Modern Art Canvas - KK

OK, it's time for my tutorial! (Bet you didn't think I'd get this up this fast.)

I decided I wanted some new art to hang in my new apartment and luckily I had a few blank canvas in my craft supply that I could paint. I knew I wanted something graphic and modern, so off to Pinterest I went.

What I found was this piece from the blog younghouselove.com.

I decided this design would work for me. It was colorful, not too distracting, but still had enough interesting details. 

I headed to Home Depot to get paint (and a few small items I needed.) Thank you to Christianne for telling me a few projects ago that you can get a little sample of any paint color for $2-3. This will last a WHILE! 

I decided I wanted to incorporate some yellows and grays and found three colors I liked. After running a few other errands, I went back to my basement and set to work following the instructions on the tutorial. 

First, I used a pencil and straight edge to mark off the columns.

Then I used the corner of a 3x5 card to randomly section off the lines and create the pattern. I used both inverted and ... what is the opposite of inverted?? ... angles to add more variety. 

I started painting and decided I should probably decide what color would go where. So I put a dash of color in each section. And this kinda turned into a color by number project. Except there were no numbers. 

For the first round of painting, I didn't focus too much on the lines and being precise. 

I missed pictures of a few steps here, but after my first color (light grey) dried, I used painters tape to cover any overlapping sections of colors 1 and 2. I then painted and let dry.

After THAT paint dried, I removed the painter's tape and reapplied (yes, I reuse tape. I'm that cheap.) where the 3rd color would overlap with the others. 

I could have been a lot more precise with this process. (I watched two movies while I worked on it...while doing a few other things and waiting for paint to dry.) But I wanted to move things as quickly as possible and undoubtedly cut a few corners. 

A look at my setup while waiting for the final layer to dry. 

I wanted to have a bigger piece so I actually used two separate canvases and designed them to hang side by side. I would have gone even bigger if I had the materials on hand. Here's one finished and another in the works. I could have done them at the same time, but I wanted to make sure the process worked on Canvas #1 first.

I also used the yellow paint to cover the canvases on the sides. These were previously painted black with lovely swirls some say resembled DNA. :P Here's what they look like on the wall. The lighting is horrible.

Some tips and thoughts:

I used a mechanical pencil for my lines, but it ended up kinda dark, and I had a hard time covering the lead. I would think a soft pencil that was lighter would work better.

I think it would look cool with thicker columns. Mine are just less than an inch because that's the width of the stick I used to measure. I'd love to see it done with 2 to 2.5-inch rows. Plus that means less work!

Again, I would have loved to go even bigger with the canvas size!

Creating Harmony or Excitement with Color

I was watching a show on HGTV where the interior designer focuses on a color palate for design, and then creates the room around the colors. I thought this was really cool, and the concept of which colors to use can be useful in any type of creative project.

This post will focus on finding harmony with colors - if you want to design a room or art project that gives off that feeling. Thanks to colormatters.com for this information.

Harmony can be defined as a pleasing arrangement of parts, whether it be music, poetry, color, or even an ice cream sundae.

In visual experiences, harmony is something that is pleasing to the eye. It engages the viewer and it creates an inner sense of order, a balance in the visual experience. When something is not harmonious, it's either boring or chaotic. At one extreme is a visual experience that is so bland that the viewer is not engaged. The human brain will reject under-stimulating information. At the other extreme is a visual experience that is so overdone, so chaotic that the viewer can't stand to look at it. The human brain rejects what it can not organize, what it can not understand. The visual task requires that we present a logical structure. Color harmony delivers visual interest and a sense of order.

In summary, extreme unity leads to under-stimulation, extreme complexity leads to over-stimulation. Harmony is a dynamic equilibrium.

Some Formulas for Color Harmony

There are many theories for harmony. The following illustrations and descriptions present some basic formulas .

A color scheme based on analogous colors

Analogous colors are any three colors which are side by side on a 12 part color wheel, such as yellow-green, yellow, and yellow-orange. Usually one of the three colors predominates.

A color scheme based on complementary colors

Complementary colors are any two colors which are directly opposite each other, such as red and green and red-purple and yellow-green. In the illustration above, there are several variations of yellow-green in the leaves and several variations of red-purple in the orchid. These opposing colors create maximum contrast and maximum stability.

A color scheme based on nature

Nature provides a perfect departure point for color harmony. In the illustration above, red yellow and green create a harmonious design, regardless of whether this combination fits into a technical formula for color harmony.

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Color Context

How color behaves in relation to other colors and shapes is a complex area of color theory. Compare the contrast effects of different color backgrounds for the same red square.

©Color Voodoo Publications

Red appears more brilliant against a black background and somewhat duller against the white background. In contrast with orange, the red appears lifeless; in contrast with blue-green, it exhibits brilliance. Notice that the red square appears larger on black than on other background colors.

Different readings of the same color

©Color Voodoo Publications

If your computer has sufficient color stability and gamma correction (link to Color Blind Computers) you will see that the small purple rectangle on the left appears to have a red-purple tinge when compared to the small purple rectangle on the right. They are both the same color as seen in the illustration below. This demonstrates how three colors can be perceived as four colors.

Observing the effects colors have on each other is the starting point for understanding the relativity of color. The relationship of values, saturations and the warmth or coolness of respective hues can cause noticeable differences in our perception of color.

Reproducing famous paintings - from Jules

I always loved modern paintings with their simplicity and the way they can bring in some bright splashes of color - but although I appreciated the artist and the work, I always thought that they don't look that hard to paint! I had often played around with acrylic paints and don't really do well with drawing people or flowers or something, so I thought a modern painting would be fun to try out.

Piet Mondrian was one of those painters, who was famous from his paintings of black lines randomly filled with red, yellow and blue. So, I thought it would be fun to try and reproduce the look.

Than got into painting with me, and he found a Mondrian picture online and measured the distance between the lines so that we could try and replicate it to the exact specifications.

We then got drafting tape (which is sold at any arts/craft store) and laid it out on a canvas. Drafting tape is great to create modern paintings because you can create a design, fill in the spaces, and then rip it off to show a cool design. Just be sure that its down all the way so the paint doesn't seep underneath the tape.

The hardest part is mixing the paint, but with Mondrian replications the colors are pretty bright and pure and look pretty similar as they are in the tube.

Ta Da!!

What are some types of modern paintings that you think would be easy to paint?

painting with layers

Hello from Sizzle filling in for Toots, who is completing her LDS mission in Uruguay. Today I am going to show you to repaint with layers. Distressing furniture is really in right now, so is painted furniture and sometimes you want color but not an over powering amount of color. This was my predicament.
I bought this cabinet at a garage sale. I thought I could redo it and keep my fabric in it.. So I sanded it, primed it and painted it this color:

I did several coats so this color was thick. I painted the doors this color too:
Then I got a candle and waxed the edges. Put wax where you want the next color of paint to sand off easily. It really works and keeps you from sanding down to the wood, instead you have this color show through.

Next I painted it a creamy white, I did several layers to cover the Amber Rose color. Then I sanded the edges where I had put the wax and some I didn't. This is the result.
See how I have the color showing through instead of the old wood color?

You can also use Elmer's Glue and get a crackle effect. Just paint over the glue while it is WET; so you'd need to do a section at a time. I was thinking I should have done that on the doors but I didn't.

Another tip: save money on hardware by buying a shape you like but not the finish. My knobs were this brassy gold and I got them for .97 each and spray painted them the color I wanted (the same color I did my desk chair in. It saved me a lot of money and now the hardware matches my desk too.


Before:

After:



A fun project - you could even do two colors and wax different parts and have two colors show through. The possibles are endless so keep the creative juices flowing!