A few weeks ago I sketched and shared here an ink and pen drawing. It was about some of the animals we came across near our new home in Werkhoven, a rural village in Holland surrounded by farm. To recap, have a browse here on my blog about Whimsical Werkhoven (Part 1). A kawaii sketch using Sumie inka d bamboo stick pen: bunny, cow and kitty!
Watercolors
When I finished the ink sketch, I decided to leave it as is. I knew I wanted to work on it further like coloring it in but was uncertain at the time how to go about that. After a few weeks I went back to it and took the plunge. Watercolor seemed like a good choice but rather than the usual pans, I went for liquid form. I’ve never really used Dr Ph Martin’s Hydrus Liquid Watercolors except for large areas like backgrounds and hence thought I’d try them properly.
The experiment went well, I must say! For the faces I merely combined yellow, blue and magenta. I used a light touch for this by diluting the paints well with water as they are highly concentrated. Any excess magenta and blue I spread on the outfits of bunny and kitty. Some also got blended into the violet outfits for the cow. As for the background, I firstly scribbled some curves and spirals with oil pastels to give the watercolor some resistance before brushing the excess watercolor on, as you can see for the sky and ground.
Adding Acrylics
At this point I thought it would be a good idea to switch to acrylic. The sky was then filled with Golden Fluid Acrylic in Teal which I mixed with white metallic paint by ARA. I love how the color blended well with the blue watercolor. Then I covered the ground with the white metallic paint with my fingers but made sure the watercolor streaks below showed through.
Finishing Touches
And now for the final details! Molotow acrylic markers were used for the eyes (grey), cow’s horn (pink), collars and doodles on the outfits (white). Whites of the eyes were dotted in with a gel pen. Then for a bit of fun I added some pink glitter glue on the cow’s horns. Et voilà, the ultimately whimsical animals of Werkhoven!
I’m glad I waited a few weeks after the initial ink sketch to develop it into a painting. Making it a mixed media piece was not even thought about until I started working on it, as I had originally intended to use just watercolors. This goes to show how your creative mind develops as you go by. The color scheme worked really well too, and I’m well pleased with the result!
My Kawaii Quarter 