At around Midnight, we fly away…

At around Midnight, we fly away…

Hello there.
Thanks for stopping by. After all that arty mixed media work in France, I thought it would be nice to come back down to earth.
Or not!
Let’s start with a blank white piece of card.
A very good place to start…
Make a border with Low-tack masking tape.
Add the bunting mask from the Roof-tops mask
Add the Roof-tops themselves along the baseline.
And add a moon, too.
Brayer some Stormy Sky over your Clarity Blending Mat,
and transfer the ink to the card with your brayer, 
starting in from the top.
For a more dramatic night sky,
 add some Black Soot over the top of the blue. 
Move the house down and across.
Think Coronation Street…
Using your brayer, add some faded black to the white house now.
Use a make-up sponge and a piece of copy paper to add some dimension with the black ink.
See here, how you can make the chimney stack look 3D just by adding a little shadow along one side?
Now remove the Roof tops mask and either brayer in or dust in a blue/black ink blend. Go lightly;
You can always add it remember? 
But you can’t take it away!
So now the houses are varying shades of black, grey and blue.
Cover up the upper area with your mask, so that only the lower houses are exposed. Then you can work on them with a make-up sponge and a grey-blue ink mix, to add alleys and shadows.
Remove the bunting and moon masks.
In fact, remove the outer tape, too.
Add some stars with a white Pilot pen.
This works best when the sky is dry.
Now let’s do a little work on the bunting.
Use a Fine black Micron Pen for this.
Lines are a good start,
but I’m not sure what to do yet. Let’s come back to this.  
Let’s add my favourite stamp ever with Black Archival.
Now the whole thing will start to come together.
Imagine flying over the rooftops!
Imagine that. 
Outline the artwork with the black fine pen,
add some patternwork to the bunting edges,
and watch the scene take shape.
Let’s use a charcoal pencil for a little shade.
This one is a bit fierce, 
and I’m a bit chicken,
so I have drawn some on a scrap of copy paper,
and loaded one of my fingers with it!
  
The idea is to add shade to the moon, then
use a special eraser pencil to bring out the white again.
like so…
Notice also, that I have coloured in the edges of the bunting.
See how a simple black line with a charcoal pencil or black pencil, from the tip of each triangle to the string, along the lower edge only, makes the bunting appear very 3-dimensional? 
Doesn’t it suddenly look like it’s been attached!
  
Yes, so there we are. 
Over the rooftops.
Up, up and away.
Hope you enjoyed that one.
I really had no idea where we were going to end up;
but the boy with the birds stamp instantly gave me a direction.
Ironic really.
The ingredients are pretty basic.
Maybe you already have most of this stash!

I think that if you are just starting out on your arty journey, 
then the ingredients listed here are all very useful. I have added the links, so that – should you want to dive in – you can go straight to the Clarity Website.  

Brayer (this month’s Product of the Month)
Black Archival Ink Pad (this month’s Ink Pad of the Month)
See you tomorrow.
much love,

46 thoughts on “At around Midnight, we fly away…

  1. Morning Barb…there is something about this stamp that invokes childhood memories of bad kite flying and happy days!….I love it! This picture is wonderful – almost Peter Pan in the night sky off to Neverland! love the 3D effect you have created with the charcoal – who would have known!! Another success in my book! xxx

  2. So effective. Stunning. Reminds me of the old streets of Lindon and that's poor Oliver Twist escaping Bill Sykes. If you look hard enough you might see Nancy and the girls singing 'Ompapa'…Well it does say imagine! Xx

  3. Hi Barb, amazing art work, fabulous effect on the bunting. I have the stamp on my wish list, so thanks for the inspiration.Have a great day. Bx

  4. Love it and have all the items except the stamp maybe that will be on my next purchase list still have used my credit do you have a cut off date?

  5. Morning. Well I enjoyed that trip from start to finish. I couldn't imagine where we would find ourselves at the end. I was not sure half way through but as always you produced a stunning finished peace. Love the shading on the buntin it really stands off the page.
    Have a lovely day the sun is up and the birds are singing. Fabulous
    Debra x

  6. Hi Barbara. Wonderful : ) I can really see the boy floating off on an adventure. Thanks for the tip about the black line on the bunting. I can' hardly believe how a simple line can make them look 3D, it's amazing! Hope you all have the same gorgeous sun that we have in Oxfordshire today, the birds are singing too, makes you glad to be alive : ) Take care.

  7. So effective. I can't believe how raised that bunting looks after you added the shading. Sometimes I start a design with no idea where it's going and it ends up looking great. Of course there are other times when it looks rubbish! Haven't got the house mask but I really like the effect you get when using it. XX

  8. Hi Barb,
    This is really lovely. Love the effect of the town and the bunting looks 3D with the charcoal line under it. The more I see the boy stamp, the more I think I need it. Unfortunately I will have to wait as I've spent my ration (and more!) for this month. Bought all of the Spectrum Noir pencils yesterday and spent part of the afternoon colouring in and I agree with you, they are gorgeous! Thanks again for the inspiration. Love Alison xxx

  9. Oh yes! This is stunning. Clean and yet smudgy, full of imagination and yet achievable. Can't wait to get started to give this a try. Thank you. xx Margaret Col.

  10. A great design with super tips, particularly impressed with the black pencil line on the bunting, it really looks as though you had decoupaged the pennants! x

  11. Wow as always, you are a master at this Barb, I just can't wait for every blog and watch all the DVDs as I love what you do and you explain everything so well. You are a great Teacher and that is not a flippant statement.

    I love this and the amazing 3D bunting. I have everything to recreate this one (all except the charcoal pencil and eraser) so I will give it a try. I will see if I can get some charcoal pencils.

    Thank you again Barb you are great.
    Denise x

  12. This rooftop scene and the way it developed is fantastic Barbara, as is the explanation. I love the bunting with the zentangle edge, and the little boy completes the scene perfectly.

  13. I LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT. It's so clever and arty but not arty farty, if you know what I mean. You are one clever lady and I hope you have a great time with Grace and Mark next week. xxoo

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