Sumi-e Style Crane Scene

This card was created on rice paper using several Art Neko images to create a spring vignette. A single crane stands on a mound of grass with cherry blossoms blooming around it. The cherry blossom "tree" was created using multiple stampings of Taylored Stamps Sakura Branch and then colored in with pencils. The Sumi-e Style Crane and Crane Kanji are also Taylored Stamps images available from Art Neko. The crane is stamped with permanent black ink and colored with pastels. The pine in the corner is created from a portion of an Art Neko Taylored Stamps image, Whispering Rabbits, stamped in multiples and colored with pastels and pencils. The sun is a creation of sponge and inks, and pastels were sponged around torn paper masks to create the grass mound. I drew a smudged charcoal pencil line to add definition then drew in some charcoal grasses. Background colors are from pastels on rice paper. While the crane is the focal image, this picture illustrates how versatile our stamps can be when we use them in different ways!

Three Friends of Winter

This card was made with the Three Friends of Winter stamp. I stamped it with black Versafine ink and embossed it before coloring with twinkling H2O's and sponging the edges. I like the bamboo, pine, and plum image; and the twinks gave it a nice vibrancy that brightened my day!

Pine, Bamboo and Plum are referred to as the Three Friends of Winter, and are used to signify the season of winter when used in Asian art.