Finally I am able to settle down a bit and resume my lessons with Juliette Crane’s Serendipity I classes! This unit is called “Developing Your Unique Style”, a 12-minute project in which we adapt our ideas and any beautiful mistakes and letting them inspire our artwork hence let our creativity evolve. And what perfect timing to resume because Mother’s Day was coming up, and I was indeed looking to paint for this special occasion!
No Old Book to Paint On
For this unit, Juliette used a page from an old book although any substrate of your choice would be fine. I, however, wanted to take a step further. As I don’t have a suitable old book to paint on, I chose to make my own printed page: Strips of old newspaper clippings were cut up and simply glued onto a blank page of my Strathmore’s Mixed Media sketchbook! Acrylic medium was used as adhesive, and to avoid bubbles and wrinkles from forming, I ironed the surface down with the edge of an old credit card. So far so cool!
Painting the Background
Some watercolor was randomly applied with a wide brush. Here I went for the vivid colors by Jane Davenport. Unfortunately, some areas couldn’t adhere the color well as the acrylic medium is of course water resistant. Next time I shall be careful not to let it ooze out onto the surface. Not to worry, I also substituted the watercolor with pearlescent acrylic ink in some areas.
Start Sketching!
Once the surface was dry, I briskly made a quick with Stabilo marking pencil a sketch of me and my mother. Mama with a crown on her head as it’s Mother’s Day of course, and there is me as a little girl wearing a big hat with bunny ears! Once that was to satisfaction, I went about coloring the background a bit with Golden acrylic fluid in Manganese Blue Hue, and what a beautiful shade that is! I continued adding some vivid colors on our dresses where possible this time with Holbein’s Matt watercolor and water soluble oil pastels by Art Philosopy.
Finishing Touches
Some Titanium White fluid acrylic was also blended in with the watersoluble oil pastels, and why not? They certainly make the colors more matt and opaque as we see on the faces. Who would have thought! Used it solo for the whites of the eyes and my collar and bunny ears too. Just to give some bling and add texture, I dotted in some Nuvo Drops for my mother’s pearl necklace and spread a bit of white glitter by INKZ on the crown and my bunny ears. And I think we’re done here!
A quick and simple painting here, but quite original too! Using strips of newspaper was definitely a great idea especially seeing how the print still shows through underneath the sheer finish of the paints. Besides the point of this exercise was to enhance one’s own drawing style which I did achieve. Painting on printed material is quite inspiring as I discovered, and I’d definitely like to create more like this! And look how kawaii the characters still turned out. I think my mother would be proud of me. Happy Mother’s Day!!
My Kawaii Quarter 