same, but different (by Veronica)

 This is the very last-minute card I made for the TV shows last month - having done all my samples, I  had a midnight inspiration....I suddenly realised that there was a small fire in among the teepees (it can take me a long time to see the obvious sometimes!) so the idea for a night time card came.
I started with grey card base for speed, the only one I had was a bit dark, and  came out rather dramatic. 

I thought I would try to recreate it , and take some photos as I go, to give an idea of how I made it. It wouldn't be the same, but something similar....

 I had more grey card to choose from this time, and chose a more midtone colour. 
Despite coming from a same-make pack of card as the original, it didn't take the watercolours as well so the shades are not as well blended
I started with a 7" square of card, and stamped the large cactus  in black versafine clair ink and clear embossed it, then stamped the tepee in black without the embossing.I used a fine liner pen to extend the hills

The sky was created using smoothie sponges and white Ranger pigment ink pad for the moon and the lighter clouds and black soot distress ink and hickory smoke distress oxide ink for the clouds. I used Koh-i-noor watercolour palettes for the rest of the colouring, starting with black in the shadows of the cactus.








I used a  paintbrush and clear water to draw out the colour to give a dark grey, adding more black if it ended up too light a colour as most of the cactus would be in the shade, with just the tips catching the light.
Using a grey base card gives a medium grey automatically, which saves time.

 I used very duluted paint to cololur the landscape and the camp, with white paint on the tips of the cactus flowers and on the tents, blended in with water again. 

i addded tiny dabs of red and yellow paint into the fire

The last bit of highlighting was done with a white posca pen before the grey card was mounted onto an 8" square cream card blank

As you can see, definitely different and not as dark as the original.

I hope this gives you some ideas..... you can just as easily start with the lighter colours and go to the darker ones, I just think it is easier to start with the dark