Monday, February 25, 2013

A Triptych of Canvases

I've been working up the nerve to do some painting on canvas, but this is not something that is in my comfort zone.  In the last few weeks I've been watching Karen Ellis of The Art House Studio during her live Ustream broadcasts on Friday evenings, and I've learned a lot about how to get the wonderful layered look that she does so well for so many of her backgrounds.  Combine that with lesson 17 of Joanne Sharpe's Letter Love 201, in which we were to get out a little 6 inch canvas and some acrylic paint to create a 'Character Mastepiece" and I thought what the heck.  If I was going to jump in, why not jump in with both feet.  If one is good, three must be better...

I figured I had little to lose since I got the three little canvases at Dollarama, and with it being acrylic paint, if it was a total disaster I could always paint over it...

I started by painting all three of the canvases with a base coat of a bright lime green.  I then used a combination of my brush, and an old gift card and started adding some blues and a bit of purple along with more of the lime green.  A couple of the blues and the green are metallic paints, so they have a bit of a shimmer to them.

Using a stencil and a baby wipe, I added a bit of white.  The final step in creating the backgrounds was to use a bit of corrugated cardboard to stamp on each of the canvases.

Below you can see the three canvases side by side, as well as my messy work area.  Now that I've got a good craft mat, I tend to put the paint right on the mat.  It wipes up beautifully with baby wipes and I find it's easier than using a palette, especially when I want to stamp with corrugated cardboard or my ammo case insert (a great find at Waste Wise)



I must say, so far I was thrilled.  I actually achieved the layered look that I so admire in Karen's work!  The next step was to add a letter to each of the canvases.  I decided that since I had three canvases I'd use a three letter word.  I was going to do ART, but then I thought why not use the word I have chosen as my inspirational guiding word for 2013 and so, I painted JOY on my little canvases.

I found this fun font online when I did a Google search for fonts (looking at the images tab) so I sketched out the letters, transferred them onto my canvases and started painting.  I used a gold metallic paint, along with a bright yellow for the highlights and black for shading (as you can see, this time I did use a palette since I was painting with a brush and my finger).  I must say, I'm very happy with how these little pieces turned out.

And here you can see it hanging in my studio.  I'm not sure I like that arrangement, but I'll leave it like that for now.

16 comments:

  1. LOVE them! The background work is fantastic and the letters are painted to look like they pop off the canvas. Joy is my favorite word!

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    1. Thanks Lisa. I'm thrilled with how they turned out.

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  2. This is so pretty, and you have inspired me to try something similar.

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    1. Thanks Barbara. It was a lot of fun. I'll look forward to seeing yours when it's done!

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  3. The canvases turned out great! Would never know you were not a painter!

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    1. Thanks Debby. I think after this, perhaps I am a painter. LOL

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  4. WOW!! linda these are amazing! The stencil 'bubbles' look very undersea like, tou have used a combinaton of my favourite colours too, Love the purple and sea green together.Thanks for the link to pearl pens, they look similar to pebeo liners but there seem to bee far more colours, I need to see if I can order some on-line and experiment :)

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    1. Thanks Morag. I love these colours and seem to keep coming back to them. My studio is a soft aqua colour so these look great on the wall. I'm glad the Pearl Pen link was helpful. Have fun with them.

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  5. I love them!!! I almost picked up a new canvas today because I FINALLY got brave and painted on canvas also for the first time this past weekend. I posted it yesterday. Funny how we are on the same wavelength with this ;)

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    1. Thanks Danielle. That is funny, but you know what they say about great minds...

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  6. Holy crap...beautiful...what's going to happen when this isn't new to you anymore? hahaha. A new talent to add to your long list. Very nice...can't wait to see more.

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    1. Thanks Leah. Now I really do have to give up sleeping!

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  7. Very lovely! Awesome background, too! Love the JOY!

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    1. Thank you Julianna. I'm very pleased with how they turned out.

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