One of my favourite ways to personalize and decorate a room is with art. It can really help tie a space together bringing in colours, textures, and patterns. However, some artwork comes with such a hefty price tag that can make it challenging to find something that you love within your price range. So many times I have walked into home decor stores and seen large canvas artwork with abstract patterns and designs… and I always think to myself… I could do that! Well, today is that day!
I’ve been seeing this trend of textured canvas art (or otherwise known as joint compound art) floating around Instragram and Pinterest. I’ve been in awe at how simple it seems to be to create and how amazing it looks. I do consider myself to be creative, but not necessarily artistic so I was worried that it would not turn out. Since this is abstract art, there really isn’t any way you can mess this up, and I am happy to report that this is so easy to do.
What you need:
- canvas
- spackle/drywall puddy/joint compound
- drywall knife (different sizes if you like)
- paintbrush
- paint
There are two ways to go about picking the canvas, and either are great options. One is buying a plain, white canvas at your local craft store or dollar store. Another is buying framed canvas from a home decor store or thrift store (if you can find one). Ideally, you would get one on sale and it wouldn’t matter what the canvas looked like because you would be painting over it. This option will likely cost more, however it comes already framed. If you go the option I went with and buy a plain canvas, you can frame it yourself. There’s lots of diy’s on Pinterest that will show you how to do this. It’s a pretty affordable option and makes your artwork look just that much better. I made another post sharing how I made my own diy canvas frame and I’m so happy with the results!
I decided to use a canvas that I already had. This was one I painted before and no longer liked it, so I figured I would use this rather than buying a new one.
Step one
Once you’ve gathered all your supplies and materials, lay your canvas out on a flat, protected surface. This was a great project to do outside!
Step two
Use your drywall knife to apply the drywall putty onto the canvas in a thin layer until it’s completely covered. There really isn’t one particular way of doing this. I just used different swooshing/swivel motions moving the knife across the canvas, one section at a time. Use can use a variety of sizes or even a paintbrush to create different textures. I tried to make different peaks all through the canvas.
Take a step back every so often to see what it’s looking like. I went back multiple times to add more peaks or flatten parts of the surface out until it looked just right.
Step three
Once it’s done, let it dry. Mine took almost two days to dry which was longer than I expected. It will depend how thick your layer of drywall is, but typically you should plan to let it try for 24 hours.
Step four
Now you could leave it like this…. I think it would look great…. or you could paint it, which is what I ended up doing. I just used some paint I had around the house, focusing on colours used in my bedroom as this is where the painting would be hung. Use different sizes of paintbrushes as well to create different strokes and patterns. I tried using a dry brushing technique where you put just a tiny bit of paint on the brush so it’s still relatively dry and apply it to the canvas with different stroking motions.
I also would stand back every so often and touch up areas that I felt needed more paint or a different colour.
As you can see, my final result is much softer and muted than what I initially started out with. It’s all about the blending!
After you’re done painting it to your liking, let it dry and hang it up! If you want to make it look extra professional, then you can take the next step and frame it. This is what I did and I think it added such a nice touch and made it look finished.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and I hope that it inspired you to try and get creative and make your own artwork! If you want to know how I made by own frame, then head on over to my other post here!
xoxo,
Amy
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