Along with the home isolation during the COVID-19 crisis comes more creativity! That’s so true as I’ve been discovering, and Little One too. She just found a purple wig in her closet which she had bought some time ago on eBay to wear for a fancy costume party. Just for fun, she don it back on and began putting some makeup on and stuck some flowers in her hair. And once again, Ady Almanza’s tutorial couldn’t come at a better time as I decided to paint another kawaii piece of Little One’s adventure!
The Junk Background
The painting which Ady made for this session was done on her junk journal. As I don’t have one, I improvised and made my own background on a page from my Strathmore Mixed Media sketchbook. On the bottom third of the page, I glued on bits of a Dutch-language newspaper that comes in a beige-salmon coloured shade similar to the Financial Times
The Outline
I first used aquarelle pencil to draw my outline. Although the intended drawing looks simple, I struggled a bit with getting the hair wavy. I was still not 100% happy with it even after many attempts but continued on anyhow, hoping that by painting it in and embellishing later it won’t be too bad. The drawing was eventually traced with Faber Castell’s black permanent marker.
Painting Her In
Oh it didn’t really turn out too badly once I painted the hair! It was done in purple as Ady has also done in her tutorial. Dylusions acrylic paint in Crushed Grape was used for this. Although the lashes are black, the eyes were filled in with Payne’s Grey ink. I coloured in the red heart and white dress with a combination of Caran d’Ache Neocolor II, and coloured pencils, whereas Ady used only coloured pencils.
Adding Details
The main thing I added as variation was the collages of flowers in her hair instead of drawing them in as done in the tutorial. I found some scrap origami paper with flowers cut out and thought that piece would add an interesting negative space effect. Then I cut out some flower shapes on other origami paper with a craft punch and glued them on. The pearls were coloured in with iridescent white paint for a pearly look, and lashes were dotted in with glitter glue as was the red heart. And now!
A fun and kawaii painting and once again, doing something different like painting the hair an alternative colour. Another part I love about tutorials is getting the chance to improvise should one call for something I don’t have. As such, they also teach me to be resourceful, as I make the best of what I already have. I can’t wait for the next challenge now!
My Kawaii Quarter 