Pretty Predator

Another by-chance drawing as I began developing from a practice session yesterday. I wanted again to experiment with my new Pan Pastels but this time without firstly priming the paper with Pastel Ground. As we established, the primer gave the Pan Pastels a choppy rough appearance which was not very attractive on its own. So I sponged directly onto paper some of the Magenta Tint, a cute light shade of pink. Looking much better! Then stenciled in some paw prints using some pink Distressed Oxide on a sponge tip and with more of the ink spread on the corners of the paper.

The first thing that came to mind was of course a cat! But a huge one. With a big head and small body. Must be stemming from my obsession with Hello Kitty. So a big-headed cat is is! I was at this point getting a bit hung up with composition particularly with the one-third rule. Although the cat’s head was two-thirds and the body one-third, I couldn’t quite get the position of the whole cat correct so I added an imaginary water on the side along with some bubbles above. The Pan Pastel was fading away with all the erasing whilst doing the pencil outlines but I figured I can reapply it in the end.

Now time to paint! I traced the outline of the cat with oil pastel and drew some stripes in the cat before filling her in with brown acrylic paint mixed with matte medium. Wanting stick to analogous shades with the pink, I coloured the water in lilac using Neocolor II water-soluble oil pastels spread out with a wet brush. Similar method with the bubbles using violet.

I felt more was needed in the painting so added some fish in the water with some rubber stamps dipped in Distressed Ink in Shaded Lilac. Then I stamped on some bubble wrap around the fish with the Distressed Oxide version of the same colour. Finally, drew the eyes in using Dylusions acrylic paint in Periwinkle Blue mixed with a bit of London Blue. Eyelashes and whites of eyes were done up using Uni Posca pens with the sparkles of the lashes dotted with Faber Castell’s Pitt Artists Pen in gold. Finished the painting by repowdering the background with the Pan Pastel before spraying with some fixative. And have a look, this poor little kitty is hungry and looking for fish to eat!

A sweet and simple drawing with also a soft touch. The Pan Pastel background definitely enhances the softness especially with the light pink. Furthermore, sticking to lilacs and violets as analogous shades provides a calm and soothing effect. I deliberately coloured the little kitty in brown instead of black for that reason. And now the vivid blue eyes. They certainly add a strong accent to the painting. By chance they just happen to be positioned according to the one-third theory. Now it all makes sense!