Another play with colours! And Little One is wearing her pretty blue dress trying to cool down in the heat. She’s holding a big purple flower on one hand and a matching flowing handkerchief on the other. How sweet! And she’s also decided to play around a bit with her hair by adding some blue for fun. It does match her dress well. Oh and look at the sparkly eye-makeup! Little One loves experimenting with clothes and makeup, but she is a bit shy so experimenting gives her a boost. And we love her kawaii style!
Fiery Background
An orange background for a change. Again, it started off with smearing some leftover paint on a blank page of my sketchbook (Strathmore’s Mixed Media pad). The paint was gold. Then I decided to jazz it all up a bit by adding layer after layer of warm colours on top such as orange and yellow initially using acrylic ink. Later, I stencilled in some dots and spots with Distress Oxide and rubber-stamped on a few leaves and odd patterns with Distress Ink. These should give some dimension to the painting!
Oil Pastel Sketch
I sketched in Little One using my oil pastels. As said previously, it gives me a chance to figure out what colours work well. I also love how it gives a soft edge to the sketch and prepares me to paint freely. At this point, I don’t really use expensive oil pastel sticks (Talens) although I ought to invest in some now that I find myself using them more often. I know that Sennelier makes good ones, as I’ve used that in my art classes.
Paint Away!
Instead of going straight into brown paint for the hair, I decided to mix my own. I used fluid acrylic paint as it gives a thinner texture without having to resort to watering the paint down and hence dilute the colour Colours mixed were merely yellow, cobalt blue and purple. For the face, I firstly used gold but found it looked too sallow especially with the orange underneath. I then painted over it in haste with Jane Davenport’s skin-coloured paint which was a mistake because I was hoping to let the pretty patterns underneath show through. Oh well! Moving on, I decided it best to focus on other aspects of the painting such as the blue dress and working on the hair a bit more by adding the matching blue streaks! The blue used was Dylusions paints in London Blue. And I glued on for fun some origami paper scraps in the flowers and the handkerchief.
Finishing Touches
The eyes were also initially painted in that same blue as the dress and then I mixed it with some dark brown. For the flowers I used Dylusions paints again but in Laidback Lilac and Crushed Grape. The lashes were then drawn in using acrylic markers. I then added some details on the blue dress by dotting in some Nuvo Drops, and the eye makeup and parts of the flowers were done with glitter glue (Ranger’s Stickles). As you can see below, I didn’t paint in some parts such as the center of the big flower and Little One’s collar. Thought it looked quite cool as they were and left alone. And now!
I’m really getting the hang of playing with colours and am enjoying experimenting! The important thing is not to be afraid to try, whilst keeping in mind the colour wheel theory. What makes it all the more fun is being able to use that to paint my kawaii characters and create amazing things with them. And seeing Little One looking happy and sweet makes me enjoy painting even more! So look forward to more upcoming cute pieces from me…
My Kawaii Quarter 