If you can trace and color, you can paint your own pictures.
When decorating your baby's nursery, you will want every detail to be perfect, and making nursery art yourself will help you achieve this. By painting your own pictures, you can design your nursery art to fit perfectly with your nursery decorating theme and color palette. You do not need to be an artist to paint some fabulous pictures, you just need a few techniques and the right materials.
Instructions
1. Select a canvas. One great option is canvass board, available at art stores. You can also use a heavy duty paper, piece of smooth scrap wood, MDF (medium density fiber board), poster board, cardboard or any good, clean, flat object that paint will adhere to.
2. Prime your canvas if necessary and let it dry. Most surfaces benefit from a coating of latex primer because it allows the paint to go on smoothly and evenly. Priming paper is not necessary.
3. Search for an image to paint. Excellent image sources are coloring books, magazines, picture books, greeting cards and clip art. If you prefer, draw your own image on a separate piece of paper. Make a photocopy of the image, adjusting the size to fit your canvas if necessary.
4. Transfer your design to your canvas. Place transfer paper on the canvas, put the design on top of it and secure them both with painter's tape so it does not wiggle. Trace over the lines with a stylus or pencil to transfer the outline. Remove the transfer paper and image.
5. Line a disposable foil baking tray with two layers of paper towel. Dampen the paper towels until they are saturated but not submerged, and cover them with a sheet of waxed paper. Pour coin-size amounts of acrylic paints onto the palette. Acrylic paints dry quickly, so the water will help keep them wet longer.
6. Fill the image with color carefully and neatly. Allow the base coats to dry. Allow first coats to dry and add second coats only if necessary. Refer to your image as you work.
7. Add shading by dry-brushing just a hint of a slightly darker color along one edge of a part of the picture. Dab a dry brush into a tiny drop of paint that is just a shade or two darker than the original color, then brush it back and forth on a paper towel until most of the paint is off; the residual paint will have a soft, shadowy look. Imagine a light shining on your image. Imagine where shadows would fall, such as the underside of arms and legs, or the opposite side of the light source, and lightly brush along the edge with the dry brush to create a shadow.
8. Paint on highlights, if desired, such as dry-brushing white on parts of your image. Imagine if the sun were shining over your image where the light might hit. Give small details to the picture you have chosen. For example, if painting a cat, add whiskers or a small white dot in the eyes to make them seem to gleam; if painting flowers, add small veins in the leaves. It is the small details that will really add character and intrigue to your finished painting, so use your imagination and express yourself as you desire.
9. Hang your artwork when dry. If you painted on a wooden or MDF canvas, you can screw on a saw-tooth hanger to the upper center on the back so it can be hung on a nail in the wall. If you painted your picture on paper, cardstock, canvas board or any other flatter, lighter surface, you can put it in a frame or mount it and frame it.
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