no artist

There’s a big difference between being an artist and simply having some skill. I am no artist. I have a hard time coming up with original ideas and actually making them real. I come up with ideas all the time but something gets lost in translation from my brain to the canvas, unless is purely geometric. SO, I’m a really good copy cat. I can draw photorealistically from a picture and I can handle a paint brush if I have a pre-existing guide.

Over the holidays, I copied this Hannah Stouffer painting, with my own twist and color variations for our livingroom.

my version

Last week, I needed to run to Ben Franklin Crafts for some crafty stuff and saw they were having a huge sale on canvases. They always do. So, I swiped up three 11″ x 14″ primed canvases for $2 each to do a little series. I have had this Central Illustration pillow bookmarked for a while. I really like the design and well… I painted it!

Since the design is square and I was stretching it horizontally over 3 small canvases, there was some improv involved. I also didn’t feel like doing those precise stripes in the background. I sketched out a loose plan on paper and drew directly onto the canvas where I wanted the big sections of black and white to go. I filled in the black and white then that huge amount of grey and the rest of the fine leaf/root detailing was done freehand. Taking note of the layers and steps I had to work in was the only moment of pause. All was done with Liquitex Heavy Body acrylics I’ve had lying around for over 10 years from design classes, a white paint pen that I ended up using for the white skeleton part, and some old sable brushes. $13 total and some free time. Not bad.

Here’s a shot mid-way through:

Here’s the end result:

I did post a while back to help you make your own art on the cheap. Check it out.

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Tagged as: art, crafts, decor, design, diy, painting