Matching DIY

In a previous post, I talked about making my own pillows for the back cushions of some couches gifted from a wonderful friend!

Now that I am on Spring Break, I have some time to be creative.  So, I decided to make a painting that I could hang over the couches and I wanted them to match.

I started out by sketching one of the flowers, but I hated it, so I sketched another one.  Once I liked it on paper, I sketched the flower directly onto the canvas.  Here's a hard to see photo of my initial sketch.

Again, sorry that it is so hard to see, I wanted to do a light sketch in case I made a mistake.

I knew that I wanted some kind of color in the background and thought of a way to include some other colors of the pillows.  The first thing that I did was dry brush on my base (I used craft smart "suede" because they are usually on sale at Michaels for 40cents).  After lightly dry brushing on the paint, I took a paper towel and rubbed in/off the excess.  Because of this technique I didn't have to use much paint, and it took a few paper towels.

Next, I used a natural sponge to add some light blue.  My technique here was to dab a smaller sponge into the paint.  I then lightly dabbed that onto a bigger sponge which I then dabbed onto the canvas.  Sorry if that sounds confusing, but there is a lot of dabbing, and I hate it when there is too much paint on one part of my sponge.  

After painting the background, most of my sketching had disappeared so I had to re-do it as best I could.  It actually worked out because I was able to fix a few mistakes.  Once I was happy, I started painting.  I used sage green for the center and mixed equal parts magenta and red for the rest of the flower.  Here is the results after my initial painting.

There was something not quite right about my product.  I wanted more color and realized that the parts I liked were the filled in petals.  My husband suggested that I try filling in some more of the petals and I think it really helped.

It gave the flower more of a pop art feel and I really like it much more now.  (Hopefully you do too!)  In case you didn't notice, I painted them onto four different canvases so here is the final, separated product.

Thanks so much for reading!  I hope you enjoy the painting and maybe got a few tips!

Do they go together?