Colouring darkish clothes with ProMarkers

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I found it really hard to colour dark clothes with alcohol markers, or any sort of markers come to think of it - they always looked flat, and sometimes the dark colours totally obliterated any detail of the stamped image. Then I had a little play, and a lot of practice, and this is how I do it now. Although the colour isn't very dark and flat looking, the overall effect is one of a dark blue hoodie.....

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Here's the finished image. Another stamped image I got in a swap, so I don't know who made the stamp. It was suitable for my purpose because it had a large expanse of clothing!
Promarkers used:
indigo blue
cornflower
china blue
powder blue
cool grey 3

trousers:
Khaki
Pastel beige
warm grey 2 & 3




I coloured all around the hoodie in indigo blue, filling in areas like the inside of the hood that would be very dark




then I took china blue and went further into the clothing, blending it with the indigo




Did the same with cornflower







then filled in the whole image with powder blue

I added more shadow with the cool grey 3, and a touch more indigo in the deepest folds/seams, then went over the whole thing again with powder blue

the trousers were coloured all over with pastel beige

shadows added with khaki, then blended with pastel beige

then I added some darker shadows with warm grey 3, and went over the whole lot again with the pastel beige
Can you see how the colours on the top are fading and appearing to blend more as the ink dries?

and here's the finished dude!

I hope this has helped you a little, I haven't had time to make a card with the finished image I'm afraid, it will go into my 'ready-to-roll' folder, where I keep a selection of coloured stamped images, paper flowers, die cuts etc, all ready to make a card in minutes

Lots of you have commented that you don't know how on earth I manage to tote craft stuff backwards and forwards across the Atlantic. The answer of course is that I have doubles of a lot of things. Two Cricut expressions, two cuttlebugs, two crop-a-diles, two ATG guns....and so on.

The Gypsy has eliminated carting all my Cricut cartridges backwards and forwards, although I don't enjoy using it at all, I must admit I prefer to slot the cartridge in the machine and cut in the old-fashioned way.

What I only have one collection of, quite sensibly is my cuttlebug embossing folders, nestabilities, promarkers and stamps (I limit myself almost exclusively to acrylic or cling rubber these days). Easy enough? Well yes, it would be, if I wasn't prone to these ridiculous urges to pack enough stuff to keep an army of crafters busy for weeks. For example, I was in bed last night, and suddenly thought 'grunge board! grunge board! Oh my gosh, I haven't packed any grunge board', so I got out of bed, plodded wearily into the garage and started digging around for the grunge board. Now this took some time, I knew I had some.............somewhere. Ah yes, here it is, still intact in the packaging, as it was when I bought it about two years ago. Now it is packed, in my bursting-at-the-seams suitcase, and all I need is for someone, somewhere, to tell me exactly what grunge board is and what the heck I am going to do with it, apart from take it on a transatlantic holiday that is.

Yes, I have been to Tim's site, yes, I think the man is a marvel, yes I have seen him work with grunge board, and no, I still have no idea how it will fit into my life, let alone make it worthwhile getting up from a cozy bed in the middle of the night.

And so the packing saga goes on....and on....and on. Now where did I put that tub of bookbinders glue that I need for ...ermm, some project or another.

See you tomorrow