After such a volatile summer this year, temperatures suddenly soared a week ago. At last! A wonderful but rare few days of sunshine which Little One also enjoyed. And how excited was she! She even dressed up for this occasion one day, posing in the garden all clad in a pretty red frock. “It might be the last time this year I could enjoy the warm sunshine and wear this dress”, she mused so sweetly. So sweet indeed that I wanted to paint about it!
The Beginning
On a blank sheet of Strathmore’s Mixed Media sketchbook, I scribbled “An Indian Summer to Enjoy! 2024” in fluorescent pink and yellow oil pastels. Color blocks of Ultramarine Blue, Nickel Azo Yellow, Green Gold and Light Violet were then randomly painted along with some bits of wrapping tissues and old patterned paper napkins. Paints used were mostly Fluid Acrylic by Golden. Once I had a better idea about composition, I then applied some gesso for the head of Little One, and covered bits I didn’t particularly like with more collage paper (newspaper and wrapping paper).
Further Progress
And first let’s work on the background. I thought the torn bits from a Japanese newspaper would make great clouds, and hence glued on another piece. Then the sun was painted where the yellow color block had been. And how about developing the area pink petals from the paper napkin and painting it all pink? A combination of Titan Buff (an off-white shade) and Manganese Blue Hue was chosen for the sky, and some Green Gold for the ground with some streaks of Sepia acrylic ink. For Little One, Sepia was used for the hair as well along with some brown oil pastel. Her pretty red dress was filled in with Primary Red (Sennelier) mixed in with Clear Tar Gel for added gloss, a medium also used for the yellow sun. So far so cute!
Finishing Touches
First, I covered the Japanese newspaper bits with Off-white Oil Stick to create the clouds. Love how the texture turned out! As the oil stick takes time to dry, I worked on that before focussing on Little One. Her eyes were painted in with brown Molotow acrylic pen, with the whites of the eyes filled in with ARA’s Opaque Titanium White, the same color used for her white collars. Her lashes were then drawn in with brown Ranger’s Stickles glitter glue. As I no longer thought the gold sun rays were a good idea after all, I covered that with the blue, but then again I do love how the gold shows through as sunrays, but more subdued. That was further enhanced with a bit of yellow Ranger’s Stickles glitter gel although not so visible in the photo. A dot of clear Lamé acrylic gouache on the white collars, and I was good to go!
And now, doesn’t Little One look so cute and adorable? It was indeed another intuitive mixed media painting which I very much enjoyed. Although it could be quite intensive, I got to play around with a variety of mediums and experiment a bit. Oil Sticks for instance is something I have yet to have tried out more often, and here was the chance to do so. Now I can comfortably have a go with them again. Look forward to creating more mixed media paintings like this soon!
My Kawaii Quarter 