Decorating Princess

I was looking through my old art portfolio & discovered that I am unusually talented at painting seafood.  This is unusual because I don’t really like seafood, & I live in the desert so I usually can’t even find it at the grocery store. I would much rather be talented at landscapes or even portraits.  Nope.  I’m the Monet of seafood.  Don’t believe me?  Here’s a salmon I painted:

Here’s a crustacean.

Van Gogh had his sunflowers, & I have this. Yup, I’ve got really mad skills.  Maybe I can get a job working for the advertising & artistic rendering department at Red Lobster.

Tags: ocean, painting, painting tutorial, humor

Usually when I sit down to paint, I have everything laid out.  I know what colors & techniques I’m going to use, & what picture or tutorial I will work from.  This painting happened one day when I sat down & didn’t know what to paint.  I had a lot of time on my hands & the painting was getting finished much too fast for my liking, so I turned the beach into a series of small dots which I had never done before.  Then I took a dry brush & brushed the colors together for an aged effect.  I couldn’t have done this well if I had tried.  Sometimes it pays to just let yourself go & let the painting just happen.

I sat down the other day to paint this:

This is what came out:

What?  You notice the difference too?  My painting didn’t photograph well, it really doesn’t look that messy.  Anyways, it’s not my fault that I can’t paint a valley or close up plants to save my life, but I can paint mountains & dramatic skies.  Ok, so that is kinda my fault.  My point is that I still like the finished painting even though it wasn’t what I had planned.

How many times have you looked at a piece of art and thought, I could do that? Well you are right, you can. Pick up a few canvases, craft paints and brushes at a craft store or Wal-Mart, and your career as an artist has begun. I will be creating a few basic art tutorials that are great for a beginner, or even a great craft for kids. I call this piece dots, because well there’s dots on it.

1. First, draw out the dots. I just traced around a glass to get a perfect circle. Make some of the dots overlap, or have them only half on the page.

2. Second, fill around the dots with color. I used two coats of brown paint so the background was very solid. Use a flat brush to get a clean, crisp line.

3. Next, fill in the dots with any color you want.  Think about what colors you would wear in an outfit, and use those.

If you want to you can crumple up a piece of paper towel, and sponge the dots with a lighter color. This will add texture. That’s all it takes. See, painting isn’t scary. Just pick up a brush and get painting. I framed my picture in a funky frame to give it an eclectic look. If you follow this tutorial please post links to your paintings in the comments.