After much searching the internet for the right instructions for using my alcohol pens I've finally found my answer which is a lovely kind lass at http://kitandclowder.ning.com/. Alyce Keegan has several technique and project classes over there and a very large following of loyal colour enthusiasts on facebook. Her classes are fully downloadable so I can learn offline and she offers one-to-one feedback on uploaded images.
It took me a while to decide which class to take first but I decided on the animal one first as I figured I use a lot of animal on my cards, easter is not too far away and there are plenty of animal images at christmas. This combined with I feel I'll need to do the hair and skin and clothing classes together to avoid images with dodgy hair do's
So I started the animal class with giddy excitement, printed off what I needed and downloaded all my bits and pieces....the class booklet is huge by the way! And there I hit my first stumbling block.......my images were all a bit blotchy...the blending that is. At first I thought is was me but figured how could I be getting this basic step so wrong, if I couldn't do this then what hope was there for me every being good enough to enter a blog challenge. I decided to change my paper and guess what.....it worked....it wasn't me it was the paper.
For future reference any newbies reading this paper is important, I didn't think it would have such an impact but it did.
I was using My Craft Studio's Super smooth paper which was sold as suitable for alcohol markers, for me and my Promarkers it wasn't. I am now using marker paper which is bleedproof, I have D&R at the moment but I know there are other brands out there. So now I can get to work practicing getting the shadowing right on the images.
As I have finally got my photos of the camera I can give you a few pics too. The first is of blending with the dodgy paper and the second is on the bleed proof paper.
These are not my first attempts, I'm not brave enough to put those on the internet, not even here!!! I have also attempted stippling and imprinting techniques but still can't get the flicking one right. I know it takes practice but I'm beginning to think that the bullet nib on my promarkers are going to make it so much more difficult to get right. I've tried with other pens that have a brush nib and it is sooooo much easier!
I've moved on with a few other classes but I'll still have to get the flicking to look a bit better, I can't avoid it altogether and I won't allow it to get the better of me!
So, back to the flick I must go.
'till next time
Take Care,
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