Hey everyone, Happy Monday!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day! 26th December is Boxing Day here in the UK so we’re still enjoying a bit of the post-Christmas glow, before the madness of the sales kicks in fully!
It seems I still had a couple more Christmas cards left in me, even after Advent Calendar Extravaganza! So I’ll be sharing one with you today and one tomorrow. Then I’m done with Christmas cards for this year!
One of my favourite Christmas traditions is watching ‘The Snowman’ movie. This just speaks ‘Christmas’ to me, and as it’s of English origin it’s always shown every year on one of our tv channels. It’s a great childhood memory, and although it’s also a sad story (who doesn’t feel sorry for the little boy and/or shed a tear when the snowman melts at the end?) it’s nevertheless a heartwarming tale and captures the magic of the season perfectly.
I also love the fact that the animation was created with colouring pencils. It just adds all the more to the traditional feel and shows that traditional techniques such as these are still very special. We all get swept away by the marvel of Copic markers or Zig Markers or what-have-you, but there will always be a special place in my heart for traditional colouring methods and media.
With all of these feelings of nostalgia bearing down hard on me, I dug out a long-discontinued stamp set, and set about creating this…
I am so absolutely thrilled with how it turned out! I feel it captures the look of the original animation perfectly!
There wasn’t much to it in terms of actual steps for this card. I stamped the image onto white cardstock then set about colouring it with my Prismacolor pencils.For a traditional look such as this you really don’t want any harsh lines, so I stamped the image with a very light colour ink (Simon Says Stamp ink in Lake Shores).
For the actual colouring I pulled up an image from ‘The Snowman’ movie and studied it carefully, and used that as a basis for colouring my own image. Traditional colouring from this animation didn’t have smooth blended colours etc – so no Gamsol or blending stumps here! Instead I recalled traditional shading methods from my Art lessons at school (such as hatching and cross hatching) to build up layers of colour, depth and shading. I didn’t add in any snow as the grain of the cardstock helped evoke a feeling of flying through a blizzard to me!
I’ve since learned that the original animation used Derwent pencils so I might have to add some to my collection for greater authenticity next time!
Advent Calendar Extravaganza – There’s Still Time!
While I’m here, I just wanted to remind you that you still have until 23:59EST on 31st December 2016 to enter to win all the prizes for Advent Calendar Extravaganza! Don’t forget to click on the numbered doors to reveal the surprise, and click on *all* of the images in the interactive door image to visit the secret special guests! The links to all the Advent posts can be found in Day 25’s post here. Have fun and good luck!
I’ll be back tomorrow with one final Christmas card. Thanks for stopping by!
Supplies
I totally missed seeing this one! It is snowing like crazy here this morning, so it was fun to find it as perfectly fits my current life. I will have to look up the movie, as I not familiar with it, but I totally love your coloring! (And I wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t authentic!!!) Have a warm and cozy day!
This card is beautiful!! And your colouring is amazing!
This is beautiful!! Love the coloring.
Taheerah this is perfect! You need to go to the Cumberland pencil museum. I’ve been several times (don’t ask!) since a small child (last was 2 years ago) – its educational , they have the snowman on constant loop and they have a pencil shop 🙂
So lovely!!!
This is so sweet! It’s like a beautiful illustration from a picture book!
love!
This card brings back memories, sweet card xxx
Wow your coloring is awesome.
Oh, my, it looks like you had drew that! Spectacular!
Thank you for bringing back the sweet memory of the few Christmas I spent in England…..
What a heartwarming card, beautifully colored. I love the texture on the clothing.
Such a sweet & simple looking card. Lots go into cards that ‘look’ simple. It’s a wonderful talent you have.
What a wonderful card–the coloring is great but so is the story! Thanks so much for sharing!
Sweet card.
I’ve seen the books but we don’t see it on TV in the U.S. However, now I have to get a used book and read it. Darling rendition. Thank you.
I love how you colored the card. It is beautiful.
Thank you, Taheerah. This really makes me nostalgic. What a great thing to use coloring pencils to create this look. That is so very much what i LOVE about it.
You captured the beauty of this story.
Just because something is older doesn’t mean it’s bad and here you’ve proved that , it looks beautiful !
So special this is to me as I love the movie to.You did a perfect representation of this charmer.Thank you.
Great card.
Wow, what beautiful coloring!
WOW Taheerah, your colouring is amazing! Such a wonderful image.
I am SO going to miss the Advent Extravaganza. Looking forward to tomorrow’s card, for sure!
Beautiful coloring and I love that sweet image!
How wonderful they made a stamp set of a movie you love! I’ve never seen the movie here in Canada but it looks beautifully illustrated. What an effort must have gone into the movie colouring it as beautifully as your card!
Your card looks amazing! The stamp you used does like just like the animated movie! Who makes that stamp? I wonder if it is still available? You colored it perfectly!
This is one of my favorite Christmas shows too! You recreated it beautifully.
That’s beautiful, your coloring is lovely.
Beautiful! The shading on the snowman is impeccable.
Gorgeous!!!! I see there is one stamp set left on Amazon if you’re in the UK. Sweet stamp!
That is one of my favorite story to tell to the kids when they were young! Lovely work there!
Sweet card!
Darling card. I love that you made it look like an illustration. Great idea.
Stunning job coloring! What a special card.
Nice coloring!I particularly like the snowman’s hat and scarf! 🙂
You have created a wonderful card which is so reminiscent of the book – love it:)
So fun, looks awesome!
Pretty card! I haven’t seen that movie either; will have to google it. 🙂
Happy Boxing Day!
I like your coloring and card! I haven’t seen that movie. Thanks for sharing your beautiful creation!!
Your card is so beautiful Taheerah!!! Thanks for sharing what this card means to you ? And happy Boxing Day!!!
Excellent coloring of this image.
Your coloring is wonderful! Have a relaxing Boxing Day!