Migrating

I really miss having the time for mixed media painting, let alone getting creative! The last time I was able to sit down and do one was more than three weeks ago. Since then, I’ve been so preoccupied with preparing for my move. I even had no time to blog about it! And now I would like to share it, along with a cute story: Little One is also migrating to the countryside! She’s getting a bit fed up living in the city and has found a her kawaii dream house in a tiny village, near a farm where the atmosphere is more friendly. Surrounded by pretty flowers and a the green. She was even given a basket of fresh-farmed eggs by local farmer’s wife because she’s so sweet! And now Little One can cook some pancakes and even try learning to bake some cake. And now how about a painting about it!

Starting with Leftover Paint

I found a page in my sketchbook (Strathmore’s Mixed Media sketchbook) with some flesh-coloured paint leftover from a previous painting. From there, I firstly doodled in some hearts with pink soft pastels and randomly splattered some acrylic ink in green, yellow and turquoise. It’s the first time I’ve experimented with combining with these two mediums which is not conventional, and I must say they worked quite well together!

Collages and Layers

I continued adding layers of paints and inks for the background, even dotting on a few dollops of gouache and scraping in some small flower drawings in them. Then it was time to work on Little One. I made her dress fluorescent pink and was amazed how the colour just popped out against the green and yellow background. The hair was firstly sketched with oil pastels before being painted on with Antelope Brown ink directly using a dropper. Then came the fun part: collaging! I found some pretty paper napkins featuring nature such as flowers and butterfly and a basket full of eggs! Oh and on the same napkins I found a pair of Dutch wooden clogs! How appropriate is that for this theme? While waiting for the gel medium to dry for the collages, I worked on Little One’s eyes using acrylic markers.

Adding Details

I love embellishing my work with some sparkly things for fun. Without going over the top, adding a bit of bling livens up the painting. I firstly dotted in some pearls for Little One’s pink frock. The contrast between a dressy pink frock with pearls and the back-to-basics nature was too cute to resist! For the eyes, I lined with a gold liner pen and dotted the lashes with some glitter glue. Have you also noticed the green creature on the top right corner? I finalized the painting with some doodles around the background using white gel pen. And now!

Now I really miss getting creative with mixed media art! To keep me going and that I don’t get rusty at it, I try and squeeze some time with drawing either with pencil and paper or with my iPad. Hopefully I will be able to get the chance to start painting again. I can’t wait! Meanwhile, it may also possible to spread my time whilst working on a piece. That way I can take my time to develop my thoughts and come up with something cute and interesting!