How You can Paint Your Own Colour Matched Artwork (Part 1)

Painting artwork that includes the colours used in your home furnishings is a popular project.

It is covered in the free report that I give away (the link is above). However it is always interesting to see some actual examples.

I'm going to show you a couple of examples of pictures I've painted to match the bed cover in our bedroom. This post looks at one style of painting and the next post, which will be in about a month, will show a different style of painting. Both will be using the same colours to paint the pictures. These colours have been chosen to match the fabric of the bed cover.







The Colours in the Furnishings

As you can see from the photo the bed cover is a checked design with stone and dark red in the pattern. Trying to buy artwork with these particular colours in it would be fairly difficult. Also I wanted to keep the colours in the bedroom limited as I find that more restful.

Rather than mix up the colours myself I decided to buy a couple of small pots of pre-mixed acrylic colour. There are a couple of reasons for this.

Firstly I was going to paint a couple of pictures, so mixing up exactly matching colours for both of the pictures was going to be a challenge. (I wasn’t going to be painting them at the same time.)

Secondly when I was looking at the range of stone colours I realised that some shades looked a lot better with the dark red than others. So it was easier to buy my favourite shade.

The Style of the Picture

When using more unusual colour combinations it is often easier to go for a more graphic style of painting rather than something that it too realistic looking. Therefore for the first picture I decided to do a simple sunset, or moon set :-) , picture with some palm trees. This was painted on a stretched canvas.


How to Paint It

I started with a rough sketch to place the sun and trees where I wanted them.

Then I drew around a large plate for a circle for the sun. The rest of the picture was lightly drawn on.

Top Tip - Remember that once you paint over the surface with acrylics you will not be able to erase the pencil marks. Remove any unwanted marks before you start to paint.

I painted in the sun with Cadmium Yellow and Titanium White. Once it had dried I painted in the sky with the stone colour, adding white to give some cloud effect areas.

The edge between the sun and sky can be repainted to tidy it up once both sections are completely dry.

I used the dark red to paint in the palm trees and foreground. This can be painted in several layers. Extra layers will make the colour look a bit darker too.

Adding additional details to the foreground area helps to add interest and depth to the picture.


Other Ideas

The contrast between the light area of the sky and the darker silhouette of the trees and foreground is handy for this type of colour matched artwork.

Of course you can use other subjects in a similar way. You could use the silhouette shape of anything you like. For example a bridge, city skyline, hills, and so on. Perhaps even a shape taken from the patterns in your furnishings.


Part 2

Next time I will be talking about the other painting which uses the same colours but with a different style and look.

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Eagle Painting Using the Textured Background

Here is the final picture using the textured background from the previous blog posting.

I think these backgrounds work really well with strong graphic images.

The eagle is inspired by eagle tattoo designs and is painted using a mix of Prussian blue (the same blue used in the background) and Payne's grey.

I have just listed it in my eBay store, I hope it sells :-)

The Easy Way to Make a Special Present

We all know someone who is difficult to buy a present for. Someone who has everything they need and would not appreciate ‘normal’ gifts. Often this will be your parent or an older relative or neighbour, and they can be a problem to buy something for.

Well, this is a simple way to make a unique gift that they will be happy to accept. When you take the time to produce something that relates only to them and their interests it will always be happily received.

Use their Interests as a Theme

The idea is to make a picture that includes something that they are especially interested in. This could be a hobby or any other interest they have.

This is a quick and easy technique. You simply choose your theme (their hobby or interest), paint a silhouette of it onto a coloured background and frame it.

You could paint a coloured background onto a canvas panel or use already coloured paper. I noticed my local art store had coloured card that had a range of colours merging into each other, this would be ideal for this technique.

The theme of your silhouette is really the creative part. The easiest thing would be to use their hobby as the theme.

Look through some copyright free clip art until you find an image that you could use for the outline of the silhouette.

If they like fishing it could be a fisherman/fish/fishing fly. For a golfer it could be a set of clubs/golf hole with flag. For someone who likes to cook it could be related to cooking. If they are keen church-goers a silhouette of their church may be appreciated.

A lot of people like to receive a silhouette of their home. For car enthusiast a silhouette of their car is a good idea. In which case you could use a digital camera and take a picture of their church, home or whatever you have decided to include in the picture.

You really can use your imagination for this. When using clip art you have a huge range of options (probably too many!) to choose from. You don’t have to be great at drawing!

Also, you can use a computer graphics package to blend together two or three images for your final silhouette shape. Be sure to adjust the size of the final image to make it the correct size for the painting surface you have chosen, and print it out. As this is a gift you can make it whatever size you choose.

Once you have painted or found a suitable background, then trace around the outside edge of the image for your silhouette shape. Use carbon paper for this.

Fill it in

The silhouette shape can be painted in using acrylic paints – don’t make the paint too thin though! Another alternative is to use a permanent marker, not a normal marker as it will fade over time, and that would be disappointing for the person receiving the gift.

Silhouettes look very effective and traditional in black. However you could use a darker shade of one of the colours in the background for an alternative look. For example if the background was a pale green the silhouette could be in a dark green. This all adds to the uniqueness of your gift.

If you are using a coloured card it will be better to use a permanent marker as the water in the paint may cause the card surface to buckle.

Fill in the silhouette shape and leave to dry. Then frame the silhouette picture.

**A distinctive gift for a special person**

This type of personalized gift is always appreciated and shows that you have put some thought, time and effort into the present.

Another major benefit is that no one else will be giving exactly the same gift!

What about a card?

This is an excellent technique if you can’t find a suitable card.

You can make your own special card. It is most effective if you choose a very simple shape for the silhouette when using this method in card making. Cards are generally a lot smaller and look best when you use less detailed shapes.

Use this system and say goodbye to gift buying problems for that hard to please someone.