Scenic Saturday with Amybella: Uptown Girl Sylvia & The Seashell Scene

Hello bellas!

Amy here, and now that we’ve officially welcomed in the summer season, I wanted to head back to the beach with today’s Scenic Saturday card. This time around, rather than bright and playful, I opted for a more serene vibe with Uptown Girl Sylvia and the Seashell (sentiment included in set).

I imagined this beautiful girl strolling through the sand at the end of a long summer day as the setting sun created a kaleidoscope of color painted across her world. To help me achieve that look I went straight to Google and searched beach sunset photos until I found the perfect picture to inspire my color palette. The mix of coral reds and peachy orange with the pale lavender and teal was really different than my usual go-to colors and I welcomed the fun challenge of trying to re-create the look with my Copic markers.

I placed the horizon line slightly above the middle of the card because I knew I would need a bit more room for the sea than I would for the sky. Next, I began blending up from the horizon line starting with the reds and left a space the for the sun itself to be seen setting just behind Sylvia. That choice of placement helps pull focus right to her, just like a spotlight. Then it was time to blend down with the same colors and create the sea. To make sure it didn’t end up looking like another sky I purposefully avoided super smooth blends and opted for some texture lines instead, mimicking rippling waves. Once the sunset background was completed, I added one of the two sentiments that come with Sylvia to the bottom right corner of the card using a dark brown ink. I also added some sea bird silhouettes in the same dark brown to the upper right corner of the card. Both of these together create a “visual triangle” with Sylvia’s dark brown hair, which is a design trick to help add a pleasing balance to the overall design. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can almost hear the same gentle lapping of waves on the sand that Sylvia is hearing in her seashell.  🙂

Stay crafty my friends!