Hello Darkness My Old Friend

I’m pretty sure I’m going to divide opinion on this one – I wanted to challenge myself to create something in only greyscale this time.  The inspiration ended up being the music video for the cover of the Sound of Silence by Disturbed which has been beautifully directed.  I’ve used Pebeo acrylic paints in only mars black and titanium white, Tim Holtz tissue wrap and stamps by Sheena Douglass.  I’m curious to know what you think of this spread as I know it’s a lot moodier than what I normally do but art journaling is all about playing and trying things out!

Ingredients

• Pebeo High Viscosity Acrylic Paints – Titanium White and Mars Black
• Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap – Menagerie
• A Little Bit Sketchy Silhouette stamps by Sheena Douglass
• Black Archival Ink by Ranger
• Spectrum Noir pen in true black
• White Gesso by Pebeo
• Gel medium by Golden

Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements Fabric Patchwork Cushions

My mum got a new brown leather sofa and in conversation one day she asked me “what colour cushions do you think we should get?” to which I replied “well mother, I don’t recommend a colour but I can recommend some fabulous printed cottons which would be perfect for you!  So after spending an hour or so picking out the perfect fabrics I offered to make the cushions for her and I’m pleased to say that her and her husband were very pleased!  The fabrics were a delight to work with and I have a wedge of scraps to use on my own crafty projects hip hip hooray!!!  N.B. The cushions were 18” square.

Here are the finished cushions – for the backsides I started by creating an envelope fold using an old pair of trousers and a couple of shirt backs.  This was enough for two of the cushions but for the third one I had a crafty little trick up my sleeve to surprise them… it was a gamble…

So two of them have backs like this…

 

And the third was fashioned from one of the shirt fronts (and sleeves for the border).  They were very pleased with the secret stash pocket!

And just for fun here’s how I went about sketching the ideas out and working out the measurements.

5 Background Techniques with… ACRYLIC PAINTS V.1

Welcome to a new collection of background techniques – this time with Acrylic Paints!  For a full list of techniques head over to this page and keep an eye out for future releases.  I am using Pebeo High Viscosity paints.

This time we cover the following techniques:

1. Baby Wipe Blending
2. Stencil Lift (from Gesso’d Surface)
3. Streaks with Titanium White and Buff Titanium
4. Printing with any objects or textures
5. Scraping on

1. This is simple to do and blendability is dependant on the surface you’re using and the paints.  Make sure you rotate the area of the baby wipe to keep the colours clear.

2. Working on a gesso surface means that the paint lifts off much better but isn’t necessary.  I love this effect, even though the image is completely flat the depth of pigment in this paint gives it a 3D effect.

3.  You can take any colour and paint it on with hardly any blending by adding Titanium White and Buff Titanium (pale cream colour).  This will work with any colour for a background that looks impressive yet subtle.

4. There’s no need to buy anything to apply your paint just use whatever objects and textures that are in reach.  The top picture shows the objects dipped into two colours of paint at a time whereas the bottom picture shows each object printing in separate colours.

5. I’ve left a couple of sides of an old card straight and cut into the other couple of sides with different sized notched.  You can try different ways to scrape the paint across your surface.  It also adds texture.

Art Journal: The Family Tie is Like a Tree

I have taken a card which I recently made and turned it into an art journal page firstly because there were some really cool techniques involved and secondly to share with you how I can adapt cards for art journal pages and vice versa.  Included in this page is a simple watercolour background using Spectrum Noir Aquatints, colouring using watercolour pencils (Aqua Blend by Spectrum Noir), foiling technique using mixtion relief and a masking tape tree painted with Pebeo acrylic paints.  All of the stamps are from Sheena Douglass A Little Bit Sketchy range and work together beautifully.

Ingredients

• Aquatints by Spectrum Noir
• AquaBlend Pencils by Spectrum Noir
• Black Gesso by Pebeo
• Acrylic Paints by Pebeo
• Mixtion Relief and Gold Foil by Pebeo
• Modelling Paste by Pebeo
• Drawing Gum by Pebeo
• Archival Ink in Black and Watering Can by Ranger
• Stamps by Sheena Douglass: A Little Bit Sketchy (multiple A6 stamp sets)
• Masking Tape

Here’s the original card:

Tim Holtz–Summer of Creative Chemistry 2016

I’m taking part in Tim Holtz’s Summer of Creative Chemistry over at Online Card Classes and here’s a few reasons why I think you all should too! <3

• The live forum’s with Tim Holtz have been reopened!
• He seems to be answering every single question the people are asking
• Recap Creative Chemistry 101 and 102 and surprise yourself!  When I first signed up to 101 and 102 I didn’t have that many supplies (mainly just distress inks) but I was thoroughly impressed with how much my stash has grown in the last year so I learnt even more techniques 2nd time round and recapped everything else to keep it fresh.
• There are 4 sets of prizes given out each week (which are decent prizes!)
• Start your own sets of technique tags which you can refer back to forever
• Even if you don’t think you have everything right now, there will still be plenty of techniques for you or maybe it will encourage you to have a go with other things in your stash.
• Be part of the brand new Creative Chemistry 103 when it is released in a couple of weeks with the same live access to Tim that you would have got when 101 and 102 launched.
• Learn why we do stuff, why it works, why this and that go together and why those things over there resist each other, which surface to use, etc…
• Apply the techniques to whatever craft you do: card making, stamping, scrap booking, art journaling, etc…

Here’s my set of technique tags which I’ve created from this week’s recap of CC102 – week 2: stencilling.

Mixed Media Canvas for Sheena Douglass

This is a mixed media canvas that I created for the designer Sheena Douglass.  The end result was really beautiful with all of its shiny parts and especially the mermaid whose tail catches the light beautifully.  I made it through to the 2nd stage of the recent Design Team Call out for Sheena Douglass and even though I wasn’t picked in the end I still wanted to share with you my makes and how I made my final round canvas featuring stamping, die cuts, stencilling and lots of Pebeo mixed media-ness!  The canvas had lots of super shiny elements thanks to the foiling and the Dyna paints.  For my samples that were made in the first round please scroll down past the video and past the ingredients list…

Ingredients

• Gesso in White and Black by Pebeo
• High density modelling paste and modelling paste by Pebeo
• Crackle texture paste by Golden
• Stamps by Sheena Douglass (mermaid and cracks)
• Stencils by Sheena Douglass (pop dotty and equalizer)
• Dies by Sheena Douglass (wild rose and day of the dead)
• Embossing folder by Sheena Douglass
• Acrylic paints by Pebeo (including Dyna colours)
• Gelatos by Faber Castelle
• Foil Gilding sheets by Pebeo (green and silver)
• Drawing gum by Pebeo
• Perfect medium by Ranger
• Archival ink in Watering Can by Ranger
• Spectrum Noir alcohol pens (skin tones)
• Mixtion relief by Pebeo
• Aluminium tape
• Black card

Here’s my three makes from the first round:

 

Day of the Dead Mini Canvas (click for blog post and video)

Savannah Family Card – I’m planning on making this into an art journal page so make sure you’ve subscribed to my YouTube channel.

Faux Leather Embossed Altered Box – click for the blog post