Coloring House Mouse Stamps - Opinions & Advice Needed Please
 

So my DH was a real sweetheart and got me 8 House Mouse stamps that I really wanted for my birthday yesterday. I of course had to immediately play with them. ;) but once I got the image stamped I was overwhelmed by all of the details to be colored in. So I just took it one bit at a time, and colored it in using Prismacolor pencils and the gamsol technique.

I guess what I am wanting, is to know what y'all think of it for my first attempt at coloring one of these little beauties in, AND, what do you use to color them in? What is your favorite medium/technique for these?

I guess these are definitely too detailed to mass produce, but I'd like to be able to make lots of notecards using these stamps, especially for my mom, aunt, and grandma who are all cat lovers. My mom even loves mice too. LOL So any advice to make it easier or less time consuming if at all possible would be nice too.

TIA

You did an awesome job!

Nobody ever would guess that was your first attempt with the mice! I wonder if that cat would go faster with chalks and then you would just have to fuss with the grass and mice. One trick with the mice is to color *all * of them with pink or peach and then add in your "fur" color, so if any "skin" shows thru it is skintone and not glaring white look-you-missed-a-spot.

I usually do the mice with pencils or chalks if I am going to bother with them.

Another trick is to do the "spotlight" technique. You can probably do a search. You stamp the whole image in black and white and then an extra image that you can color just a circle or square to feature just one small portion of the larger picture. Try a gallery search and you will find some stunning examples.

Good luck and good job to DH for being a good shopper!

Betsy

Awesome job on coloring this! I usually use a blender pen and reinkers when coloring House-Mouse stamps. I've used Prismacolor and odorless mineral spirits too, but usually have stuck with either of the above.

I use primsacolor pencils and gamsol. Can you paper piece the cat or is that just as time consuming?

Great job!

You did a great job. The cat's fur looks textured!!

If I don't have specific colors I'm working with, I color them the way they are on the stamp. It helps me figure out the areas to shade.

I started off with Prismas and then colored them in with Copics when I bought those...I think they are fun to color!

Aww thanks everyone. You are so sweet. Some great tips on here. I guess I'll just have to practice some more. Oh darn. :rolleyes: Anything for an excuse to play, right?
I used a darker color along the details on the fur, then used a lighter color all over and blended them together. I was trying to make it look a bit like a tabby cat.

I use prisma colors & mineral spirits. They do take a long time to color in but so worth the effort. You did a fabulous job with yours!

Wow, your coloring is fantastic! No one would ever guess that this is your first time. I am waiting until I have the money to order my set of colored pencils. Hopefully next week, so can't give you any tips, but I only hope that my first attempt turns out half as good as yours. I would probably tend to go with what one poster said and follow the colors and shading on the front of the stamps. That is what I plan on doing.

Have a happy stamping day!

Trish in Wisconsin

And happy birthday, too!

Did you know that all the House-Mouse mice have names, unique personalities, and are colored differently? Here's the "Meet the Mice" page... so clever. http://www.house-mouse.com/php/amanda.php

This is a tutorial for coloring: http://www.house-mouse.com/php/howtocolor.php

Another Prismacolor and baby oil gal here. I love my House Mouse stamps and you are right about not mass producing them, not gonna happen. Besides they wouldn't be special then! :) BTW, your's look great!

Pamela

Thank you Judi for the link to the Meet the Mice page and tutorial. The Meet the Mice page is so cute and some of the stamps just make me laugh! I have a feeling I will end up with quite a few of these little characters before I am done!

Thanks everyone for your input and kind comments.

Thank you for the link to the Mice pages and to the Tutorial. Both were very interesting. Great references for using color.

Have a happy stamping day!

Trish in Wisconsin

I own a 2 page step by step glossy colored guide to coloring House Mice. This was availabe by Stampa Rosa which I believe is out of business now, it came in clear plastic tube with the appropriate colors of water based markers. The guide uses Tombow markers plus a dove blender. I will list the colors of the Tombow markers here if anyone is interested:
Amanda - Tombow 985, 947, 800 and 772
Monica - Tombow N79, 800 & 772
Mudpie - Tombow 899,912,800 & 772
Maxwell - Tombow 947, 800 & 772
Muzzy - Tombow 947, N79, 800 & 772
In addition they recommend using the Dove Blender. You may be able to use a different type of blender now that wasn't available back in the 1990s??
The other page of the guide gives more detailed instructions on how to color each mouse.
I purchased this kit at a stamp convention a long time ago. It looks like they sold the 2 pages separately too since the prices printed on each sheet-$2. Pretty cheap for color glossy pages.

The Paper Monkey blog has a nice tutorial for coloring House Mouse with Copics.

for fast coloring I use watercolor crayons and a blending pen. I keep an envelop with my HM stamped cardstock, a small pack of watercolor crayons and a blending pen together and when my kids color so do I then I have a bunch of colored images ready to go! That is the fastes way I've found with a result I like!

jenniewren, forgot to tell you that I loved your coloring. Aren't Prisma pencils and gamsol are great for blending.