DIY: Drip Chevron Painting

Last September I went to a "artisans retreat" and I watched an LA painter paint the above piece in less than 20 minutes. Her method was to use watered down color and then spray water (using a spray bottle) over the piece immediately following her strokes. 

As inspired as I was, I wanted to use her technique, but modifying it a little. Instead of creating a flat painting (like the one above), I wanted to create one with texture and noticeable color variations. To me, the above piece was very similar to watercoloring instead of painting.... so cue my second attempt with drip-painting. 

First, select your colors. I decided to stray away from my typical color scheme of grey, blue and gold... adding pink, purple, red, green and periwinkle. Then, I mixed one part acrylic gloss and one part water, creating "cake batter" -like consistency.

I decided to paint with a chevron pattern, alternating colors. Apply pressure where you want your drips.

After I finished, I couldn't decide how I should hang the painting: dripping up or dripping down. My instagram followers voted and said that drips upward is too weird... so it drips down, for now ;)  

Drip Painting

This was one of my favorite crafts so far, because the turnout was totally out of my hands. 

Prep: find squirt bottles (I found mine at Walmart) and "mix" your 2/3 paint + 1/3 water mixture in it. Once you have your mixture... just squeeze with the nose pointed down towards the canvas. Let the paint run either as long or short as you'd like.  

I decided to do four different colors, so it took a bit longer to finish (because of drying time, but I'm very happy with how it turned out... 

"Dripping in Gold" wooden artwork.

I just love it on the wall next to my shelf :) 

Upcycled: The Hutch

My Grandfather willed me a few of his furniture pieces upon his passing and one of the items was this beautiful Ethan Allen hutch: 

I really loved the natural wood look of the piece, but it didn't quite go with my style and the rest of the furniture in my house, so I decided to "upcycle" it. 

First: sand down the entire surface of the hutch and tape off the parts that you do not want to paint. 

(Originally I wanted to keep the inside of the doors natural wood, but once it was painted, I loved the white so much that I decided to use more paint then less).

After sanding, prime the entire piece, let dry and gently sand again. 

(Photo: white primer)

"Lilly" by Valspar -- my favorite "white" ... it has an off-white feel to it. Not too yellow, not too white. 

After painting all over, sand down the places where you want your piece to look "worn."

Finish off with cute knobs and you're done! Enjoy your new upcylced focus point!! 

Christmas Gift Painting

One of my friends asked me this Christmas to make her something to give to her Mom. She had seen my picture of the words on canvas that I had painted several months ago and wanted me to do something similar. Except she said she would like it to be a painting of the Fruits of the Spirit and she gave me specific colors to use. 

I decided, however, that since the Fruits of the Spirit are so short, that it would be better to use different fonts, paints and sizes to take up the canvas she had purchased for me to use. 

I remembered this print I had seen a while back on Pinterest and I decided to show it to her. She said she loved it! 

The only problem was that she had purchased a square canvas instead of a rectangle canvas, so I knew the scale was going to be off a bit and that it wasn't going to be exact. Nevertheless, I decided to go for it! 

I had never painted block letters before. So, I knew this was going to be a challenge for me. If you read my post about the words on canvas, you heard me express the patience it takes to paint words. This one required even more patience!! 

First, I had to sketch out the block letters on the canvas and then I painted the letters one color at a time. 

All in all it took me about 5 hours to paint. Definitely a labor worth doing because I can now say I know all of the Fruits by heart!! 

I don't know if I'm in love with the final product. There was one font in particular that I am not a big fan of. But my friend said that her mom loved it! She paid me probably too much for it, but it was still nice to be commissioned to do something and get paid for it. 

For her moms birthday we are going to build her something out of old barn wood. I'm looking forward to it because wood and I are much better friends that paint and I :)