It’s time for a mid-monthly reminder of our super-duper challenge… creating a Spooky Night Sky!  If you are joining us for the first time, then make sure you visit the first post and see some spooky inspiration.  ;D   There are already fabulous samples showing up in the Gallery and chatter going on in the Message Board – come join us!

For those still waiting for one reason or another … I thought I’d come up with a short tutorial to help you inspired to join in!  For this project, I used Kreepy Kitty from Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps to set up my scene.   My inspiration was the fifth image in the initial post, the Harry Potter one with the skull in the clouds, merged with a graphic I found online [ref].  So I stamped my image at an angle and drew a skull.  I then used my Copic markers, a light gray, to plan out my highlights and shadows.

 

 

My second step was to color the image in monochromatic tones using Toner grays.  This may feel like quite the step but you can break it down into sections coloring one portion at a time.  I started with a T4 working my way down to the darkest tones, T9, then all the way back up to the lightest colors, blending as I go, up to T0.

 

 

The next step was to add color.  This is similar to coloring an old black and white photo with the pastel photo markers.  For the sky I used B91, B93, B95 and B97; the moon was done using E50 and E51; on the gate I added E35 and on the cat’s collar I added R14.  On the skull, and around the skull in the sky, I added E41, E42 and E43 but the glowing part took several YR and R colors to get the fire-ie look.

 

 

At this point I took a step back and let the project rest for a little.  It looked finished but didn’t have the vibrant spooky feel that I was going for, plus I didn’t like how the clouds weren’t parallel to fence/ground.  So I went back and added more shadows with the Toner Grays and curved the clouds a little more to hide my mistake.

 

 

At this point I should have stopped but felt that a little white would add to the spooky feel – and I thought it could cover up the cloud area around the skull better.  I originally wanted the skull to look like it was going out of the clouds but that idea morphed into sky looking like exposed muscle tissue.  I used a white gel pen for the fine details and a wet sponge with acrylic paint for the wispy clouds.  In the end, it wasn’t the look I was aiming for but it still turned out ok. 

 

That’s it for the coloring.  For a look at how I finished off the project and added another page to my ATC journal then come visit my blog at ForgottenScraps.blogspot.com or see it in the Gallery!  I hope this inspires you to join along in our challenge – after all, we love to learn from each other this is the perfect oportunity to show us your progress and ask questions.   You can even taunt the other DT members and dare them to play along too!  LOL