DIY Silhouette Art

Good morning everyone!!!

Your friendly neighborhood artist here at your disposal ( and that is SO sarcastic - because I'm the furthest thing from an artist that there could be )
Although being an artist certainly is starting to be a term people use most loosely - if you want to giggle
check out a true ARTIST HERE - seriously - you won't believe your eyes ( and if you are related to that particular artist - well then I'm sorry - and I'm just an ignoramus - because I don't get it )

BUT - every now and then an " idea " is born and I attempt to do something on a canvas ( and that's a very loose term - because it's usually an old scap piece of wood ).  I created these for my kids last fall - made one each and put lyrics that meant something to each of them.  You can see details of it HERE

They seemed to be quite popular and are SO easy to do - that I decided to do another one with a step by step tutorial for you today..............it didn't come out as nice as the first ones because I was in a hurry to
get things done and didn't do as many buildings on this one

I only had very thin pieces of plywood to use - the first batch were made on pieces of wood boards actually.
So I started off with my " canvas "

I gave it a quick coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint - Pure White

John says - PLEASE don't paint on the dining room table
Suzan says - It's my EASEL - and please don't stifle my creativity
John says - We use that to eat on - PLEASE
John says - No wonder I can never find a a recycle bag - HAVE YOU BEEN USING THEM FOR DROP CLOTHS???????????

I've been wanting to paint this table for over 2 years now - John is standing firm against the idea -  I figure if I have enough " accidents " on it - he'll have no choice but to let me do it LOL
Ok - ready to see an artist in motion?
Take notice of my clean fluid strokes everyone -
and especially my tools!!!

A Sharpie and a Ruler - LMHO
Now I can draw stick figures AND buildings - SHUT THE DOOR!!!!!!!!!!!

For a city silhouette I make them as close as possible with different roof lines and add some smoke stacks ( chimney's? ) for interest

and I ALWAYS add a Church

Montreal is a city of Churches ( more per capita than anywhere else in North America apparently )
so a city skyline without one is inconceivable to me !!!

Ok - at this point John said the funniest thing he's ever said before ( well concerning the blog anyway )
I'm dying of laughter here.............and like usual he's dead serious !!!
I'm sitting at the computer uploading these images

John says - WHAT are you doing?
Suzan says - I'm giving a tuturorial on how to make these
John says - ARE YOU INSANE???
John says - You could sell these on your blog - why the hell are you telling everyone how to make them???
Suzan says - If you're expecting people to line up to buy these John you're in a dream world here!
John says - Well that's another lost opportunity ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Suzan says - Why do all your get-rich-quick schemes always involve me and a paintbrush?
Suzan says - Please go invent something................leave me alone, I'm blogging

OMG - I'm laughing my head off - I can barely type to finish this ..................
Hey John - You've got HIGH hopes - high hopes - high in the sky apple pie hopes................
Should I have these patented LMHO???

Ok - let's continue............I left the backgrounds white on the ones I made for my kids - on this one I decided to paint a grey sky.................just dry brushing once again -
I used Graphite and White chalk paint because I was out of Paris Grey -
It's completely ok to paint over some of the " buildings " at this point because they're all going to be filled in with the Graphite color anyway..............

I then added some Old Violet here and there - again only dry brushing -

Ok - now we paint the buildings - if you want to make Graphite a pure black - you can add some black pigment to the mix - I didn't have any so I added black craft paint - and if any of you tell Annie Sloan that I'll never speak to you again!!!

I paint the black in one direction only - up/down - and I do it thick for " texture "
And this is how it looks when you're finished ( or in this case almost finished )

I left the one I did for my Son like the above - completely black - but I usually dry brush some white over the buildings at this point..............in the opposite direction that the black was painted in - so side to side.
This allows the texture to show ..............

it almost gives the effect of a rainy twilight  - with moon glow just starting to creep in
oops - have to work on that steeple and cross a little!

Stay tuned - I'm working on a Paris one now.................BECAUSE

Tomorrow is day ONE of GIVE AWAYS  ( to celebrate 1000 GFC followers )
There'll be 6 different days and there may be a little bit a lot of Paris involved  
Have a great Sunday everyone
Much love,

Suzan yells - John the first piece is ready for the Art Gallery!!!!!!!!!!

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