The pièce de résistance of the Portugal art retreat with Lisa Bardot‘s painting and Procreate workshop last month: Designing a travel poster! And what fun that was. I decided to combine all the stuff we had learned, including tile design, ceramic glaze effects, gouache painting and floral and urban sketching and integrate them into this project. Then of course, I introduced my cute and kawaii style to make it uniquely me! And whilst I’m at it, how about make it appeal to the Japanese audience too? All with the kawaii chibi anime effects and even the writing in Japanese (means “Portugal”) underneath the English, I hope everyone, including the Portugese and the Japanese, will like it!
As there was so much to absorb in one project, the poster was divided into two cute windows. The top one was a ceramic design of five colorful fishes. I was very keen about the Ceramic Glaze set of brushes designed by Lisa herself and wanted to integrate that in the poster. Previous to attending the workshop, I followed an on-line class to learn about the brushes more, and there we painted fishes (will share that one in the near future). So amazed with the outcome I was that I had to repeat this here! Notice the crackle glaze in the background. And why the cat? Not sure, I think the first thing that came to mind was that cats love fish haha! Plus it adds some humor to the whole picture.
And now, the bottom window. Little One of course had to be featured! How could she not be? She is standing happily in front of a house adored with that typical Portugese-style grandiose door and window and next to some potted plants. And why is she looking so exceptionally pleased? Look closely at the mural tiles. What do we see? Hello Kitty! That’s right, the same tiles I had created as per my last write-up but duplicated over and over. Whilst these tiles were designed with Ceramic Glaze brushes, the rest, including the yellow area on the outside were painted with gouache brushes, more precisely with Painter’s Gouache, also designed by Lisa. Oh and that little froggie. During our stay at the hotel, frogs were aplenty in the garden and even heard croaking incessantly at night! Thus definitely include the frog.
And so concludes my cute little Portugal travel poster! The wonderful thing is, this has inspired me to design more such posters for my future travels. I must make a point of packing a sketchbook with pencil, pens and brushpens AND actually using them! Start being more observant about my surroundings and practice some urban and landscape sketching too. That way, I can gather up some ideas and develop them into another kawaii travel poster. Once again to the Japanese audience. So what’s my next destination? Japan! Now that should be fun…
My Kawaii Quarter 