House-Mouse Tree-mendous Christmas with Dina Kowal

Hi, Dina Kowal here! I love the sweetness of House Mouse stamps – they are so fun to bring to life with any coloring medium! This month’s Tree-mendous Christmas collection is full of delightful fall and winter images featuring Ellen Jareckie’s endearing little characters. I use a mixed-media approach to these images when I color, so I wanted to share my process with you today. I hope you learn something new!

I chose to color the Hats Off to You image  – isn’t this little mouse so sweet in his acorn cap? I stamped the image on one of Spellbinders’ Cotton Card Panels. This was my first time using this paper, and it stamps beautifully with Versafine Clair ink (Fallen Leaves ink used here).

I always choose cotton watercolor paper, so my hope was that this paper would also take watercolor well, and I was pleased with the results! (My watercolor paints of choice are QoR paints by Golden.) Using a #5 round brush, I gave each area of color a light wash.

TIP: You can control the saturation of color when using watercolor paints by using more or less water to activate the paint. More water will yield a lighter color. Less water will yield a more saturated or darker color.

I gave the mouse and the acorn caps a light brown wash, but I chose a green-gold for the acorn and a reddish brown for the leaves. Our yard is full of oak trees, and everything just goes brown in the fall, so I took an artistic liberty there to add a little more color to the scene. I let the card dry completely before going on.

My next step was to add shading to give the rounded shapes in the image some dimension. Above, you can see where I added a layer of watercolor in the same brown to create the shadow on his side. There is a curve at the top of that shaded area that gives shape to the base of the arm. A curve at the bottom of the shaded area gives shape to his little hip.

I added a curved shadow at the bottom of the hip to give the shape a more rounded appearance.

TIP: Add shadows below protruding shapes and where shapes would curve away from you.

Next, I added more color to the oak leaf.

TIP: The artist has indicated where shading should go on the leaf by using small dots along the veins.

There are additional curved shapes on the acorns, so I added a shadow at the bottom of each cap (the one on his head, especially, would have a shadow where the edge curves under). I added a shadow to the inside of the cap behind him as well. Again, I let the panel dry before moving on to the next layers of color.

I switched to a #0 round brush as I moved on to finer details. I like to add a little pink blush to the cheek, so I did that here.

TIP: Have a little water in the brush and just dip the tips of the bristles into the paint. The water helps the color to blend out onto the cheek rather than having a defined or hard edge.

Using the same brown paint, I added dots to the acorn caps to blend out the shadow and add some texture.

The fine tip of the #0 brush is great for adding different kinds of detail and texture. In the fur areas, I used small straight strokes to imitate the texture of the fur.

TIP: Leaving a little space between the strokes adds depth and contrast. The artist has also added details to the image to indicate the correct direction of the fur strokes.

On the leaf, I dotted a darker reddish-brown along the veins to create more depth and contrast. To balance the green-gold on the left side of the image, I added a little green-gold to the inside of the acorn cap to the right.

After the details were dry, I returned to the larger brush to add in a golden yellow background. I began with a light wash, and then added in darker yellow-oranges closer to the image where shadows would fall.

I like to add fine details with a colored pencil, and I want to note that it’s very important that your paper is completely dry before you go on to this step! Using a dark brown pencil (Faber Castell Polychromos Sepia used here) light pressure, and a small circular motion, I deepened the shadows at the bottom edges of the acorn caps. The sharpened tip of a pencil can get into tiny corners and areas that a brush just can’t.

Next, penciled shadows were added at the bottom of the image, where feet, tail, and the acorns are against the ground.

TIP: Remember to add a shadow between the feet where the body would cast a shadow.

More shading was needed where one object would cast a shadow on another object, or where two shapes meet. The mouse’s little arm casts a shadow onto the acorn cap and his face, so I shaded to the left and right of the arm.  I added pencil strokes around the hip and at the base of the arm, using small straight strokes. This adds more texture to the fur, helps create the rounded shape, and blends in the watercolored shading.

I also used the pencil to darken the veins of the leaf and the part of the leaf behind the mouse and acorn cap.

Returning to the detail brush, I added some dots and texture to the background.

A great way to add tiny highlights or dotted texture is with a ball stylus. Spellbinders has a product called Splatter White that is perfect for this step and more – you might want to add a pattern to an image, or a highlight to an eye or object. The medium is bright white and very opaque. I dipped the tip of a small ball stylus into the Splatter White and added some dots to each of the acorn caps. You can make several dots before refilling. Note that the dots will get smaller as you go, so if you want all your dots the same size, you will need to dip in the medium each time.

TIP: Check Amazon for inexpensive sets of ball stylus tools in multiple sizes – they are often listed as nail art tools!

For the background of my card, I picked some coordinating paper scraps and adhered them onto a quarter-sheet of label paper, then trimmed the panel to 4-1/8”x5-3/8”.

I stamped a greeting onto a label die cut, cut the painted panel with a circle die, and attached the label to the card with a piece of organza ribbon.

Here is my completed card! You can find more of my work at Dina Kowal Creative – and with less cardmaking on my plate these days, you can also find me at Thoughtful Spot Memory Bears!

Spellbinders Supplies:

Other Supplies

QoR Watercolors, #0 and #5 round paintbrushes, Faber-Castell Polychromos pencil (Sepia), patterned papers by Dina Kowal Creative/Impression Obsession (retired), Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves ink, swiss dot organza ribbon, label paper, ball stylus