Little One is starting to enjoy the autumn although she prefers warmer months. “Soon it’s going to get colder and the days shorter so I should make the most of what’s left of the sunny days”, she muses. So out she goes in her new pink jacket on a little stroll in the village. Just to cheer herself up more, she thought it would be cute to wear a little crown on her head she had created the other day for fun. All the folks there, children included, admired her kawaii fashion parade. How wonderful to be an inspiration for others!
Saved by a Bright Idea!
Actually…. this painting came about by chance. I was not in the best of moods at the time but thought painting would help. How about taking a pad of paper and a box of Copic Sketch markers and doodle away whatever is on my mind? Little One in a pink outfit, my usual stuff. The first attempt though I did not like it at all and proceeded to rip the page out of the pad and crumple it. But I soon regretted my decision. Luckily all was not lost as I began uncrumpling it and ironing it down with my hands, whilst coming up with a bright idea. Why not recreate it as a collage?
Preparing the Background
And so I fished out my Strathmore Mixed Media sketchbook and prepared my background. A variety of warm colors from Golden Fluid Acrylic were chosen including Naphthol Red Light and Benzimidazole Yellow which are recent purchases and used for the first time. I love them! Both come out as warm and vivid tones. Iridescent Gold Deep was further added. I also found a small random packing foam which turned out to be an excellent painting tool as you can see in the left photo. Once I let that dry, I introduced some cooler shades like DW Acrylic ink in Galactic Blue for that iridescent finish, along with some bits of purple wrapping tissues. Then I added more on top with the paint and further wrapping tissues in pink and orange were glued on. So far so good!
There She is Again!
Now we’re ready to introduce Little One! After carefully cutting her image out and finding the perfect spot on the page, I glued her on with some acrylic medium. The orange corner became the sun from which further ideas developed. First came the horizon which would be a hill with a house on top. A crown on top of Little One’s head was then introduced to balance the composition more. The sky was filled in with a combination of Galactic Blue, along with another iridescent blue ink called Sun-up Blue and Golden Fluid Acrylic in Cobalt Teal with the house and crown developing as negative space. Then I painted the face and hair using Quinacridone Azo Nickel Gold and blending that with Titanium white just for the face. It’s looking great now!
Finishing Up
I was not too keen about that purple blob on the bottom of the page and firstly covered it up with some white gesso followed by a paper napkin collage with leafy patterns. This then gave me the idea to repeat that in areas around the ground! Once dry, the area was covered with a thin layer of Acrylic Fluid in Sap Green. I just love how the leafy patterns and the red is showing through for that autumnal effect! Wanting to reinforce the pink dress, I then incorporated some Light Magenta heavy body acrylic on top. Two bits of leaves were then cut out on orange tissue with a craft punch and glued on the sky for better balance. Finally, a few bling finishing touches including eyelashes with some glitter glue, adding texture to hair with Amsterdam relief paint in Bronze and embellishing the crown with some sequins and filling it with Ranger’s Stickles Gel. And now we have our kawaii Little One all prim and pretty!
And what an inspiring session this was! I feel so much better from that moody episode especially knowing I was able to save a drawing and recreate it into something cute. It was not expected, and now I have discovered something new: another example in which Copic Markers can also be used if you’re not keen on using them alone; not just with colored pencils but as part of a collage in a mixed media acrylic piece. I shall definitely be finding ways to make full use of these markers and for any drawing that I initially dislike. And now, Little One is so happy too!
My Kawaii Quarter 