Hello Kitty Blues

A few weeks ago, I created some cute artwork using Hello Kitty face cut-outs from my Sizzix die cutter, as seen in Hello Kitty Reflections and Hello Kitty Unmasked. I then thought what a brilliant idea it would be to use these shapes as stencils too!  Here was the opportunity to go for it.  Then I would make the kitties all blue to go with the background and of course to turn it into another potential Halloween theme!

Background from Leftover Paint

As I always like to do, I brushed on leftover paint from a previous painting on another piece of paper (Strathmore Visual Journal).  I don’t like to waste especially as the paints don’t come cheap!  You may recognise some of the colours from a previous work Refreshed.  First came the yellow/orange inks followed by bubble-wrap imprints of the olive green.  The pretty colours of pink and purple were then brushed on top in swirls.

Stencil in the Kitties!

To be honest, once I was happy with the background work, I was not sure what to paint on top.  It was quite by chance I found a scrap Hello Kitty cut-out lying around on my desk along with its paper with the “hole” from which Hello Kitty had been cut out.  At the time, I seem to remember cutting out an extra Hello Kitty because I needed to see exactly where the eyes and nose would sit when drawing them in for my previous painting!  Convenient.  I then grabbed some Distress Oxide in Peacock Feathers and using this Hello Kitty “hole” as stencil, I carefully tapped the ink in with a sponge tipped applicator.  Looks cool so far!I

Superstitious

I of course wanted to use the remaining Hello Kitty cut out and paste it on.  However, when I did a trial shot at placing the Kitty, I felt there was a bit of an “empty” space on the top right corner.  Besides, I didn’t want “four” kitties.  The Japanese believe that the numbers 4 and 9 are unlucky, and being part-Japanese, I’m quite superstitious haha.  So what to do?

Adding More Kitties!

I thought the only solution to the problem was to stencil in another kitty!  This time, I opted for a different shade of blue.  Distress Oxide in Salty Ocean was used which was slightly darker than the existing Peacock Feathers.  Looks great!  Then before gluing on this remaining cut-out, I placed it over the stencilled heads and traced in the eyes and noses with a pencil for accurate placement.  This cut out was then coloured in with the Salty Ocean ink with the sponge applicator.  Whilst waiting for it to dry, I drew in the eyes and noses with my Molotow acrylic markers, being careful not to let them smudge.  The cut out was then glued on with my Japanese rice glue, as I was afraid medium gel might smear the paints.  And now!

How cute is that!  I am proud of how it all turned out.  Quite a simple piece but I love how vivid the colours are and how well they harmonise with one another.  Painting the Hello Kitties in blue was also a fun idea, taking into account also Halloween is coming up.  Since I’ve got a variety of shapes including a number of Hello Kitty ones, I would most definitely use the Sizzix die cutter more often!