Sunday, July 14, 2013

Art is Hard

So, one of the things on our summer list is to paint a painting. There are a couple of minor things that could block this from happening:

1) I don't paint.
2) I have zero artistic ability of any kind.
3) Did I mention I don't paint?

But I saw this little idea on pinterest and I thought it was something that the boys and I could manage. I mean, c'mon, how badly could I screw up? (answer: quite a bit, turns out).

The idea, basically, is to create a little negative space design using tape and then paint over it and then when the paint dries, you remove the tape and VOILA!

So, my first stumbling block arrives in the form of gaffer's tape. If you've never heard of gaffer's tape just know that you could probably use it to suspend yourself to the side of the Empire State Building at the 78th floor and you would not fall. You could tape two bumpers together with gaffer's tape and tow a car. In other words, it is strong.  It is, in a nutshell, quite a bit stronger than this task requires. BUT, it is also the only kind of tape I can find in our entire house and I'm too lazy to go to the store. So: gaffer's tape. It is a bitch to cut and I develop a blister and carpal tunnel approximately 3 minutes into this project. Fabulous.

Now, I should interject here that if you would like your negative space design to be words like I had, you can BUY STICKER  LETTERS. They are easy to apply to your canvas and work just fine.That would be the smart thing to do. I am not smart.

I also had convinced myself that I didn't like the look of any of the stickers I was seeing. I wanted more of a child-like and rough design. As happens, it ends up being advantageous to start out with the idea that you want a "child-like and rough design" especially when you don't know what the hell you're doing. It gives you lots of leeway to royally screw things up. It took me 45 minutes to make all the letters. My hands almost fell off. Art is hard, y'all.


The next part I needed the boys' help with. I set up a little painting station outside, gave them some paintbrushes.. 
And then I just sorta let them go to town.



it, uh, got a little messy. 



 I let the canvas dry. Since it was 106 degrees outside, that took about 3 minutes. After that, all I had to do was peel off the letters.

And then:  VOILA

I'm pretty happy with it. What do you think? 




2 comments:

Older not wiser said...

Absolutely wonderful-you nailed it!

Older not wiser said...

Absolutely wonderful. You nailed it!