Just a random painting I made the other day when I saw someone on FB posting her big dog with her little kitten together getting on as friends and how cute it was. It got me inspired, as I myself have a cute brown stuffed animal doggy called Woof Woof and on his back sits a Hello Kitty plush dressed as a dog. So let’s paint about it! Besides, it’s been a hectic few days with still working on our new house, and this is another relaxation painting in between busy times. Here I went for watercolors followed by a bit of Ecoline markers.
Pencil Sketch
For this painting, I simply used a sketchbook Strathmore’s Visual Journal for Watercolors. The characters were sketched using aquarelle pencil, Caran d’Ache’s Prismalo In hindsight, I am not sure if this was a good idea because as I painted the background first as usual, the color from the pencil bled as it dissolved into the watercolor. Of course, I should have known! And this is why graphite is a better option for sketching. I would not recommend painting the subject first, by the way; it’s a hassle trying not to get the paint onto the subjects particularly when detailed, and most of the time it does look too obvious. Anyhow, here is my pencil sketch! So far so cute.
Painting Time!
For the paint, I went for leftover colors I had sitting in the tray. I had previously used some tubes of Holbein watercolors for a previous work, and as I had a lot left, I have been painting with them again a few times. That is the beauty of watercolours as you can go back to working with leftover paint by simply a wet brush. And here I used the blue and green. Also notice how I struggled trying to circumvent the aquarelle pencil sketch and avoid getting it mixed with the background colors. Once I was nevertheless happy with the background, I proceeded with painting the doggy and kitty! The kitty was colored in with some leftover orange yellow paint. For the dog, though, I used some charcoal grey from Kuretake Gansai Tambi pans.
Details with Markers
Once I was finished with shading the characters and letting the paint dry, I was ready to add the eyes and leaves on the ground. I went for my Ecoline markers here. Though water-soluble, these are actually inks rather than watercolor pens and hence the colors come out more vividly whilst working very well with watercolor. With the doggy’s eyes, though, I messed up a bit but managed to rescue them by diluting the brown with a wet brush. The whites of her eyes were then dotted in with white gel pen. Further underestimating how strong the Ecoline colors came out, I also ended up toning down Kitty’s eyes by going over them with gold gel pen. I know next time what to expect. Otherwise, I’m very happy with the painting and here it is, how sweet Kitty and Doggy look!
Another fun painting in between my busy schedule! A great way to relax and wind down by going for cute things even if they are so far fetched. But let your imagination wander away! It’s the fun part of being creative. And I enjoy experimenting with various mediums too and seeing what surprises are in store. Glad that this painting turned out fine, and I will definitely be churning out more watercolor and ink combinations.
My Kawaii Quarter 