Art Made Easy: Painting Your Own Canvas
Get ready to transform your home decor with an affordable and personal touch by learning my easy 3-step method to painting an art canvas with acrylic paint. This fun, beginner-friendly project will help you create beautiful, budget-friendly pieces of art to enhance your home and express your style.
I will never be a fine artist and truly have no desire to become one. What I do want though is a cheery art canvas filled with colorful flowers to lean on the mantel in my living room.
I have been looking for over a year for just the right piece but haven’t had any luck finding one that fits my vision.
When this happens, I know the only way I am going to get what I want is to make it myself.
If you don’t have the confidence to sketch a design yourself, look for art that you like along with color combinations. This is what I did. I have always liked the art of Jennifer Paganelli whose style is free and easy with lots of brush strokes and layers of paint.
Her art gave me the confidence to try painting my own DIY canvas to decorate the mantel area.
I pretended I was back in Kindergarten when sketching and painting the flowers, leaves and vase. I didn’t care how it came out. If I didn’t like it, all I had to do was paint over it. So have fun and bring out that inner artist in you.
It took me about 45 minutes to paint the flowers, leaves and vase on the blue background.
Here is how I painted the canvas
The 3 Step Method to Painting an Art Canvas
Instead of getting overwhelmed with techniques and art skills I do not have on how to paint an art canvas, I simplified the process and broke it down into 3 easy steps.
supplies needed:
- Art Canvas
- Inspiration piece of art
- Chalk
- Set of paint brushes of various widths
- Acrylic paints in desired colors. Note: To save money on paint, remember you can mix two colors to get a third. For instance – red and yellow make orange. Blue and red make purple.
- Damp rag
- Paper plates
- Foil
- Acrylic medium – sold in crafts store
If you want your art to have texture as mine does you need to apply the paint liberally onto the canvas, but what really creates thick brushstroke layers is adding a tablespoon or two of acrylic medium into every color of paint on your palette.
This medium will add thickness and help to create layers in the brushstrokes. It also helps to slow down the dry time of the paint which allows you to manipulate the colors you layer and add on.
Step 1: Paint Canvas in a Background Color
Keeping the canvas white is fine, but consider painting the background of a canvas a color. Doing this will add more depth to the objects you paint on the canvas. I painted the background on my canvas a dark blue.
Apply one to two coats to cover the white canvas completely. Let dry before proceeding to the next step.
Step 2: Sketch Design With Chalk
Once the background is dry, using your inspiration piece as a guide quickly sketch the objects onto the canvas with a piece of chalk. Don’t overthink this step if you want a flowy abstract design.
Step 3: Paint Objects on Canvas in Layers
Place a few tablespoons of paint in the colors you plan to use on foil lined paper plates. Mix in a tablespoon of acrylic medium to each color.
Starting with the largest object(s) in your sketch, pick up the paint color with a paint brush and swish the brush along the outline and shape of the sketched objects. Don’t overthink this, just swipe it on thick so the layer and brush strokes show up.
Once the main objects have a layer of brush strokes on them, do the same for the other colors and objects you sketched on the canvas.
Once base layer of color is on each object, mix white or darker paint colors to the main color.
Use the paint mixes of lighter and/or darker colors to add layers over the main paint color on each object.
On the flower leaves I used blue and green paint mixed with white to create various shades of each and applied the colors following each object’s shape.
To add even more paint layers besides sweeping brush strokes, dab the tip of a pointed brush and pouch it up and down to create a different type of texture besides a brush stroke as I did for the middle of each flower.
These are only a few ways to create texture, experiment to come up with even more ways to add textures until you like what you see on the canvas. Perhaps try sponges, rags, or scrunched up plastic bags.
Optional Step
To create an overlay of dots or splatters over the entire canvas, mix a tablespoon of paint with a 1/4 cup of water. Then dip a paint brush into the mix and then flick it over the canvas to create round dots or a sprinkling of dots all over the canvas.
I am very happy with how my canvas art of pink flowers came out. By diving right in and not worrying about how it would turn out I would have never known that I could create art canvases that I like myself.
As I mentioned in the beginning of the post, I don’t want to become a fine artist, but enjoyed painting in a loosely abstract way. So much so that I may see if I can find more inspiration to sketch and paint on different sized canvases.
If painting a canvas intrigues you, start by painting a small canvas at first or on a piece of dollar store foam board to try out the 3 step technique I used. It is fun and a great way to add your favorite or cheery colors to your decor.
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