Little One loves Teddy Bears as well as Hello Kitty’s! Today, she wants to show you a new one she got as a present from her lovely boyfriend. It’s been a hectic few weeks for her as she makes her new garden perfect and ready for the summer so she can soon invite her friends over for tea! She gets a bit stressed at times too. And for that reason, boyfriend wanted to make her happy. How sweet is that!
Another Fun Practice
And of course I wanted to sketch about it: Little One proudly showing us her new present! A few art supplies sit in my drawers waiting to be used more often, and among them is a tin of Derwent’s XL Graphite blocks. As illustrated below, they are a set of six chunky graphite sticks that come in rather limited shades of Very Soft Black, Soft Black, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, Dark Prussian and Olive Green. I’ve used them before but this time I wanted to try them out on some Toned Grey paper and see how they look. And hence I started here.
Sketching Away
Just a simple sketch and trying to vary the colors within the limited six in the tin. The outline was firstly drawn with the Soft Black after which I combined that with Very Soft Black for her hair and eyes. Then Prussian blue for the sky, Olive Green for the ground and finally Raw Umber for the Teddy Bear. Apparently, these Graphite Blocks are the larger version of Derwent Inktense which means they are water-soluble but permanent when dry. I decided to leave the sketch as it is, though, and not dilute the colors since the paper is not suited for wet mediums. Blending was done instead using some cotton buds to spread the colors more. It looks just as good as if they would be blended, only with a grainier (and dryer of course) texture. And now!
A short but simple sketch but you know, it’s quite a wonderful change to sit down and just scribble around after an intensive painting session. A great way to unwind and relax, in other words. Also, it is a great time to try out mediums or methods you want to practice on or play around with before you go for some major painting. Anyway, I had a lot of fun with this sketch, especially seeing how happy Little One is about the sweet little gift from her boyfriend!
My Kawaii Quarter 