Hello bellas!

Amy here, with a new summertime inspired Scenic Saturday card. Living in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, hiking is certainly a popular past time around here. And since I recently added the fabulous Curvy Girl Loves to Hike to my Stamping Bella collection, I went right to her as the star of this show. Because my goal was to really immerse Curvy right in amongst the tall trees of the forest, I used a couple scraps of masking paper to block out part of her hand, walking stick and feet when I stamped her. Once the masks were removed, I was left with blank space that I could then color in as a large tree trunk and grass that both now appear to be in front of her. This simple trick adds interest by helping to create a foreground and midground within your scene.

I took my time coloring Curvy and the landscape in front of her, including the addition of some large boulders on either side of the path and the wood sign containing the sentiment, because I find it is easier not to accidentally meld the background and foreground together when one is already completely fleshed out and the detail work taken care of. So, once I had that foreground space looking just how I wanted, I moved on to sketching in the forest behind our pretty hiker. Adding a babbling brook cutting through roughly the middle of the scene was a fun way to add some additional distance between Curvy and the rest of the trees. Just remember that the further in the distance you want something to appear, the lighter the colors you want to use to create them. Take those trees way off in the very back, I used a single earth tone Copic, E55, to sketch them in over the golden glow of the sky that I laid down first. Now when they are viewed in comparison to the more detailed trees, your mind reads them as further away rather than side by side. I hope this makes sense and that it inspires you to play with color as a way to create depth in your own coloring.  🙂

Stay crafty my friends!