Kawaii Scribbles

This past weekend was very busy for us, as my husband and I celebrated our fifth anniversary on Valentine's Day.  =-)  Since I'm on the subject, I'd like to throw out there that I greatly appreciate having a husband that supports my artistic hobbies 100%, who has taken time to help me set up for the community art walk, runs me around for art supplies, and doesn't mind giving me the occasional afternoon to myself somewhere so that I can sketch and he takes care of our three year old daughter. I'm so blessed and thankful to have someone that supports and encourages me like that!!  ^^

Since the weekend was very busy, I didn't have a lot of time to focus on art. But Sunday night, I took some time to sketch out an idea I had inspired by breakfast foods (the picture you see on the top). If I have to title this one, then I'm calling it "Vocaloid Breakfast", since I decided to draw a kawaii chibi Hatsune Miku.  ^^ This sketch was done in one of my Fabriano sketchbooks ( I LOVE their sketchbooks, and I will be sure to talk about them some more in another post!), colored with Copic, Prismacolor Premier, and Spectrum Noir markers. I especially like the watercolor feel of the floor, I used two colors to give it a sort of "wash" feel that I really like. Actually, I really like this whole drawing, and looking at it just makes me hungry for breakfast foods!!  O_o

Since I liked the first idea so well, I decided I'd like to draw another one featuring donuts and a kawaii chibi Usagi Tsukino. I sketched the idea out while I was waiting on laundry to come out of the dryer, and inked and colored it last night using the same tools as I had in the "Vocaloid Breakfast" drawing.   At first, I wasn't really pleased with the colors I blended for the donuts.. I still think I should have tested different blends of markers more diligently before hand.. But, I don't think they look so bad now that I see the finished colors all together.

While I would love to focus more on actual manga pieces, some days my busy schedule just doesn't allow the time to do something that extensive. If there's one thing that I've learned in the last several years of manga, it's that it takes time to do it properly and to turn out something really nice that you can be proud of.  I'm a busy stay - at - home mom to a three year old, so some days, well.. they just don't go the way you plan them out. On days like this, I'm glad that I can focus on something smaller scaled, which the kawaii style allows me to do!  And, what's great about this style is, it's STILL manga art!!  Yep!  Kawaii is just another form of chibi art in the manga world. In the last few years, kawaii art has exploded!! 

I learned about the Kawaii style through this book that I am showing you below.. You can find it on just about any book seller site, and on amazon. This book by Chris Hart not only goes through the basics of the Kawaii style, but also gives you some tips on the Moe style, which is another type of kawaii art, mostly focused on sweet, lolita styled girls. I totally recommend this books!!  But, even if you are looking at books written and drawn by other great artists, never be afraid to find your own style. You definitely don't want to lean on one certain way of drawing for the rest of your life, or only follow one artist's style. You've got to take all those elements and turn it into something that's totally yours!!!  =-) 

What sort of kawaii things are you finding time to create?  =-)

-Stasia -Chan