Today I was in the mood of creating something funky yet kawaii. I had some leftover paint left from Dr. Ph. Martin’s Hydrus watercolours. You know how pricey they can be! So once again, waste not want not. When I finished one of my previous paintings, I simply brushed a wash of the blue and the turquoise on another sheet of paper from my Mixed Media Sketchbook and created this funky piece:
The background wash, for your interest, was like this. Brush in horizontal stroke up and down, then in vertical strokes and then back in horizontal and vertical again. Keep repeating that pattern till the paint runs out. There was quite a bit of paint left in the watercolour dish, and since I wanted to create a built-up wash, I diluted it further with water which explains why painting it over and over again. You can still see the streaks but hopefully painting over it may distract the viewer from them.
Then I sketched in pencil what I wanted in the painting, as I knew exactly what I had in mind. Little One is wearing a huge hat with teddy bear ears and dressed in a cute jumpsuit looking all trendy in a huge necklace whilst clutching on her little Teddy Bear called Dacco. In Japanese, the word for cuddle is “dakko” typically used by little kids. Thought I’d spell it with to c’s instead to make it sound even cuter! It’s autumn so the fallen leaves below her feet. Tested the pink (Ranger’s Magenta) on the hat which I was happy with, and now we were good to go! The colour of the background by the way is a bit greener because of the light when I took a photo of it.
After painting in the hat, I tried for the first time Jane Davenport’s acrylic portrait paint set specifically used for skin tones. Although I could have easily mixed it with my own existing stuff, I found it quite convenient. It was like mixing foundation which brought back memories of training as a make-up artist! For the hair, I decided to do something new. Use water-soluble oil pastels! A bit of a contradiction but these oil-based pastels are firstly applied then spread out using a wet brush but once dry, become waxy so you can’t add other media on top. Here I used a combination of browns #227, #409 and #411. I painted the cute little jumpsuit in Royal Talen’s Light Rose, whilst her Dacco-chan was in Yellow Ochre. The fallen leaves were coloured in using Dylusions paints in Lemon Zest and Squeezed Orange.
I used some acrylic mediums for parts of Little One’s accessories to bring out some texture. For the base of the hat, I mixed in some coarse modeling paste with a combination of Ranger’s Evergreen and Fluorescent Yellow. I applied some Glass Beads medium on the heart-shaped pendant and once dry, tapped the area with some red paint, whilst the big beads were shaded with some gold paint. Always fun to play around with what I have in my art kit!
After painting in the drawing, I glued on some collages of origami paper on the hat for added cuteness and also some bits on the ground to blend in with the fallen leaves. The veins of the leaves were drawn in using India Ink in orange. Then the eyes were painted in brown with the whites, as usual, dotted in with Uni Posca pen. I drew in the lashes and the eyes of Dacco-chan the teddy bear with black gel pen. Then to let the cute little pink jumpsuit pop out more, I outlined it with Molotow’s acrylic pen in Pink.
I felt that the background looked a bit bare so added some stamped images using Ranger’s Distressed Ink. For the edges of the painting, especially the top, I lightly rubbed in some Turquoise ink too to give the backdrop more depth, using that method as well with some stencil which worked rather well. I also added some leafy shapes among the fallen leaves with Dylusions paint pen in Squeezed Orange and some green dots with Molotow’s acrylic pen. Then added some finishing touches by tapping in some gold india ink on the necklace and green base of the hat and doodling in some details with iridescent india ink on the hat along with small white circles with my Uni Posca pen. And now we’re talking!
And again what fun it was experimenting and combining various media for this piece. That’s the beauty of mixed media. Whilst I like to keep my paintings simple and not too busy, I still enjoy discovering the amazing possibilities available for creating whatever comes to mind and with powerful effects. Today it was about kawaii and funky.
My Kawaii Quarter 