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Creative Casey's Blog

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Not So Angry Birds...My Biggest Canvas Painting To Date


I was hosting an art exhibit at work and got inspired by a couple of extremely large pieces of a transfer images of people on a flat bed sheet. I realized I've never worked large and decided I should use this opportunity as a self challenge. So off I went to Michaels with a 40% off coupon on a rainy Friday afternoon.

The canvas I purchased for $20 and then used existing acrylic paints. Just so you have an idea of the size... it was about 4.5 feet by 2.5 feet. The primary method I used was basically using acrylics like they were watercolors and various stamping techniques. I first took green and yellow shads of paint, watered them down and used up and down brush strokes throughout the entire canvas. This was my base coat. Because it was so watered down it created a resistant effect which looked pretty neat.

When the bottom layer had completely dried I then got 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper and cut them in half. I used fall colors (because that was my muse) and using those shades of color I put them one at a time on the half sheets of paper, watered them down then stamped it on the large canvas using my hand to burnish the paint on. I did this over the entire canvas and let it dry.

The third layer was of birds. I found three images online, enlarged them to about 8.5 x 11, printed several of each out and modified them as I cut them out to create simplified images. I took white indoor paint (because I ran out of acrylic white) and put a THICK coat on each image and stamped them on the painting. When the birds were partially dry I took some of the solid block prints and reapplied them over the birds just enough to add some color without covering the images.

And that was it! All done! I'm pretty pleased at the outcome and proud of myself for getting over my fear of large paintings. In hindsight I would have liked to try to add some various words mixed in the layers. I think that could have added an interesting look. Perhaps my next painting I'll give it a whirl!

Below are some of the steps but not all to this process. Sorry I forgot to take pictures each step of the way.









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