Baby Girl #2's Room - Part 2 (The Painting)

Lindsey at The Pleated Poppy is the inspiration behind another element in baby girl's room - a painting!  She did a post recently about the entryway in her house and had a great 'knock-off' painting from one she had seen at World Market.  I thought it looked like a good idea since I needed more artwork for the baby's room - and fairly easy so I went for it too!  Here's a link to the 'tutorial' as to what Lindsey did for her artwork:  Pleated Poppy - Inspired Canvas.

Here is what the finished product at World Market looked like:


Because I wanted to keep within a color scheme - I took some of the Riley Blake "Penny Lane" fabric (which is the inspiration for baby's room) seen here
     
      


photo credits:  www.fatquartershop.com

into Michael's and color matched the acrylic craft paints.  Thankfully there's such a HUGE collection of different colors, it was fairly easy to find some that matched.  I had a pre-stretched canvas already at home but it wasn't as large of a size as I wanted so I bought one of those at Michael's too.

Lindsey's version of the painting had a more khaki/brown/gold background because she wanted contrast with her wall color but I wanted mine more on the grey side.  I ended up mixing a light grey, gold, white and brown together but then dry brushed it  then ended up wetting a paper towel after adding a very watered down grey over that.  The effect is a mottled, messy grey which I'm ok with.

From there I tried to find a good glass or circle template to work from.... I ended up using a votive candle holder and then a pint glass to get a circle about 3" in diameter to create the circles.  My problem here was using a mechanical pencil that had too soft of graphite.  The reason being - AWFUL smearing!  I had it all over my arm and hand which isn't a big deal but it also rubbed across the canvas and just looks much messier than I would like.  (I really need to invest in some good old-fashioned #2 pencils and a pencil sharpener - remind me when it's back to school time....)

So, as Lindsey mentions - drawing in all the lines for your 'petal' shapes is the most time intensive part of this project but very do-able.... just use a better pencil!  :)

From there I had a great time mixing paints and trying to be as random as possible.  I did NOT do a good job of trying to keep the pattern intact - another something I'd do better if I were to paint this again but overall the final project worked out ok and the colors work well.  It was a fun, inexpensive way to create some artwork for the baby's room.  What do you think?