Another “holding onto the last of the summer” painting. It is also an opportunity to try my new big A3 mixed media sketchbook by Marabu (300 gsm). As my work is mainly on A4 size, I thought it would be an idea to “think bigger” and go for A3! So got out my inks, pastels and paints and just painted away. Once again, it was all totally unplanned as I began working intuitively and ended up with another kawaii piece of cute little animals!
Background
I firstly began by squirting some acrylic ink and Ecoline ink and spreading them out with my fingers. However, I was disappointed to find that the Ecoline ink penetrated and bled through the paper despite the 300 gsm thickness of the paper. The paper is specifically for Mixed Media supposedly but is still porous. To prevent the problem from worsening, I coated the paper with gesso and started over. Then all was good again. In future, though, I won’t be buying this sketchbook again but as I don’t want to waste the other 31 pages in the book, I’ll have to remember to coat firstly with gesso! I then continued layering my work with the inks and oil pastel doodles. Still using fluorescent inks of green and yellow too!
Kitties, Bunnies and Bears
Once I was done, I came up with the idea of painting a big pink bunny. I love bunnies! And teddies. And of course cats. Then the idea of drawing all of them came up. So I got out my Dylusions acrylic paints and took my time painting them. I love making them all surreal. It seems to be a recurring pattern, but I think it’s cute! Huge heads and standing on legs with arms out rather than on all fours on their paws. Today, they’re scattered around the background amid the chaotic background of flower doodles.
Adding More Cuteness
Once I finished, I felt the painting could do with more. How about some crafty stuff? With a stencil, I then sponged in some more flower designs on the bottom with some Distress Oxide. I also wanted to introduce more kitties, but instead of painting more, I thought I’d be creative and cut out some on origami paper! Patterned shapes certainly add character to the whole picture. I decided not to add the faces to make the painting more mysterious. And now:
Despite the mediocre quality of the paper, I enjoyed working on this piece and am pleased with how it turned out. I love the vibrancy of this piece! Along with the bright background, we have the cute little animals in all different colours complimenting the yellow and green. And how kawaii do they look floating around among all the flower doodles! The cute combination of flora and fauna.
My Kawaii Quarter 