After bidding goodbye to the summer in “Farewell Summer 2022!“, we are now ready for the autumn! Not my favorite season mind you, but painting about it makes me feel better. For a start, a kawaii seasonal piece I created to welcome Autumn 2022. Me and my boyfriend again are keeping our spirits up even as the days get darker and colder, getting comfy in our warmer outfits and enjoying our surroundings with the leaves changing into pretty shades of orange and yellow!
It’s us Again!
Going for a square “canvas”, I firstly set about drawing us with the usual Airbrush Medium for our faces. Separate layers for me and him firstly, followed by another separate layer for our hair so we can later modify or change bits when suitable. For the hair, I liked that crayon look so opted for Wax Stick in the set from FTOON Crayon brushes (available on Creative Market as add-on) followed by retouching with Flowing Hair.
More of Us!
I then continued on with our outfits, once again using seperate layers for each in case I wanted to reposition or resize. A variety of brushes was experimented with here. For that “knitted wooly” look for our clothes, I once again chose some crayon brushes by FTOON, the Groovy 1, to be precise which was accompanied by Grainy Sketch for the collars. For the blushy cheeks, I went for the simple Watercolor brush, whilst our eyes were drawn in with Semi-dry Chisel in the Inks brushes. Once I was happy our images, I merged the layers pertaining to him firstly then merged those pertaining to myself. Then I played around with positioning and sizes. TIP: Before merging layers, I always like to create a copy of my work just in case; once you merge, it’s difficult to unmerge the layers!
The Background
Whenever I am painting, the background is normally painted first as it is easier to paint around the intended characters and then color them later. Digital art though allows you to be more flexible since we work in layers. As you can see above, I had switched the background color to a medium dark taupe to get into the autumn mood. Then I introduced a new layer with some white texture stamps from a set of Lisa Glanz’s Texture brushes (available also on Creative Market as add-on) followed by another layer in which I incorporated some Leafy Green from Jason Healy’s add-on brushes. In fact two layers of leaves were added to give the painting more depth before switching the Blending Mode to Vivid Light as finishing touch. And there we have it!!
Another fun session with Procreate! The more I practice, the more I enjoy. Apart from exploring endless possibilities with the brushes and techniques, another challenge was working with colors that I do not typically choose. The background colors for one thing Is something new, seeing that I am usually going for blues and greens. Then the pink and blue for the outfits are a bit darker and subdued compared to the bright and vivid tones. Always daunting yet fun to explore beyond my comfort zone and do something different again. And now, a great warm-up for the coming months!
My Kawaii Quarter 