Monday, January 9, 2012

diy artwork tutorial

Noel and I are currently in the process of simplifying two households worth of stuff into one, and as I'm sure many of you know, it can be quite the challenge at times.  We both have stuff that the other doesn't particularly care for - in my case ultra-girly pink or turquoise decor, and in Noel's case, all sorts of random nick-nacks and posters.

A prime of example of this could be found in our bedroom.  Since I'm not actually moving in until August, Noel decided it was perfectly acceptable to hang up all of his posters all over the room until the day I move in.  Well, being the proactive person I am, and knowing that there is no way I will be able to live with posters of Dave Matthews staring at me in my bedroom, I decided to make Noel a little artwork for his Christmas present. 

Since he is such an avid DMB fan, I knew I couldn't rid the house of everything Dave.  And, although I don't necessarily care for posters, I do like Dave Matthews.  So what was my solution to this problem?  I decided to make two paintings with lyrics from a DMB song.  Continue reading below for the full tutorial.

Materials:
Canvas
Paint - 2 colors (unless you want your letters to be white)
Stickers (I used 2" cardstock stickers from Michaels)
Paint brush (I used a 1.5" standard paint brush from Home Depot)
Straight edge
Measuring tape or ruler
Pencil

Optional:
Paint roller
Paint tray
Large book (I used a textbook to add support under the canvas)


Tutorial:

1. To start out, I bought two canvases from the local craft store.  The ones I bought were 12" x 24" but you can buy whatever size you like. 


2.  I then painted both canvases with standard wall paint (you can use acrylic paint too, I just happened to have left over paint from when we painted our walls).  I wanted the letters to be black, and I wanted black to peek through some of the white, so I painted the whole canvas with one coat of black paint.  You can use a brush or a roller - I used a roller, and if you do, I recommend placing a book or something under the canvas to give it a hard back (otherwise it dips in the middle since it isn't flush against anything).



3. Once the black paint dried, I measured the spacing I wanted the letters to be and drew guidelines on the canvas.  I also drew guidelines so there was an inch spacing on the left/right and 2 inches on the bottom and top.  To determine the spacing, I played around with different configurations using the letters.



 4. Once I figured out the spacing and configuration, I started sticking the first two lines down.  If you have enough letters for the whole image, I would stick all the letters on first.  I however, had to reuse a few letters, so I just did mine line by line.


5. Paint over the letters using your second color of paint.  I used a blotting technique because I wanted it to look kind of cloudy and I wanted some black to show through.  To do this, only use a small amount of paint on your brush.  The "drier" the brush is, the more that the under color will show through.

Another technique you could use is to use a small amount of paint on the brush and make straight brushstrokes horizontally across the canvas.  This would give a streaky look across the painting, which I think would also look neat. 


6. Once the paint has become tacky, you can begin peeling the letters off.  As I said earlier, I had to reuse some of my letters, which is why I started to peel some off a little early.


7.  Once all the paint starts drying and becomes tacky, peel all the letters off, and voila, you have a brand new piece of artwork!



As always, let me know if you have any questions! 

13 comments:

  1. just found this on pinterest and I LOVE it! My new husband also has a lifetime supply of all things DMB and I almost had a meltdown when he tried to decorate our new house like his dorm room with all of his DMB posters. So far I have narrowed it down concert poster that we framed, but this project is perfect! I'm going to do it for valentines and put it in our room! Thanks for being so creative!

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  2. I love this. And that is our song!

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  3. WOW WOW WOW! Thank you for this tutorial! I have friends who "have everything" and am always looking for gift ideas that are original and unique to make for them! They would never ever expect getting something like this! I love this idea so much!

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  4. I love this! I too am a DMB fan and I just love that song. =)

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  5. I did this tonight for the music room in our new house :) looks amazing! I did blue and silver base with black on top.

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    1. Ooh that sounds like an awesome color combo!

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  6. I just made this for my girlfriend and she loves it. I was keeping it a surprise but could help showing it to her once I was finished because it came out so well. Thanks for the idea.

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  7. I saw this as a Pinterest pin and started madly gathering the materials to put this in to action for my bestest friend who is a HUGE DMB fan! I didn't realize until today that there was a tutorial for this and I am so excited! I did have the idea right, but now seeing exactly how you put it together gives me the confidence to move forward. Thanks for the greatest Christmas present idea EVER!! And then I want one for my room too!! I do have a quick question about the steps where you apply the white paint. Are you using the large flat side of the brush to dab with or are you using the end of the brush and dabbing vertically?

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    1. Hi Bethany! It's such a wonderful Christmas idea, isn't it! When I added the white paint, I dabbed using the end of the brush. It's kind of hard on it, so I'd maybe use one you don't care too much about!

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    2. Thank you for the reply and the wonderful ideas. I have my canvases painted black and found my stickers today! Cross your fingers that my work turns out as lovely as yours!!

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  8. Keep it up! You can make some living making these. Go Here

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  9. I so love this. I have already pinned this and will be making it next week when the kids are back in school. I have no idea yet where I will hang it, but I know I have to have this. lol Thank you!

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