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
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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
Have a great Sunday everyone
Much love,
Suzan yells - John the first piece is ready for the Art Gallery!!!!!!!!!!
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