Christmas is approaching sooner than I thought, and I’m getting into the spirit of it! Raised Buddhist but educated at a Catholic school in Japan, we never did Christmas in the family but I had the chance to share this holiday among my friends. This year, it’s the first time for me to go out of my way and get a tree in my own house. A tiny one. And I decorated it with tiny Hello Kitty dollies of course along with small teddy bears and one Miffy. What fun that was! Good thing about living on your own is that it’s your tree and you can to what you want with it! And to add more cuteness to trees, I also decided to paint one for fun…
First the Drawing
For this piece, I used a larger A3 paper from Marabu Mixed Media sketchpad. I began by coating the paper with some white gesso mixed with Sargent’s liquid watercolour in Fluorescent Blue using a wide brush with short hard bristles. Once that was dry, I began sketching with graphite pencil. Made my christmas tree with a kawaii angel on the top! I couldn’t manage to make the tree perfectly symmetrical and did the best I could but realised trees are never naturally symmetrical so just leave it as is! The painting is about cuteness and celebrating Christmas, right?
Painting and Adding Texture
I was very impressed with how wonderful the iridescent acrylic paints from Old Holland are that I was keen to use it on this painting! And hence the tree was coloured in Iridescent Jade, and how gorgeous is that! I then traced over the pencil drawing of the angel with some metallic acrylic markers. Some texture was further added on her wings and also on the tree base using some modelling paste spread with a small narrow palette knife. So far so exciting!
What a Cute Angel!
So let’s focus on this kawaii angel! Once the modelling paste was dry, I dabbed on some fluid acrylic in iridescent bright gold (by Golden) on top. Loving how the metallic shade enhances the texture! Hair was drawn in acrylic markers, and face with a bit of the gold mixed with yellow ochre. The silver for the collar was dotted in with some Golden heavy body acrylic in Iridescent Silver. As with the dress itself, I used some Pearl Violet. And the halo I traced around the gold with some glitter glue! How sweet does she look. I even made some close-up shots of her alone here!
Teddy Bear Decorations!
I originally considered adding some sequins or something fancy. With the angel so cute, though, how about continuing with the cute theme instead? I firstly thought about those pretty origami papers which I have loads of. In fact, I have lots of them in red which would be perfect for Christmas! And of course, cute animal shapes would be an idea in line with my Hello Kitty Christmas tree at home. I then realised I have some craft punches to create teddy bear shapes so I lined up three different origami paper patterns and in total cut out 12 teddy bear shapes. Then glued them on using my Japanese rice glue. After trying to get the placements perfect, I must say I am well pleased with the outcome. And how about this!!
Quite a fancy yet cute piece. I like how it is chic with the metallic colours but also kawaii with the angel and the teddy bears. Not too bling, and not too childish. Something that would appeal to all age groups, I would think. In fact, I am considering having this painting framed and maybe hang it up somewhere for next Christmas! Even get a photograph taken of it (boyfriend is a professional photographer) and make Christmas cards for next year. Now how cool could that be!
My Kawaii Quarter 