You know I’m a huge fan of Hello Kitty. Not only a fan but also an avid collector of her stuff! For a change, I thought it would be sweet to tell you a story about her adventures along with Little One. Hello Kitty is with her new friend, an owl whom she rescued from the woods and brought onto a boat. Owls are nocturnal animals and hence they had to rush before the sun comes out. So out they are sailing, with Kitty making sure Owl is ok. And under the sea is Little One in her cute little pink wet suit, playing role of backup. Everything seems to be doing well so far, and soon all three will make it on shore before the daylight hits too hard. And here I wanted to share a painting I made about it!
Starting Again with S
Following the first Lesson of Tracy Verdugo’s Story Painting class, some of us decided to do a second attempt at the painting. Remember my first one called Mice with Lipstick? I created a variation of it, this time instead of a rainbow, I made it a sunrise. And since Tracy’s original characters for this painting were a cat and an owl rather than two mice and a rabbit as I had done, I went for her idea. And who else would the cat be but Hello Kitty! For this painting, I went for an A3 size paper but used Canson’s Mixed Media paper also 300 gsm. The letter S was painted in as done the last time, using this time Hansa Yellow paint being careful not to make the curves too deep as I had done. In place of Marine Blue for the previous painting, I went for Turquoise acrylic, as I wanted a light and lively look. The third colour used was Antelope Brown.
Sea and Sunrise
Like the previous painting for this lesson, I doodled in the small fish and some seaweed using oil pastels. Then with a Turquoise ink from another brand (I used Daler and Rowney as well as Sennelier both of which have different versions of Turquoise), I went about glazing some colour on top and adding some curvy lines. For the sunrise, I brushed on some fluorescent yellow and some gold. The sky was initially painted with Pale Pink gouache with water. Then I set about a pencil sketch of my kawaii characters of Hello Kitty with Owl and Little One diving below!
A Bit of Challenge
Colouring in the characters was quite easy. I used gel pens and acrylic markers for this. It was the background and sea that was the challenge! I thought the sky looked a bit too drab, and the sea was getting to be a bit messy. I may have overdone colouring one bit in the sea, and even blotting the area with some gesso and bubble wrap didn’t help much. Since I have come this far to begin creating this kawaii painting, I wasn’t going to give up!
Saved and Rescued!
Like Hello Kitty rescuing Owl, I persevered and decided to rescue my own painting too! And of course, why didn’t I think of it? Collage is always are a great way to cover up mistakes or parts you don’t like. And hence I grabbed some origami paper and cut out some small shapes to make shells and seaweed. And then the sky: I covered the light pink with a glaze of shimmery purple ink and added some purple streaks along with some fluorescent orange with which I also added a streak on the outer edge of the sun. As a final touch, I applied some glitter glue in gold and turquoise on the sea, in red for Hello Kitty’s ribbon and in pink for Little One’s kawaii pink wetsuit! And now I think I’m definitely done.
I’m glad I did a second take for this exercise. Always fun to add variations to what is taught in lessons and once again, getting ideas and inspiration. I also love telling stories behind my paintings and hence this class suits me so well. Look forward to doing more with Tracy!
Click here for more on Tracy Verdugo and her amazing classes!
My Kawaii Quarter 