Back from Vacation!

Little One has been enjoying and making the most of the bright warmer days before the colder wetter days set in. Look how sweet and happy she looks surrounded by all the fun vibrant colors! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been back from my vacation to Spain and France which we thoroughly relished. The weather in the Netherlands has been worsening with plummeting temperatures, lots of rain (typical for Autumn), dreary atmosphere and shorter days making miss the colorful cheerful mood of a few weeks ago! And that inspired to paint about it. Conveniently, I began a painting just a few days prior to leaving for vacation but didn’t get to complete till I resumed upon my return. And here I finally completed this kawaii piece illustrating Little One enjoying those warmer moments!

A Flourescent Beginning

Like the pastel-tones, another phase I’m going through at the moment is finding as much as possible any art medium in neon colors. A few have been purchased lately, including a set of Winsor & Newton’s Promarkers alcohol ink pens and some oil pastels by Daler & Rowney. And on a blank page from my sketchbook Strathmore’s Visual Journal in Bristol Paper, I began scribbling away. Just random shapes and squiggles as well as flower and plants. And here is when I left it and took off on vacation.

Adding More Layers

The painting resumed when I got back from vacation, with the colorful mood fresh in my mind. With some acrylic ink in green, yellow, turquoise, dark blue and fluorescent pink, I incorporated some color blocks and shapes. Collages were also introduced as well; some torn up wrapping paper and deli paper bits I had designed myself last year using Copic marker and stamps with permanent ink by Staz On. Once I was ready, I was good to go!

Let’s Add Little One!

And now the time we’ve been waiting for…. drawing Little One! Once I figured out how and where to place her, I cut out a large circle from an old newspaper for her face. Coming back from France, I figured a French-language one would be cool! The one used here was just some scrap newspaper in which my gifts were wrapped. Now I wish I had collected a copy or two from France and as well as Spain! Once the face was painted with my usual blend of Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold and Titanium White, I added the eyes with Molotow acrylic markers, followed by the hair first using the dropper from Antelope Brown ink. spreading with water then when dry drawing more with the markers. As with the dress, I first tried using some water soluble oil pastels like Neocolor II by Caran d’Ache to achieve a transparent look, but alas, the water would not spread on the waxy deli paper collage. Let’s see what we can do then!

Dressing Up the Painting

To resolve the problem about Little One’s red dress, I simply went for red acrylic ink, and it worked fine. The color remained quite transparent which was the objective. After having painted the collar and reflection of the eyes with white acrylic marker (Molotow), I then thought it would be a cute idea to add the crown to help balance the composition. Here I used gold, firstly some Full Body Paint by Golden, followed by Holbein’s Acryla gouache and outlined with some glitter glue. The background was further adorned with some white gel pen doodles and a dollop of shell pink gouache for the flower. And now, I think we’re done here!

After some days with digital art and doodling in my tiny journal sketchbook, it was great coming back to some proper painting again! Even more fun was being able to do some intuitive mixed media work. It certainly brought out all the wonderful colors together giving a cheerful vibrant atmosphere of the warmer climate we had left behind. I’m looking forward to doing more such mixed media painting soon to brighten up the darker dreary days of the coming months. Meanwhile, drawing about and just looking at Little One looking so adorable make me happy!