Monday 22 October 2012

Haunted Design House 'Nosferatu'

Welcome back and thanks for stopping by, Hi to anyone new and a big thanks to those of you who have stopped by before x.       This week over at Haunted Design House we are challenging you with the theme 'Nosferatu Ad Nauseam'  basically we want to see your vampire inspired makes.head over to see what the DT have been getting up too. This week we are being sponsored by Rick St Dennis he is a great digi designer with a wide range of characters to choose from, he has a lot of lovely designs ready for Halloween as well as loads of your more cutsie designs.He is offering up 3 designs of choice each for our top two. It would be great to see as many of you over there as poss giving in to your darker sides ;)                                                                                    I have made another fat page for my 'little book of dark arts'  As some of you know I have a real struggle when it comes to using digi stamps, my copic's mastery is not up there yet and I don't have any colouring pencils either so what I can do with a digi is unfortunately limited, add to that the theme of vampires and using one of Ricks fab images and I am out of my element lol.
In the end I decided to just have a play and see where it took me, I really like this demon character called Op Art Monster and wanted him to be in the foreground.To add the vampire element I thought I would have some fun and use the classic Nosferatu shadow from the movie.                                                        I started by drawing in a horizon line and sketching my shadow so it would look cast upon a wall and then just coloured it in with a black copic, the monster was printed onto the card stock you use for alcohol inks and was fussy cut out, i then blended yellow,orange and red alcohol inks onto my craft mat and swiped the monster through mixing the colours up, I love the vibrantness of the alcohol inks, I then dabbed some red in for the eyes.He was placed where I wanted him and  drew the shadow lines from him to the main nosferatu image.
To play around trying to get some sort of perspective I used some of the Tim Holtz text tissue tape, this was stuck down at an angle to give the effect of floor boards and hopefully some sort of 3d effect, The tissue tape has the word 'dream' fortuitously printed on it so I ringed around the word to hi light it. For the wall paper I used the butterfly tape and cust around my shadow. I used distress pads to colour the tapes, for the floor boards I started with the yellows and blended into the browns to try and make it look like the monster was in a light source, for the wall I started with the blue shades and went through to purple and then black all around the edges.I think I just about got the lighting effect I was after? ;) lolThe finishing touches were the sentiment tag which comes from Tim Holtz, I wanted to go with the dreams and fears theme
 with this and the sentiment fits brilliantly, the tag was distressed with ink pads, given a flick of water and stapled to the page, on the other side I used one of Tims tickets again used distress inks, this time using the bright persimon colour and browns to age it, I think it picks up with the monster. Finally I used one of Tims Keys, I brushed over the top with a gold guilding paste to bring out the word and details on the key.All in all this page was just a bit of fun letting me mess around with perspective, I think it almost looks like a pop up card.
I would like to enter this into a few challenges, 

Over at Anything But A Card they are having a Halloween or Halloween colours challenge. They are a fairly new challenge blog with a fantastic DT, head over for some awesome inspiration.

At Smudgy Antics they are having a Monster Mash theme. For my monster mash I have Nosferatu and the Op monster .
                

26 comments:

  1. Brilliant page Mark, love the colouring of your orange monster with the nosferatu shadow. If you're wanting to colour in your images but don't have many copics etc, have you thought of trying your distress inks? If you dab onto a smooth surface such as a craft sheet then pick up the colour with a brush, you can paint with ink. Right, off to check the links out :) Px

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    1. Great tip! I've done this several times and it works amazingly well.

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    2. Thanks Paul, Lady b and Buttons, It is a technique I have had only a small play with, really should experiment and play with it more, I keep forgetting to use them in that way. x

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  2. A fab creative exploration! Live the colours and al the TIM goodies you have used to enhance your page..
    I find digis hard to utilise myself..
    A great make..let me know when you are ready for that swap!
    Trace x

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  3. Fantastic page - your Book of the Dark Arts is shaping up to be a real masterpiece. The Op Art monster is fantastic - and I love the intensity of colour you've given him. Looming Nosferatu is fab, and that's my favourite TH sentiment (and I haven't got it - bah!!)...
    Alison x

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  4. Outstanding!! Brilliant work. x

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  5. What a thing of nightmares! (in a good way of course:) Have you used your Distress Inks to 'paint' your digi images? Hugs, Buttons x

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  6. Hi Mark, Your page is brilliant, the floor looks so realistic and almost 3D, it is so good. I love Op Art Monster and the Nosferatu shadow makes him look quite scary.... not in a bad way though. The sentiment is perfect too, another great page for your little book of dark arts........ I am not into digis much but am off to have a look - I want to win again sometime soon! Anne x

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  7. How fantastic....and a brilliant idea, too. The shadow looks so real and the 3D effect is successful. It reminds me to some old Hitchcock movies (:o)

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  8. Really love how you've added that shadow Mark!! From your gorgeous monster in fab orange to that wonderful quote - which I love and don't have sadly - I think this piece oozes creativity and a dash of menace too. Love it!
    Juliaxx

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  9. Oops - forgot to say thanks for joining us again at Anything But A Card - I get so excited looking at projects that I forget what I'm supposed to be doing!
    Juliaxx

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  10. how fab!! your monster and it's creep shadow totally rock, really like the senti on there too. Thanks for sharing with us at Smudgy Antics

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  11. Fabulous, Mark! Makes me a ittle afraid to close my eyes. LOL xxD

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  12. Love your page for your dark arts book! The shadow is so fun - love the pattern on the monster!

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  13. Wickedly cool book page, Mark! I love how you've created the wooden floor boards and your shadow effect is awesome! I think you've succeeded with the 3-D look :) An awesome, eerie piece! Thanks for playing with Smudgy Antics :)

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  14. Fabulously wicked, Mark, love especially the 3D effect, the scary shadow and that you gave the monster such bright colors. The sentiment fits perfectly well, too ... awesome page again for your fat book.
    Hugs, Suzanne xx

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  15. wow, that's a great page ... love the dimension you have created! the drawn shadow is perfect and I like the colors of the little monster - I have to use my AAIs again!!

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  16. So many awesome little touches...perfect! Thanks for joining us at Anything But a Card!!! :) :)

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  17. Morning Mark. That's a brilliant 3D effect you've created there. It really does look wonderfully dimensional. Hope you're having a good week.

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  18. Mark - you did it again. Just love this page you created. Such depth! and Thank you for sharing with us at Smudgy Antics this week

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  19. Love your page. Great idea to make the shadow for the digi monster. Love what you did to him too. Thanks for sharing at smudgy antics

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  20. very cool, love the shadow! Thank you for sharing at Smudgy Antics!

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  21. This is really cool! I love the quote and the pattern on the monster!

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  22. This is so wonderful and I am so glad you shared it with us at Smudgy Antics
    susan s.

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  23. I just love this, and your key w/ Dreams, Love the senit too! I just love your work! Thank you for sharing with us at Smudgy Antics!
    Peace,
    Kristy
    (SA DT)

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  24. Hi Mark, thought to check you out and have to say I really like your Haunted piece it really cool. Like how the monster is almost like pop out of the layout. I am a follower now of your blog. Hope your week going well?

    Justie

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