Sweet Little Angel

It’s nearly Christmas, about four more days in fact, and Little One is very much looking forward to it! Instead of Santa this year, though, she wants to dress up as an angel. And here she is, looking so sweet and serene. It has been a hectic year for us with lots of travelling and reorganizing the house that something peaceful and meditative sounds like a great idea. And of course I had to paint about it! A great chance as well to experiment with my watercolors and gouache I had bought in Japan last year. And we love the Kremer pigments from Germany too! Let’s give them a try…

Pencil Sketch

First I secured the edges of my Cansons A4 watercolor paper (hot pressed 300 gsm) with masking tape to keep the paper from buckling. Then came the sketching. I knew exactly what I wanted but admit that I had to Google to find out how a typical anime angel should look like, especially with the wings. Compared to butterflies and fairies, the wings are more feathery. And don’t forget the halo of course!

Granulating Background

Background first. Here, I chose Harmonia Granulating Watercolor by Kusakabe from Japan in Starry Winter. What makes this watercolor special is that it blends two or more different pigment colors and gives a granulating effect, that is, the pigment bits clump together rather than settle evenly in one piece on the paper. I quite liked the mysterious texture this gave to the background.

Painting Our Angel

Then after the background paint dried, I continued with our angel. The face firstly with Kremer Pigments pans of watercolor. I especially love this brand’s small “Skin Tones” set of 8 shades which you can mix and match to customize skin colors. The hair was colored also with Kremer Pigments but with three different shades of brown in Earth Colors set. As for the outfit and wings, I opted for some pearlescent textures and instead of acrylic, I wanted to try out gouache for a change. Holbein’s Gouache (not Acrylia which is acyrlic-based but pure gouache this time) in Pearl White and Pearl Gold were selected here. Although I expected gouache to have a thick viscosity with even coverage, I discovered that a few layers of the paint was needed to bring out the desired effect. Nevertheless, it all came out fine. Just need to be patient!

Introducing Texture

As you now see here, I achieved the pearly shimmery result with the gouache after a few layers, making sure each one dried before piling on the next one. Fine details were then added after letting the paint dry. Eyes were firstly traced over first with brown colored pencils, followed by gold glitter gel pen on the eyelashes. Colored pencils were also used to incorporate streaks on the hair. Following that, I dabbed a bit of Art By Marlene’s Special Effects glitter glue in Diamond. The Halo was further enhanced by lining the outside rim with the gold glitter gel pen. And here we are!

And now, our sweet little angel! Doesn’t she look so adorable? And so relaxed and in peace with herself. Wish the same could be said for most of us, but looking at this painting certainly calms us down, doesn’t it? In fact, painting this helped me relax more which is why I enjoy getting creative so much. Praying for a quieter rest of the year and that 2025 would be more restful too!