For today, I would like to share to you the process on how I came up with this artwork, The Lion Sleeps Tonight . This is a random gouache painting I made to hone my skills with this playful medium, but then it has ended up being sold to my good friend Ate Jamela. She is a very nice patron of my works and she pays me with a good amount of money. She has been collecting a lot of my artwork since the start of the year. I am very thankful of her.
Materials Used:
- 12 x 12 inches Watercolor Paper
- Round and Flat Watercolor Brushes from Winsor and Newton
- Mechanical Pencil for sketching
- Miya Himi Gouache Paints and Marie's Gouache Paints
As you have read, I decided to use two different brands of gouache colors. One reason for that is that these brands have different color tones. Miya Himi has more dynamic and vibrant colors, while Marie's has more natural and earthy colors.
How I started my artwork?
Well, I started with a sketch of course. I got the reference for this photo on a free reference group over Facebook. I tried looking for it on my phone and I just cannot seem to find it.
I do not want to use rough edges for the sleeping tiger since I wanted to give a feeling that the tiger is calmly sleeping.
And since I want this artwork to become very playful, I made use of circular shapes. And since I wanted to use as many colors as possible, I drew a lot of these shapes.
After sketching, I decided to paint the background color with dark or navy blue. First, I wanted to make the background pitch black but I have resorted to dark blue so that it would look better with other colors. I am not saying black is not okay, it is just that I also wanted to try something new.
At first, I just wanted my work to be colorful.
But then I wanted to put more details with this work of mine. As some of you have observed, I am more into giving intricate designs. I am also working with making myself better by coming up with a new style.
I told myself, as much as possible, use pastel and vibrant colors that would complement with the background and with each other.
I painted the tiger too with a vibrant yellow gouache paint but later in you would see that I used different hues of yellow, some leaning to orange and some to brown.
Then I began painting the spots with different hues of brown. I also mixed dark brown with a little bit of black gouache paint to make some spots darker. I also painted the stump with brown as well but I made sure that it would be of different hue from the rest. I also put a shadow beneath the sleeping tiger.
And this is a photo of one of the details that I had been working with the background.
And then I was able to reach this point of my work after an hour that I had started. But I told myself that I should be very ambitious and be more detailed about this work of mine.
I put a couple of moving lines on the background so that it would seem that the world is moving while it seemed that it has stopped for the sleeping tiger.
And now this is my final product. Hurrah! I honestly felt so compelled to finish my work and it felt so nice to see the product of my artwork.
I really hope you enjoyed this art process that I have shared with you all. I also look forward that you will also be inspired in making artworks as well as it is a calming experience.
Have a great day and I miss you all a lot.
Lots of love,
Johanna Gail
