Shining Stars

Mixing mediums is a great way to layer colour and build depth in an image. It's also useful in situations where you want to add a light colour, such as yellow, over a very dark colour, like black. If I were using just one medium it would be almost impossible to see the yellow over such a dark background.

After printing the image, I coloured the entire background with a black alcohol marker, adding several layers to prevent obvious marker strokes. After that, I coloured the remainder of the image with alcohol markers and added some deeper shadows with a black pencil.

To make the yellow glow nice and vibrant, I first laid down some white pencil. The white pigment will provide a base for the yellow and help to lift it from the dark background. 

The yellow pencil layers well over the white. I also added some yellow highlights to the snowman's hat, carrot nose, scarf and belly to give the impression that the stars are "lighting" the scene.

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