This painting was done in parts due to my sleep disorder, instead of all in one go, which I prefer.
I started by coating a cradled wood panel with clear gesso and then decided to decoupage the background/underlying skin tone.
To do this, I decoupaged my cradled wood panel with a bright pink tissue paper.
I used Celebrate It tissue paper from Michael’s Craft Store in dark pink (Pink), item # 10671678.
I sketched my girl, traced over the pencil with Pigma Gaphic 1 in Sepia and then with Pitt Artist Pen B(Brush), in Black #199.
The ink on these tends to run (though, not on paper), so I carefully added a layer of Clear Gesso over the lines.
I dried it a bit with a hot air gun and then let it sit for a few hours.
Next, I worked on the skin tone until I was happy with it.
I used my go-to skin tone colors:
Next, I started her hair.
The colors I used today for her hair are Turner Acryl Gouache Ivory Yellow and Japanesque Deep Yellow.
By it’s self on a pallette, the Turner Acryl Gouache Ivory Yellow looks like a skin tone, but combined with the Japanesque Deep Yellow, it makes a beautiful pale blonde color.
As a note, the usual acryl/acryla gouaches are lovely smooth paints, but the Japanesque colors have a slightly gritty texture, which makes a nice contrast.
For her shirt and hat, I wanted a boy’s/men’s style shirt. The sort of thing I sold at Chess King as a teenager, so I chose a blue and white stripe.
For the hat, I used the Japanesque pale blue for the background color and added stripes of pastel blue and titanium white.
I also chose to paint her eyes with touches of the colors found in her shirt.
Once I was ready to paint the background, I used my colorwheel to help me choose the color. Although, in this case, I chose two colors.
My two closest colors to the colorwheel’s suggestion were just a tiny bit too dark, so I lightened them with titanium white.
I’m very happy with the way she came out!
These are the brushes I used:
I hope you enjoyed today’s painting!