January 8, 2011

Snowman Canvas Painting

Well I have been wanting to try painting on canvas for a while now. I have painted a few really simple things like our family name. This consisted of painting the background and using a paint pen to trace our name. So to start out the new year I finally did it, I painted a picture on canvas. I may not have done it the way a pro would, but I did it.
I have to say that I have put this off because I was very intimidated by the process and I really can't draw much less paint. I decided it is paint after all and if it looks terrible I could just paint over it.
I kept the attitude that it was for me and it didn't have to be perfect. (Have I mentioned I have a small OCD problem?) But this is the year to just go for it and get those creative juices going again.
They have been dormant to long.

Here he is......

I think he's kinda cute.
I started off with a blank canvas. . . that sounds so silly doesn't it, of course it was a blank canvas.
The color for the background was inspired by the snowman I saw over at MAY DAYS and the fact that blue is my favorite color. I used cobalt blue.

Believe me I took several deep breaths and there was some hesitation before I put the paint on the canvas.
I debated on painting the snowman first and then painting around him but I decided to just paint him on the blue. Not sure if this is how it should have been done but it's what I did.
I painted about four coats of blue because it is such a dark color being painted on white.
I placed the paint in a plastic shopping bag in between each coat of paint.
I just closed the bag around the extra paint and brush so that it didn't start to dry out.
3rd coat, almost ready
After the fourth coat I decided it looked good and the white was coated good enough.
After it dried I left it for a couple of days and then I decided I would draw what I thought I wanted it to look like on the canvas with a pencil.
I'm not sure if you can tell but I had planned on writing Let It Snow over the top, more on that in a minute.
I had looked at this snowman plate for some added inspiration and then it became my paint tray.
As you can see the white was going to need a couple of coats of paint.

Ok so about the Let It Snow, as I said I can't paint but I really can't paint letters. I hated how the letters looked so tried to wipe them off before the paint dried. I knew it would be a mess but the letters were not staying.
So guess what???? Another coat of blue paint, this time around the snowman to cover my mistake.
I painted a couple more coats of white and then added a scarf.
Yes the scarf would need a couple of coats. The red I used to start with wasn't bright enough so I painted the next couple of coats with a brighter red.
Now for some eye's, a mouth and some buttons. I tried a couple of different things to find the size of these and my final choice was a pencil eraser.



I dabbed the eraser in the black paint and then dabbed off the extra paint. When I was checking for sizes I noticed that the first dot I made was larger because it had excess paint on it, so in order to keep the sizes the same I dabbed off the extra paint.
Here goes....
and here he is


Here are the colors of paint I used.
Cobalt Blue - background
White -snowman body
Pure Orange - nose
Black - buttons
Engine red and Berry red - scarf
The berry red was brighter and is on top of the engine red.

I added a nose after practicing on a scrap piece of paper.
I also added some fringe to his scarf and I even tried my hand at some highlights, I still want to do some on the scarf so that it looks more like a knot has been tied. Just haven't decided how to do that. I loved how the tiny, tiny, speck in the eyes made such a difference.

I also added some snow to the background. I am still debating on a hat or not and hanging him or just propped up. I will decide on the hat later, but for now he is propped up on a shelf by our fire place welcoming the snow.
So the moral of this post is to GO FOR IT! ! Is he perfect? no Could someone else do a better job? sure they are all over blog land
But the lesson I learned is that just by trying I got something I had been wanting and I learned a few things along the way that I would do different , I tried something I had been wanting to do and I like how it turned out.
I hope to try and do many more things this year that I have been putting off and I hope that you will to.

I am linking to :

Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special

5 comments:

  1. Great job and thanks for the encouragement and inspiration! I have been 'planning' to paint a canvas for a long time. I am having a luncheon for Valentine's Day and I think that may just be the time to do it. NOW, to find an inspiration piece...

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  2. I think your snowman looks absolutely adorable! Thanks for sharing.

    Brittany
    http://www.prettyhandygirl.com

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  3. That is way to cute! Much better than I could have done! Your tutorial was great...

    The cupcakes at your header are sooo yummy looking and are seriously going to make me go look for something to eat....

    Thanks for stopping by my blog....

    Take care,
    Lisa

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  4. You, yes you, have given me the courage to do this. I have wanted to paint simple things on some canvas I bought but I have been chicken. Your snowman is so adorable! Thank you so much for just going for it!

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