Sea Animal

This was my first airbrushed background. It takes a little practice, and this one came out uneven, but with nice colors.

I used a torn paper mask (fastened down with dry Zig 2-Way Glue), a little bigger than the center image. I used a pale gray (C1) marker to color the blank edge. That made a nice little colored edge that I really like.

Then I dabbed the center image with Colorless Blender fluid on terry cloth to get the mottled texture.

Daisy Drawing in Five Colors

I drew a 4x6 line drawing, then scanned it and pasted it into Powerpoint, 4 on one 8.5 x 11" page. I printed it out and colored each set of daisies in bright colors. (Shown above.)

About a week later, to make a thank-you card for a friend, I printed one onto a 3.5x5 Crane note paper, and colored it in lighter colors. (Shown below.) The dotted ground and background were inspired by Michelle Wooderson's post on coloring a galvanized bucket.

Updated July 9, 2010: Because it includes a card, this post has also been added to my new "companion blog." Please click here for "Mostly Markers - Cards" to see it there (dated the same as this original post.) For the future, I'll post all of my new greeting cards in Mostly Markers - Cards. This blog, Mostly Markers, will also still be active with all of my non-card drawings and reference posts.

Ribbon Doodle 2

A bench? The inside of a hot air balloon? Maybe just a ribbon doodle. I enjoyed making the details of the coloring.

Copic colors used: BG000, C1, Y000, RV91,95, R29,59, V04,09, BV20,23, G07,21,28,40, E41,44
Paper: white Crane's card approx. 4x6"

Parting of the Red Sea

In the Exodus story, the pillar alternated between fire and cloud. But at our church's Easter Vigil service, during the reading of this passage, my mind's eye saw it as fire and cloud together, with a deep V of water, so that's how I drew it.

Tree with flowers

When I colored the tree originally (see below), I thought it looked too dark and heavy compared to the flowers. So I drew a new tree, colored it, and cut it out. Then I cut along the bottom of the old tree, slid the new tree in (on top of the old tree, behind the front-most red flowers), and glued it in place. Much better.

Old tree:

Hilly Landscape 2

A friend asked me for a drawing like the left side of Hilly Landscape 1. I did this for her, scaling it down a bit to allow for a frame, and with the house colored like her family's summer cottage.

It's not easy for me to recreate a drawing. And reducing the size made it harder. I think it's because a lot of my drawing is gesture (movement) and not just visual.

I traced it on thin paper, then cut out some shapes along the lines & traced around the paper shapes in pencil. As I did that, I shifted some of the elements around to make it work in a smaller space. Then my final ink drawing was freely moving along the general line of the pencil.

Copic colors used: same as Hilly Landscape 1.
Paper: ecru Crane's card approx. 4x6"