I had some leftover pink and yellow gouache from the last painting and thought it would be an idea to recycle it! So I doodled in some spirals and squiggles on another piece of paper to see what I could come up with.
I then flipped it to portrait profile and imagined an image of a teddy bear with big round ears holding a pair of shields. But not wanting to let teddy look threatening. I thought adding images of bunnies would be cute. I then sketched my idea in pencil before tracing over it with black permanent marker (Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen).
There were too many white spaces though. And then I came up with Gelli printing a stencil on top with pink Distress Ink. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out as I had wanted again but since I was going to paint around the subjects anyway, I was not too upset.
The background was coated on with a layer of white gesso. Now I have a better idea of what the painting would be like. Looking good! And I love those patterns on the subjects.
This time, I used some Amsterdam acrylic paints for the blue sky and green ground. I also scumbled on some white with them to lift the colours out. Concerned about the line that formed across the teddy’s ears, I glued a piece of flower wrapping paper on the right side only. I thought the yellow spiral on the left side looked great as it was so I left it untouched. And the “shields”. I couldn’t decide whether to colour them pink or yellow so why not do one each? The bunnies were not painted over as I liked the patterns as they were.
I then proceeded to the teddy’s eyes and painted them the same shade of blue as the background bit without mixing in white. The lashes were drawn in with Faber Castell markers and the white dots with Uni Posca pen. Feeling the background could do with some more, I took the same stencil as I had used for the Gelli printing in the beginning and sponged in the patterns with Distressed Oxide in matching blue and green. This helped better “connect” the background with the subject. Nuvo Drops in pink and white were initially used on the edges of the shields but I didn’t like them so repainted over them which explains the bumps! So here it is:
It took me a few days to complete this piece. Firstly, I was busy during the day and secondly I took some time deciding each step. Which colours? Which medium? What next? It was one of those occasions when you get a creative block and are slow in planning. But I did get there in the end! It’s such a rewarding feeling, especially recreating something from random doodles and scribbles using leftovers from another work…
My Kawaii Quarter 