Mothers' Day hippos in pastels

 Caption: "Inside voice, dear. Inside voice."

This piece was yet another experiment of mine - to paint animals in a more Impressionistic style. This has always been challenging for me because my tendency is to zoom in on the details. Leaving bold marks as they are without blending goes against my instincts and I have to consciously force myself to so.

I used grey Canson Mi-Teintes Touch paper for this and started with a light layer of pastels to block in the colours. But right off the bat, I realised that this paper is as smudgy as UArt, which isn't good. Also, the Mi-Teintes Touch paper has a very odd surface. When you rub your pastel on it, it leaves an odd streak, like you're trying to paint on top of textured wallpaper. I'm finding that only Velour and Pastelmat work for me as they're not as smeary.

I started with the baby hippo and decided to go with my favourite palette which I'm unofficially naming Burplink (blue, purple and pink)! It ♥ these colours so much, especially for animals. I'm realising that Mi-Teintes Touch really doesn't take many layers before the paper starts getting saturated and slippery. Bah. I'm also trying not to get too fiddly with the details at this point.

I decided to work on the background a little, to try and give the animals some context. Kept it abstract and yes, I used Burplink as well. Too much? I'm not sure. But I sure do love those colours on the mummy hippo.

The hippos were very saturated by the time I was done. I used brown for the ground and again, I had to focus very hard on not over-blending so that the bright spots would remain bright.

I'm pretty happy with it. I think it does look looser, which I guess is a good approach both for painting and parenting. The mummy hippo looks like she's muttering to herself, "It's too early for this." which I'm sure all mums out there can identify with.

Happy Mothers' Day to all mums!