Elephant and Pina in a Living Room: Testing Mixed Media

This piece emerged as an experiment that originated in my sketchbook and ended in Procreate. I crafted a little cozy living room scene, with armchairs, a central table, and a rug, using watercolors and a warm color palette. I utilized a Brazilian paper called Polen, which isn’t ideally suited for this technique, it proved resilient to water.

Then, I digitalized (I took a simple photo from my cell phone) it and send the file to be opened in Procreate. There, I introduced two characters: Pina and the Elephant Dani. Both of them look like plush dolls, as their eyes aren’t expressing many emotions. I sought to explore how a set of gouache digital brushes would interact with the pre-existing painted background. The result was promising, although I see the need to tweak their colors toward warmer tones and perhaps add more texture to them. The primary aim of this playful experimentation was to integrate the characters into the scene.

Well, that’s it! A simple idea that you can use for building scenarios and creating different stories with characters in Procreate. Also, you can change the lights and shadows and add many more details.