It was through one of Ana’s suggested tutorials that I got the idea to paint on black paper. There, she plays with white gesso and although I am considering that too, I thought I’d first do my own thing and experiment with various mediums like pastel-colors and see what I could create. A kawaii theme of me and boyfriend was the first I had in mind of course!
Acrylic Pen and Coloured Pencils
Wanting to observe the effect of pastel colours on black paper, I went for a baby pink bunny hat and baby blue teddy hat for me and boyfriend, respectively. How cute! I used my Molotow acrylic markers for the outline followed by filling in with my pastel coloured set of Holbein Artist Colored Pencils. In fact, it was from buying this set that I was keen on trying them out on black paper. They worked really well I must say; I was not looking to cover up the black in the first place and found the contrast between pastel colours with the black showing underneath quite stunning as these colours really pop out.
Cleaning up Mistakes
One thing worth pointing out is what happens when you mess up on black paper. On white paper one would use white gesso but for black, black gesso is naturally applicable. What if you don’t have any, though? I used permanent ink! In this case, I had some Faber Castell’s Pitt Artist Pen in black. The mark can still be seen so like I’d do for any mistake, just cover it up with collage or in this case, a random doodle on top!
Embellishing the Painting
Once I was finished with the coloured pencils, I searched my drawers for all the effective mediums I had. These included more acrylic markers especially fluorescent colours and metallic effects, gel pens in various forms including metallic and pastel shades, glitter glue, gouache as they give a matte effect and the Sennelier 3D Acrylic liner for some texture. Basically, I continued doodling and adding random squiggles and shapes. And what amazing results!
I had a lot of fun challenging myself with this drawing. It’s not often I get to use black paper. When I use such paper it would be for “classical” chalk and soft pastel or Conte sticks and never for other mediums like coloured pencils or pens. How interesting it all turned out. This was a very successful experiment and I’d definitely do it again!
My Kawaii Quarter 