I Am Not an Artist

Pretty sure I haven't painted since elementary shool or so? But making some art for my foyer actually ended up being a pretty easy little project...after I figured out what the heck I was doing, because of course I had to screw it up just a little.

I started with a large canvas, since I've got a huge wall to fill. I bought the 30"x40" canvas at Michaels crafts. I went with the cheapest brand, because I had no idea if it was going to turn out and I didn't want to waste a bunch of money. The canvas was $34.99, but I had a 50% off coupon so it ended up being only $17.50.

I bought the paint for $3 a tube, I went with acrylic, simply because oil paint scares the crap out of me. Also a little box of foam brushes. Buy more white paint than you think you'll need, because you go through a lot. I had to go buy another tube.

I used paper plates to mix my paint because I'm a professional. And then I just dove right in.

 HUGE mistake.

 I ended up with this:

Seriously, stop laughing. In the words of my husband: "So it's kind of like a plus sign?"

The vision in my head was sound, but in real life it turned to junk. I took a deep breath and walked away to let it completely dry. Because that's the thing about paint: if you keep trying to fix it by adding more and more paint you'll end up with a blob of brown muck.

The next day, I came back to try again. This time I realized that my coraly-orange color was too overpowering in large doses. Also, the look I was going for needed straight up and down brush strokes only, no swirling. I gave myself permission to relax and in about a half hour I had painted over most of my first painting and ended up with this:

Now it kind of looks one if those heart rate monitor things...I'm cool with that. I think it's ready for the foyer. 

Next up, I'm just going to skip ahead and reveal the final result, because I'm impatient like that!