Illustration of a tiny gnome escalating a Marmite jar. There is a candle and soft moody lighting. This painting was made with acrylagouache and ink.

For those of you who have followed my instagram stories, or the private messages, you might have seen this illustration already. I am honestly not tired of it - it will absolutely be the illustration for the Magic Mail for January!!

This image, I have had in my head for a long long while. But it was a bit technical, and so I felt super scared to draw it. Adding a background, that felt scary... And the dim lighting too.

It all began with a sketch from my secret sketchbook (well, actually it all began with an awful reference picture, ahaha). (my neighbour had this really tiny ladder and I asked him to lend him to me)

A scribbly sketchbook page of gnome trying to climb the Marmite jar

I had a sketch I liked, and doing values study (and doing it very tiny) was actually reassuring. So I made a first painting in my watercolor sketchbook :

Thick gouache painting in a sketchbook of a Marmite jar on a countertop with soft candlelight lighting

I really liked this first painting. There had been an ugly stage, which I had to be super brave to pass through, but in the end I felt more confident about my idea. But the final painting I wanted had to resemble the style of one of my previous paintings - one I had done with ink and acrylagouache :

I wanted to recreate this style : inky/watercolor type painting, with soft layering of transparent colors - I actually had done this with acrylagouaches and some ink.

Illustration of a gnome walking in a field of flowers

So first, i had to make a new sketch.

The initial sketch for the new Kitchen gnome painting

I spent so much time on this. I was so careful. I felt confident about my painting without the character in it, but how was I supposed to incorporate a character now?

Once I was happy with the sketch I started layering colors. I used a fluorescent yellow for the first color, and then i added very diluted olive green to make subtle shadows. I left the character blank and later filled it with diluted magenta (and not Opera pink because, I have learnt my lesson, it is impossible to render with a scanner).

I used a fluorescent yellow for the first color, and then i added very diluted olive green to make subtle shadows. I left the character blank and later filled it with diluted magenta

One thing you have to know is that I am bad at color. It may not look like it, because I am okay at values - but I am quite bad at picking different hues and knowing how colors work together. So I quickly decided to work slowly and with a "grisaille", which is a technique from the Renaissance of just working in different values of brown, and then adding color at the very end. It ties everything together and helps you achieve nice contrast without having to lose your head about it.

I just couldn't film my process because it was so slow and scary.

I started adding colors with the Marmite jar. It was the center of attention. Good thing is, acrylagouaches don't reactivate with water, which meant that the drying being quick, I knew my underlayers were safe once they were dry.

Pretty soon it was down to the last details - darkening a dark, adding white to clear up a bright spot... and then the linework (some I did with a brush and acrylic gouache, but the last details were made with watercolor ink and an ink nib) :

Now this time I actually worked the background first - I guess to gain confidence with the tool? I think the last thing I drew linework on was the actual gnome.

And then it was doing to letting it simmer for a while to look at it with fresh eyes and change a few values here and there to make it perfect.
I don't want to brag but I feel like I have grown so much, and I am genuinely in LOVE with this illustration.