The recent colorations of my Big Piranha image have garnered requests for a "how to".  Here is a quick stab at such.








I first cut a paper stencil of the overall shape to be used as a cropping tool over some scrap papers left over from "The Elegant Mess" classes.





The mask helped me determine the location of the most desirable treatment from any one swatch.  You can see were I outlined the form on these swatches.



Here's the one I chose to work with for this example.



...and by way of further clarification, here's what the interior of the piranha shape would look like if removed from its context.



Next, I used a positioner to align my stamp over this shape.  I then inked the stamp with water-based markers to add blue-greenish color to the head and top, and magenta to the lower fins as indicated here.



The colors on the rubber were lightly spritzed and when pressed to the paper, here's the result.



After the image dried a bit, more color was added to deepen the value in the head and expand the color palette in the fins.



Detail was lightly added to the head with markers and pen, and shape added to the eye.



At this point, I felt it was done.

If cut from it's context or surroundings, this is what the final image would look like.



It would now be possible to take that cut out and glue onto other backgrounds.  Here just a simple black background with texturing makes this image jump off the page.



....and there ya go.

Have fun out there.  And play on!

copyright © 2014 Fred B. Mullett