Off with their heads!

I made this card to thank the couple who hosted a recent Euchre tournament in my neighborhood. I used this image before in a class, coloring the Queen of Hearts with Copic markers. Here is the link to that version. I prefer that look but this was fun to do also. I used colored pencils but am not crazy about the paper I used. I honestly don't know what make or type of paper this is. It was in a folder with other "pencil paper" but that doesn't mean it wasn't misfiled.

For those who don't work with colored pencils, the ideal paper needs a little bit of texture, referred to as "tooth".  This isn't fine art, this is a cute card, so I'm okay with the result and it will go out in today's mail.

The colors are more accurate in this photo below. I glazed the queen's crown, heart on her staff, and her monocle with a clear gel pen.

This closeup shows how the texture in the paper (too much!) affected coloring. Colored pencils sit on top of the paper, they aren't absorbed the way paints and markers are. When a paper has stark hills and valleys, color is caught on the hills but doesn't always reach the valleys. From a distance, this card looks fine. Up close you can see some of the white paper showing in her skin tones and dress. She's a crazy lady though and no one would dare point this out to her! She'll order "Off with their head!" if they say anything disparaging!

Her monocle isn't white, it was done with a clear pen. The beads in the chain of that monocle are silver but they did not photograph that way.