We started recently going for morning walks for an hour almost every day. And what wonderful exercise it is! Although I think he looks fine and love the way he is, my boyfriend was advised to lose a bit of weight for health reasons. I myself am unable to work out intensively for some time due to a knee injury from that skiing accident. So why not motivate each other? We are so lucky to be surrounded by a lot of nature in the Dutch countryside we reside. Despite me suffering badly from hay fever, we dp enjoy viewing all the pretty flowers and tall trees. The beautiful flora is further accompanied by lots of fauna too!
Kawaii Fauna
Among the fauna are quite a few cute animals. Cows, sheep, lots of birds and rabbits of course! This summer, we began noticing some brown rabbits roaming in the vast green fields They are far away in a distance but I do recognize their long ears and hopping about. How sweet! And of course during our walks, we do come across the occasional cat. House cats, they are. And just the other day, a black cat happened to pass by. Nope, no bad luck, because later on during the walk, we encountered some bunnies in the fields! And of course, I had to paint about it. Black cat surrounded by little rabbits! First I began with a pencil sketch on my landscape-oriented Talens Rembrandt sketchbook for watercolors. A great way to draw rabbits in different positions and angles!
Coloring Them In
Given the rather neutral “nature” color scheme for this painting, I opted for the pan of Kremer’s watercolors in Earth Colors that come in 14 shades. They’re not the sort I’d normally go for with the browns, greys, muted greens and rusty reds. However, I was in the mood of trying something different and of course exploring beyond my comfort zone. And how beautifully did they turn out! As Kremer’s watercolors are derived from natural organic pigments, the resulting colors are quite intense. For further enhancement, I traced over the outlines and added the rabbits’ eyes with Koh-I-Noor’s set of Brownscale colored pencils and with a white gel pen incorporated some fine details including the veins of the leaves. Et voilà!
Happy with this painting, although the black cat could have been painted more evenly. But who said painting in black would be easy? As with the rest, I do like the way the greens turn out, and the sepia or rusty red do add some accent to the subtle shades. I’d definitely like to use this set of watercolors again and see what else I can come up with. Meanwhile, we look forward to our next morning walk and see if more bunnies (and cats) will appear!
My Kawaii Quarter 