Colour Burst

I started preparing this piece about a month ago and completed it some weeks later.  Having my experience at the Ayako Rokkaku exhibition fresh in my mind, I was again inspired by this amazing Japanese artist and ventured into creating another piece for fun.  First thing I thought of when finishing it was Little One wandering into a room of funky lights with bursts of colour!  She is at first a bit taken back with the brightness but grows to enjoy it.  Now she loves being surrounded by vivid colours as it lightens up her day!

The Beginning

Like Rokkaku, the painting is more intuitive and was totally unplanned.  Here I started with using up pools of the India Ink I had been using for another project by just doodling away.  Then I began adding more doodles with oil pastels and then topping it all with some yellow fluid acrylic paint and spraying on some Dylusions ink in Lemon Zest and Vanilla Custard.

More Layers

This is when the “Rokkaku inspiration” comes in as I began introducing various colours on top.  It was a random mix of acrylic inks and heavy bodied acrylics to experiment with the different thicknesses.  Although Rokkaku spreads her paints with her fingers, I also used a palette knife and splattered ink directly from the bottle droppers.  I think it took some time until I was happy and ready to pursue the next step.

Enter Little One!

It took a few days to decide what I wanted to do with this painting.  Though I was happy with it as a background, what to draw on it?  I was keen on including Little One but how?  Then I came up with the idea of positioning her not quite in the centre but just a bit on the right, under the India Ink doodles of hearts and flowers.  Something different from the usual.  I started painting her hair and face using Jane Davenport’s paints which are quite opaque.  As the background colours were quite strong, though, I spread some modelling paste on her hair and dress  This also gives texture to Little One and makes her pop out from the background!

Colour Me Kawaii!

After letting the modelling paste dry, I added more brown on the top in her hair.  The dress was baby pink, and I drew in the details with acrylic markers.  Eyes were also painted in brown markers.  To make the whites of the eyes show, I brushed in some white gesso and then painted white on top.  I decided to add two little bunny heads to give more dimension to the painting.  Otherwise, it would look a bit too lonely. I simply brushed in some white gesso, then painted over it before outlining and drawing eyes in pink acrylic markers.  Now I think we’re done here!

Once again, an intuitive painting that turned out colourful and kawaii!  I enjoy making up as I go along and experimenting with the different colours.  Now that the warm summer is coming to an end, it’s a good chance to work with bright colours while the season lasts.  And Little One agrees as she exits the room of vivid funky lights.  Let’s make the most of it!