Child's Play - Adult's Art
Do-It-Yourself Creative Artwork For Your Home
You are creative, you have imagination, you like paintings, you would like to make one of your own but can't draw if your life depended on it? No problem; the solution lies in the old children's pass-time of cut outs, known as "collages" in the world of art. It's play, entertainment and art all wrapped in one and allows you to let your fantasy run riot, whilst creating an original picture which is very much your own.
Get yourself a white drawing pad, a box of watercolors and brushes of various sizes. Compose the picture you want to create in your mind and set to work. Everybody can paint a flower, a tulip, a daisy or a sun flower. Take these flowers as the basis of your work. Distribute them over the page, but make sure to paint them big and in vibrant colors. Add lush, green leaves and stems. The remaining white patches will be filled in later.
Before setting out, you will have collected glossy magazines and perused them to find the items which will make up your final composition. Then take a pair of very sharp nail scissors and cut out the following: glossy, red mouths, made-up eyes, jewellery, handbags, shoes, gloves, anything colorful that takes your fancy.
Start giving your flowers faces by pasting in a red mouth. Let them wink with one smokey eye. Let purses dangle from leaves and put the stems into designer shoes. Put sun glasses on a sun flower, give rose petals dazzling earrings. The possibilities are endless, your imagination is the limit.
Make however sure, that your handiwork is flawless. The cut outs need to be neat, with no edges showing, and the glue needs to be applied carefully. A stick works best. When using the cut outs, make sure you don't infringe any copyright. If you use only a small part of, say, an advert for lipstick, you should be okay.
You can adjust the composition to the color scheme of your furniture and other decoration. The flowers you paint may match your curtains; play interior designer and artist to your heart's content. If done carefully, the results are stunning and true pieces of art.
To finish off, paint in the remaining white patches to match the overall color scheme and let dry thoroughly. The final touches are a generous passepartout which should depict one of the colors of the composition to enhance the overall impression. Then, select a frame. Passepartout and framing should be done professionally.
Other than cut outs from magazines (and make sure to use only the very best, glossy ones as otherwise you can't cut them out neatly enough or the glue will seep through), nothing stops you from using photographs of your own. Or small shells, sprayed with gold or silver, sequins, beads, feathers, dried leaves; in short, anything that inspires your imagination. The basis of your painting can be anything else but flowers too, but they are easiest to paint if your drawing abilities are limited.
Get cracking, be creative and enjoy and be admired for an authentic piece of art.
