Finally getting back my creative mojo as I went for a walk in the countryside yesterday by my boyfriend’s place. I haven’t painted with watercolours for a while and wanted a bit of change. Also it’s been a while since I’ve painted my muse, the Little One, sometimes known as Mini Me. Today, it’s going to be Mini Me taking a stroll with boyfriend (Little HJ) whom I’ve also hadn’t painted for a long time!
After stretching the watercolour paper, I began drawing in pencil. A sweet one of us walking in the field on a sunny day surrounded by birds, flowers and even dogs. Not ours but of people walking theirs. Apologies for the bad photo but not easy taking one when you have to sketch lightly with pencil lol. So I just adjusted it on Instagram. Just to give you an idea:
Now paint away! I firstly brushed washes of watercolour in the background, carefully skimming the subjects. Here, I used Dr. Ph. Martin’s Hydrus liquid watercolours diluted with water, since I prefer using them for large areas like the background. For the sky, I went for Phytalo Blue (7H). I had quite a bit of it left over so rather than waste it, I mixed the colour with Hansa Yellow Medium (25H) to give it a light green shade for the upper grass area. The remaining mix was used for the bottom grass by, in turn, blending the colour with Turquoise Blue (34H).
Then I opened my box of Winsor and Newton watercolour pans and tried out new colours for the bird, the doggie, the flower and the faces of us Little Ones. I used for the first time Jane Davenport’s set of mini watercolour pans which have quite a range of bright vivid colours you normally won’t find in the conventional pans. They’re great! Used the bright pink (Best Friend) on the My dress and cobalt blue (Butterfly) on His outfit. Then I thought I’d do something different with my watercolour painting by using India Ink! Unlike watercolours, they are permanent but still can be diluted with water for more spread. I used my usual Dr. Ph. Martin’s pots and painted the hearts in Scarlet and the sun in Iridescent Yellow. Love their intensity whilst remaining quite transparent, and they certainly work well with watercolours. The eyes I drew in with Aquarelle pencils (Caran D’ache Prismalo) and spread out with a small wet brush for a not too heavy look.
And the hair. Yes, I came up with this cool idea for watercolours. Use water-soluble crayons! I like the Neocolor II by Caran D’ache. Briskly draw in the hair using 3-4 different shades of the same colour in say brown or grey. Then gently brush and briefly and (not too much) blend the colours together to give that more realistic strandy appearance. Here’s a bit of close up. I used four shades for the brown (Raw Siena, VanDyke Brown, Burnt Siena, Raw Umber) :
To fill in the white areas like the outfit collars and white of eyes, I used white gouache for a more matted look. I also made use of my white Uni Posca pen to add some fun details on the painting: buttons on the outfits, whites of the eyes for further enhancement, bird trail, grass doodles and the sun rays. Then some coloured ones for the hearts (red) and the grass (green). Now am happy!
Oh I know still summer colours. I guess I can’t switch off! Considering it’s already the First of October today, and it’s been raining on and off with temperatures falling to 9 degrees centigrade, I must be really missing summer and not quite keen on the changing season. Not to worry, as I mentioned in an earlier post, such bright vivid colours certainly bring out more energy and helps keep me warm. Nice to do simple cute paintings like this for a change too!
My Kawaii Quarter 