Welcome to Japanese lucky cat in watercolor with me, Miwa Gardner ( ´艸｀)

Have you ever came across Japanese patterns, calligraphy and were awed by them? If you ever wanted to learn few different patterns, learn to write some Japanese characters in calligraphy , draw your own Manekineko “lucky cats” and love watercolor, this is the class!!

In this class we will be mainly:

1. Learning how to draw/paint different Japanese patterns

2. Concentrating on the strokes to write few Japanese characters with watercolor brush

3. Painting the Manekineko adding the two above to the final piece we will create together.

This class is for beginners to intermediate watercolor painters that are looking for class to learn more skills in watercolor while enjoying art of Japan.

The class will add new patterns to your creative pool that will hopefully inspire your creativity to another level!

For this class, we will be using pencil, paints, watercolor paper (preferably cotton 300G/140lb), tracing paper (if you don’t want to draw), a round brush, pen, gouache (white pigment) and a ruler. This watercolor class will brush up your skills if you are struggling in creating new patterns for your paintings and equally important, you will develop more precision in your paintings through this class!

Below are the flow of the lessons and links that you might be interested along your creative journey

Intro: A little background of myself and why I wanted to share this class with you. I’ve also explained what Manekinokos symbolize.

Please check here for Manekineko Wiki page!

Materials:

I talk about the supplies I will be using.

Check the resources section for the whole list with links attached.

Warm up: We will then learn about few different watercolor applications for warm up purposes.

For more detailed warm up lessons, check my class “Watercolor Project for Beginners: Ornamental Japanese Stones”

Japanese Patterns:

I will walk you through few traditional Japanese patterns that I love and explain how to draw/paint them.

Sketching:

Being able to sketch what you see is a great skill to have. But for those that really want to concentrate on the painting, I have uploaded the sketch of the Manekineko that we will be using for the final project.

Calligraphy:

I explain the meanings of 福 & 千万両that we often see on the Manekineko. Then we will practice writing these characters with pencil in the correct order and strokes. Finally we use watercolor brush and paint to draw these strokes in Japanese calligraphy style while adding wet on wet techniques unique to watercolor painting.

Check below links (from Jisho Org) for the meaning of these words and the stroke order if you get stuck with my explanation ( ´艸｀):

福

千万両

Color Theory:

Color combinations are one of the key components when it comes to the message and feeling the final project conveys. Here I explain the process that I go through in order to choose which colors I will use for my final piece. We will draw/trace on the manekineko to sketching paper and choose the primary colors as well as some neutral and gold colors and use these colors to see what other colors can be created from mixing them. Once all the colors are laid out, we will then finally paint in the manekineko and surroundings to test how they all fit.

For more details on color theory and color mixing lessons, check my class “Watercolor Project for Beginners: Ornamental Japanese Stones”

Final Project:

Once we are done with all the above lesson, we can then finally combine all our skills learnt! I will demonstrate the whole process from outlining the manekinoko to drawing the patterns in the background and the final painting.

I hope this class brings ooze of creativity.

This class is for you to create something you normally wouldn’t which in turn adds inspiration to your creative pool.

I can’t wait to see what variations of different Manekinekos you will create!

Never forget to have fun like Van Gogh did!

“Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul”-Vincent Van Gogh

Enjoy the process,

Miwa

Credits:

Music:

"Sleepy + Hungry"

by BAEGEL

Like the music?

Listen to more on Epidemic

Gavin Woodall

Starting my watercolor journey!

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