Word Art
As crazy as the holidays get, one thing I really enjoy doing over the winter break is collaborating with Munch to make art for the family. This year I was inspired by the "subway art" I've seen in many DIY blogs.
I began with this- one of several paintings Munch did a couple of summers ago when she was just beginning to explore with paint. I never cared for the muddiness that came from the brown and was just waiting to paint over it.
We started out by layering a mixture of black, brown, and red paint onto the canvas with a palette knife. I really liked how the brightness and texture of the previous painting enhanced the darker paint, making it richer and more interesting.
While it dried, I asked Munch for words and phrases that she associated with her grandparents. I sketched out a rough plan before typing them into the computer as word art, using a variety of fonts and sizes, in block letters. After printing them, I (very) carefully cut them out- the exacto knife (love those!) came in handy. Since I didn't have any modge-podge in the house, I thinned some Elmer's glue with water (about 3 parts glue to one part water), painted it onto sections of the canvas, and attached the word art. I found that the letters tended to wrinkle up a bit when wet, so I patted them down to better adhere to the canvas- the wrinkles themselves I didn't mind as they added more interesting texture.
Once the letters were fairly dry and ready for another coat of sealer, I thought they seemed a little "bright" so I mixed a few drops of brown paint into my next batch of thinned-out glue. Munch painted over the entire canvas with this mixture- the layer of paint started to bleed into our glue mixture, but I liked the effect.
The last things we added were collage materials that we rummaged around for in Munch's art area:
one of Munch's drawings of herself
an ice cream cone made from some a scrap of cereal box cardboard, tissue paper, and iridescent confetti
a shopping bag made from a bit of string and a Target logo cut from one of their mailers
a bit of ribbon
a few buttons
a foam heart sticker
a bowl of mac & cheese (our favorite addition) made from a bit of blue tagboard and some dry macaroni pasta that we painted orange
We painted on a final coat of glue to the entire project after attaching the materials above.
Time spent- much, but certainly not all, of a day
Money spent- nothing- I was still in my jammies and had no intention of leaving the house for supplies. We got creative with the materials we had on hand.
End result-
No comments:
Post a Comment