A Night At The Beach

Originally, this was going to be a lovely, sunny card with bright colours and a happy sandman enjoying the summer sun (as you can see from the first coloured image in the tutorial below). Then I decided that he would look great staring up at a starry night sky, perhaps waiting for a glimpse of Santa Claus!

1. Start with a fully coloured image. If you prefer, you could print out a pre-coloured digital and then add the colours over the top. You'll need dark blues or purples for the sky (I'm using Copic markers B97 and B99) as well as cool greys for all the shadows (C10, C08, C06, C04, C02).

2. Add a couple of dark blue layers to the background. It's difficult to get a nice smooth finish when using dark alcohol markers, but it helps to add several layers of colour. I'll add more to the sky once the image is coloured.

3. Start adding shadows to the sandman, beginning with the darkest grey (C10) in the areas under his chin, under his nose, around the belly and bottom, and under the towel.

4. Increase the shadows with the next grey in the series (C08), blending into the darker grey.

5. Continue with the C06, adding shadows around the eye sockets so they "sink" into the face. Don't forget the shells and branches decorating his head, and the towel.

6. Continue working on the shadows, blending the greys together. After placing the C04 you should only have the very lightest areas remaining. These will be on the top of the head, the shoulders, the swell of the chest and belly and the tips of the shells.

7. Blend the C02 with the other greys and your shading is complete. You now have a sandman who is standing on a dark beach waiting for the stars to come out.

8. Add a few more layers of ink to the background to smooth and darken the sky. Use a white gel pen to add stars.

9. Add a few extra white dots to his eyes so it looks like the stars are reflected there.

Digital Stamps: