If Van Gogh Used Rubber Stamps

starry-night-stonehenge-W

If Van Gogh Made Cards

I love Van Gogh’s paintings, and have copied 2 of them to learn more about how he thought. So when I needed to create an ad for RSM’s fall issue I had a flash of inspiration: how about a Starry Night scene using my ancient sites stamps.

I did a test run on scrap paper to get the positioning right and to plan the card.

Stonehenge Starry Night How-To

•    Stamp Stonehenge with water-based black ink on matte card stock.
•    Mask Stonehenge and emboss the Labyrinth with orange pigment ink and clear powder.
•    Stamp and emboss the Abelermo Stone (who seems to be photo-bombing the picture) with black pigment ink and black detail embossing powder.
•    Color with pencils.
•    Start with yellow & orange pencils to sketch the outline of the shadow area and color the Labyrinth “moon”, Starry Night stars (which could be stamped first with the Single Spiral stamp), and halo the big stone.
•    Using a light blue pencil I colored over the Stonehenge to soften the inked image, colored the shadow, and started the sky.
•    Using dark blue and 2 different greens I colored the rest of the scene using bold lines and strokes to emulate the brushwork of Van Gogh.

All these stamps available in my Etsy Shop

Looking for Inspiration?

Masterwork paintings are a great resource to inspire your application and coloring.
Use your internet search engine to find images from Monet, Renoir, Rembrandt, Cezanne, any artist that inspires you.
Think about what it is that attracts you the most. Is it the style, elements, use of color, or something else?
Then apply those ideas to your own card making.
Matisse turned to cut paper collage to express himself. This would be an easy thing for you to incorporate into your card-making.
I think I’ll look into doing more of these Masterwork-inspired pieces.
Would you like that?

Let me know in Facebook.
Thanks for being here and reading all the way through.
Happy Stamping!
Kim