Little One loves Hello Kitty too! And today, she wants to play and match her outfit with hers for fun. Digging out her red and white striped top and denim pinafore, she slipped them on before pinning a big red ribbon by her left ear. What a perfect match they make! After finding her little plushie, she held it in her hand and is now having a little wander around the garden. How kawaii and adorable! So what’s the occasion then? Since my blog Where is My Stuff??? some positive news: My big fat box of Hello Kitty plushies from Singapore FINALLY arrived! Stranded in Dutch Customs for five long weeks, they finally got released, and whilst I was elated to receive this life sign, what a nerve-wrecking few weeks that was! These are rare limited plushies which made me so stressed and anxious. And now they made it here safely. And of course to celebrate, I want to share with you a Hello Kitty themed digital piece created whilst following another of Mindy Lacefield’s “Procreate Cutie” lessons.
Little Blue Girl
This piece actually derives from the first lesson of Mindy’s class in which we practice drawing on our tablet. Of course, I already know the stuff, but it’s always good to start the course from the beginning so you don’t miss out on what you may not have picked up before. A new brush was also introduced in this lesson, and that was the Dry Square Inker which was among the set of “Jason’s Brushes” I had purchased as add-ons as recommended by Mindy. In this first lesson, we merely sketch a little girl and in blue, hence “Little Blue Girl”. Well, this is my version of the Little Blue Girl!
Importing Hello Kitty
This poor Little Blue Girl was cast aside sadly as we progressed to the next lessons, but I figured I could always continue working further with it later on. The next lesson was about learning to import photos onto your work and creating your own art. Once I got the knack of importing as seen with my other paintings, I returned to my Little Blue Girl to continue practicing. How about incorporating Hello Kitty this time then? It was the blue that inspired me, as it is the same blue seen on Hello Kitty’s blue overalls! And hence I went through my camera roll and found a cute photo I had taken of one of my plushies. I then imported her in the drawing, as if Little One (the Little Blue Girl) were clutching her as a toy. For this import, a new layer was added to make it easier to reposition or resize.
Let’s Start Painting!
And so I began painting and adding texture, first with the background as you can see below. I still had no idea what I wanted but I thought the standard ground and sky would be a good start. A layer was added but shifted down to the one beneath the subjects. First I just played around with some stamps which I had also purchased as add-ons to see how it will all turn out. I was still uncertain and decided to start working on Little One by filling her in with colors. And how about if I match her frock with Hello Kitty’s outfit? That would be so cute! The brushes used were a combination of Oberon and the standard airbrush.
Keep Working on It!
I just kept layering on the paint, playing around with colors. Another tool I was introduced to was the Blending brush which is the “pointing finger” button on the screen. Always wondered what that was, and now I know and it’s very handy. Oberon brush was used mainly for the face and dress, with Dry Square Inker for the hair incorporating textures like Flowing Hair. A cute little red ribbon similar to Hello Kitty was added to really given her a good match. To make her look as if she’s holding her, I repositioned Hello Kitty and slightly expanded her. In the end, I thought a uniform background rather than a scenery would be better suited for the painting and hence I switched to yellow and added some stamps in darker yellow for effect. Finally to balance the composition, I drew an apple in, seeing that apples are regularly featured in Hello Kitty goods. And here we have it! (TIP: to make a perfect matching color with the Hello Kitty outfits, I merely tapped onto the area, and the matching color miraculously shows up on the palette!)
Now that was a fun session again! Always fun practicing with digital art and learning more. What made it even more exciting was incorporating my favorite character, Hello Kitty, and having a matching outfit for Little One too! I shall certainly be doing similar pieces like this, illustrating matching outfits for both of them again, perhaps with different costumes. And now we can celebrate this occasion of recovering my long-lost Hello Kitty plushies and hope for safe and speedy arrivals of more in future!
My Kawaii Quarter 