You Guys Have to Try This! and Some Advice Needed!

This was a fun painting I did today

 Ya'll can soooooooo do this too!

Yes you can

Yes you can

Yes you can!

Go get a canvas right now! 

And don't even think about buying one at Michaels without a coupon !

You can even get the coupons on your smart phone and they will scan it from your phone!

 

The canvas i used was 30 x 40

It's just as easy for me to paint big as it is small, and i get more impact, but you can start smaller if you like

here are the brushes i used

and here are the colors i used

i use these colors ALOT!

Titanium White

Phthalo or Thalo Blue

Ultramarine Blue

Sap Green 

Raw Umber

Y ellow Ochre

and 

Linseed Oil

  

Here were the three inspiration photos i used  

isn't this just insanely gorgeous!?

what i liked here was the colors and the white border with the rough edges

oh yeah,.... and that chandelier and those sconces!

 

another inspiration photo found at a different time

as you can see, i must be liking these colors! 

 

and finally this cute little bird sillouette 

 So, i just got some of that blue painters tape, and taped up the canvas like this -

Then i  just grabbed the big dollar store brush,  dipped it in some linseed oil

 and with it,  pulled in some of the white, a little ultramarine blue, and a little Thalo blue, mixed em up... and started pushing and painting those wonderful colors into the canvas

you will have to dip in paint and linseed oil alot at first because the canvas is dry and will suck that paint right up!

don't give up, just keep workin it! 

I decided i wanted to mix a little Sap Green in with the blue in some places, and some of the darker Raw Umber and Yellow Ochre more near the edges..

(yellow ochre is a wonderful color)

You can see, it's NOTHING FANCY,  just brushing color on the canvas

I do the lighter blue green areas first, because once i get brown on the brush, i don't want to go back into the more pure blue and white areas...  

 

I also left the edges near the tape all messy on purpose, i went right to the tape in some places and purposely stayed away in others to give it that raw edge feel like in the first inspiration photo

Ok, so now i have a big ole canvas with some pretty colors all messy all over it! 

Perfect!

Sometimes as in this painting, i will wipe off my big brush really well and then start at the top of the canvas and softly run my brush from top to bottom

it makes things soft and blendy and watery looking 

Now you just grab your filbert brush - the one with the rounded tip like the tip of a spoon

smooth it into the white paint till the tip is coated in white and kinda flat

and let the brush make the shaped of the petals!

you can even be all smeary and messy at the edges, makes it look sort of blurry and soft

seeeeeee, these petals aren't  that great or perfect, but the whole effect of the painting is still pretty

    

Notice in the first inspiration photo, the petals cluster in different groupings... just mess with that - 

but you wouldn't want to just do petals everywhere in an even way

 

often what you DON'T paint is just as important as what you DO paint!

the petals will pick up some of the blue underpainting and that's ok!

after the painting dries in a few days you can come back and hit them with more white if you want to brighten some of them up

and then...

i just brushed in this little birdie silhouette in white 

....dotted in a few centers in some flowers

made a few impressions of branches

pulled off the tape

and voila! a painting!

After what i've seen you guys do, this would be a piece of cake for you! 

just remember, don't overwork it!

if these blues are too green for your house, leave out the green, use more lavender blues, or for that matter do the background all in shades of pink!

you could even add in some cool script or symbols in the painting!

Have fun!

Be Messy on Purpose! It will make it better!

 

Now to the advice part...

I have this ginormous expensive piece of handmade furniture in my bedroom

i bought it at a consignment shop years ago for $800.00

i looked it up online because it has a metal tag with the maker on it, and it is an $8000.00 piece of furniture!!!!

and ... uhhhhhh.... i kinda want to paint it

but, i think that might be a crime against hand carved fancy furniture laws

This is the piece of furniture where people almost died getting it into the house

and i'm pretty sure it was against all the laws of nature that we got it in the front door since the stairs are right there as soon as you step in...

Mr. Fractured had to pull it up the stairwell with all his might and then this older gentleman from the furniture place, with two teenage boys were there to "help"

everyone just got stuck, 

ted hanging on in the middle of the stairwell for dear life

and the three other guys at the bottom

no one could move  

because if any one moved something or someone was going to break  

STUCK!!!

Somehow... we finally got it in, but it will NEVER go out again!

in case you're wondering - that ribbon hanging there has the key on it...

So, anyway.... do i paint it???  I mean it is pretty, but i keep thinking it would be really wonderful with some Annie Sloan old white and some darker paint in the carved areas ...

I don't know...

 what do you guys think???  

...the end...