As I’m writing this, I am happily relaxing in Spain. It’s been over 20 months since my last foreign holidays, and though I was in no real rush my BF and we felt we both could do with a little break! We moved into our new house just over a year ago, packing and unpacking our stuff and redecorating and organizing which though exciting was quite stressful. Of course we deserved a vacation! Covid rules in EU are a bit less strict, and as we are fully vaccinated this is a good chance to take it easy by going on a road trip from the Netherlands to the northeast coast of Spain. And then I found a cute colorful painting I did a few weeks ago and thought this was a perfect theme. Little One is off to Spain too and enjoying all the vivid colors around her surrounded by beautiful flowers. And getting dressed up as an elegant Señorita in her stylish frock!
Starting from Leftover Paint
As you know, I hate wasting stuff especially good-quality paint that does not come out cheap! I had quite a bit of violet gouache and purple acrylic paint left as well as some flesh-coloured mixture of white and quinacridone azo nickel gold. Oh and not to mention some dark blue too! Whenever I’m working on a painting, I have a page from another sketchbook open on which I wipe the excess paint and create a drawing whilst I’m at it. I think I already knew what I wanted to paint!
Developing the Background
First I doodled some flowers and squiggles with my newly-purchased neon oil pastels by Daler Rowney. Color blocks of warm colors like Nickel Azo Yellow, Indian Yellow Hue and Pyrrol Red were randomly applied. I created some flower shapes as well whilst I was at it. At this point, I was painting away aimlessly to see where it will all lead to!
More Painting
And now I decided to create something flowery by doodling on top of the color blocks with some India Ink in Tangerine, Iridescent Salmon, Grass Green and Iridescent Green. Using Ph Martin’s Bombay Ink was a great idea given they give out strong vivid results. It’s been some time since using this medium, and I’m glad I went back to using them again. Then some blue was added, including Aqua Blue Holbein’s gouache and Old Holland’s Iridescent Blue acrylic, followed by some collages of origami paper in craft-punched flower shapes. The whites of eyes Little One’s eyes were done with white Molotow markers which were also used to doodle in some flowers in the background. So far so cute!
Finishing Touches
A few more doodles were added, followed by some dots and markings with lilac and ice green gouache. I then incorporated some texture in the painting with some glitter glue and Sennelier’s 3D Liners in various colors which were randomly scattered around the background. Little One’s eyelashes were also lined with some glitter glue. And now I can say that I’m done here!
Another kawaii piece which started off with some leftover paint! I enjoy working intuitively and seeing what I can come up with, and this is a great example of what develops. The colors turned out so beautifully and looks so autumnal! By introducing some pretty flowers, though, the painting now looks so cheerful and bright. They certainly add to this holiday mood of Spain at the end of September which Little One is thoroughly enjoying. Doesn’t she look so adorable?
My Kawaii Quarter 