From the Heart

It never ceases to amaze me how wonderful life can be in Crafty Blogland.  Every day I am touched by the beautiful comments you all leave for me and I'm so grateful for your support and encouragement.  When I'm feeling blue or in pain, there's nothing nicer than getting to my PC and finding someone's kind words waiting for me.  Aaaah, I have the warm and fuzzies and I thank you all for taking time to read my ramblings and comment on my work.  Today's card is truly from the heart ...

I shall be entering this one into two challenges:

The Pink Elephant - Sketch challenge

Totally Papercrafts - Clean and simple

And here it is:

Image: Mo's Digital Pencil, 'Tin Man'

Papers: October Afternoon; DCWV; mirror board.

I don't normally use mirror board - I find it a bit shiny for me, usually.  But what better to use to give that shiny, metal finish to this adorable image?

I so love these new Wizard of Oz images from Mo's Digital Pencil.  As I think I mentioned yesterday, there is a whole range, including Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, Glenda the Good, the Tin Man and, of course, Dorothy (whose image is named 'Kansas').  What a wonderful idea of Mo's - the Wizard of Oz must be one of the most popular films of a certain generation (i.e. mine!) and, as always, Mo has managed to capture the characters' quirks so well. 

I must admit to be rather afraid of this image, though.  I mean, he's the Tin Man, he's metal and colouring metal is frightening!  But I desperately wanted to use him so I got out my cool grey Copics and set to work.  I'm pretty thrilled with the result, even though I shouldn't say so myself.  I think he looks quite metallic and I love that little touch of red for his heart.  I think I could have been a little braver with the shading and contrast but I was reluctant to over-colour this image - it could so easily have been a disaster.  Then I went in with my Prismas to add the background, which I kept to a lovely warm yellow to counteract the coolness of the grey.

It took me a while to decide on the paper, actually - I tried him against all sorts of greys (and other colours too) until I remembered these gorgeous polkadots, which I think are perfect. I needed something that wasn't too busy because I had the 'Clean and simple' challenge in my head, which also meant that I needed to keep the layering down to a minimum.  The sketch definitely helped with that one. 

I generated the sentiment on my PC - it seemed so appropriate - and then added just a little punch of red at the bottom to finish.

So, today I need to buy a present for my boss, who is leaving me on Tuesday after three-and-a-half years of working together.  Then I have dinner guests this evening and, of course, I need to fit in some colouring, just because! 

Happy Sunday everyone.
xx