#my white primer stopped working so i had to use my white acrylics which are thick as HELL

[radioves]

get real

[perfectirishgifts]

Pandemic Project: Rust-Oleum RockSolid Garage Floor Coating

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/pandemic-project-rust-oleum-rocksolid-garage-floor-coating/

Pandemic Project: Rust-Oleum RockSolid Garage Floor Coating

Rust-Oleum RockSolid floor coating in Silver Bullet.

COVID confinement has turned my everyday life upside down. As a car reviewer, I am frequently on the road, off driving some new vehicle in a far-off place. Home projects get pushed to the back burner, or languish half-finished until I have time to attack them in short bursts. Staying home for months has been a challenge, so I decided to turn it into an opportunity. 

About three years ago, my wife and I moved from our small house in Los Angeles to a big old farm house in the suburbs of Detroit. One of the great attractions (for me, anyway), was the presence of a barn/garage on our property. I have had plans to turn the two garage bays in the barn into clean, pleasant spaces to store our cars, motorcycles, and tools. Time has marched on, and the garage dream has remained elusive.

Finally, I had time to undertake the first phase of the project. I allotted a week to clear out one of the garage bays entirely, and to clean, prep, and coat the garage floor. 

My garage project — before.

When we first bought our house in Los Angeles, one of the first projects I undertook was to coat the garage floor, and I never regretted it. I used a Rust-Oleum garage floor coating kit, and when we sold our house ten years later, the floor coating looked as good as new. The benefit of coating the floor can’t be overstated. Beyond the cosmetic upgrade over bare concrete, epoxy-coated concrete is much easier to clean and to keep clean. Dust doesn’t accumulate the way it does on bare concrete; moisture beads up and doesn’t soak in; spills wipe up easily and oil leaks don’t leave stains. A strong epoxy floor is also resistant to chipping and cracking. I knew any garage project wouldn’t satisfy me if I didn’t take the time to coat the floor first. 

Things change over ten years, so I did some research to find the best solution. I had a few parameters. This would be a DIY project, with me as the “Y,” doing it myself. It had to be simple, safe, fast, and affordable. And I wanted results at least as good as my last garage floor coating project.

I looked at Rust-Oleum’s line of products first. The company has several lines of garage floor coatings designed for homeowner use, from Rust-Oleum Concrete & Garage Floor Paint (a self-priming acrylic paint), to EpoxyShield (a two-part water-based epoxy), to RockSolid (a two-part solvent-based epoxy). 

I investigated other options. 

Garage Flooring LLC of Colorado sells a two-coat Polyurea kit ($780) for 500 square feet of coverage, sufficient for my 358-square-foot bay. I recognized the Garage Flooring logo from car shows, where I had admired their flooring tile systems and garage floor mats, but their prices were a deterrent. 

Another company, ArmorPoxy, makes an epoxy garage floor coating product called “Armorclad.” It comes in a Master Kit with Topcoat with enough material to cover up to 600 square feet for $529.  The Armorclad literature highly recommends using a primer coat before installing the epoxy, which brings the total up to $712 (and adds another step to the application process).

Rust-Oleum RockSolid Garage Floor Coating Kit.

I priced out the Rust-Oleum RockSolid system for my garage. At my local Home Depot, the RockSolid 180-ounce Gray Polycuramine 2.5-Car Garage Floor Kit was $214, and the RockSolid 90 oz. Clear Polycuramine Top Coat Garage Floor Kit (2 Pack) was $298, bringing the total to $512. The RockSolid kits came with the etching formula I would need; plus the foam rollers I’d need to apply the product.

I contacted Rust-Oleum for some expert advice. I spoke with Megan Newton, Rust-Oleum’s Director of Brand Marketing in High-Performance Coatings. My timing was good, as she told me, “I literally yesterday just finished painting my garage with RockSolid.”

I described my project to Newton, and told her that I was considering Rust-Oleum products for my garage. She recommended going with Rust-Oleum RockSolid, as she had for her own project. “We are the market leader when it comes to two-part garage coatings. RockSolid is our highest end. We also have one part water-based coatings again, but you’re not going to get the longevity that you get with a two-part epoxy like RockSolid,” she said. “There are a few competitors out there, but doing what we’re doing with RockSolid, there’s nothing like it in the marketplace.”

I told her I had looked at some competitors, but I wasn’t entirely sure what was different. “Our Polycuramine technology mixes multiple chemistries and resins to form this ultra-hard coating, she said. “It’s proprietary to Rust-Oleum. This great hard surface is twenty times stronger than regular two-part epoxy paint — even stronger than our EpoxyShield. It’s the best-looking and strongest garage coating you’re going to get. Having used it this past week, I got to say that it’s amazing how it changes the feel of a garage.”

Garage floor moisture test.

Newton had more advice. She emphasized the importance of preparation, and suggested that I conduct a moisture test before applying product. “It’s as simple as pie,” she said. “You can just take a nice plastic garbage bag, cut it up and tape a three-by-three-foot area of your garage floor and leave it overnight. In the morning, you pull that up. If there’s moisture on the bag, you’ll have to do one extra step, which would add to the process.” If I discovered that my floor seeped moisture, I’d have to apply a product like Rust-Oleum Moisture Stop, which penetrates into concrete to form a gel in cracks, pores, and capillaries to keep water from leaching through.

Since I had the positive experience in my last garage, I decided Rust-Oleum RockSolid was for me, and I embarked on my project.

Preparation is the key to a successful garage floor project, and it’s probably the least enjoyable series of tasks. 

Before anything else, I conducted a moisture test, per Newton’s suggestion. Luckily, my garage floor turned out to be bone-dry. One barrier hurdled.

Next, I looked at the weather charts. It was late October in Michigan, which meant any and all weather conditions, from scorching heat to white-out blizzard, could strike. RockSolid needs to be applied when temperatures are between 40 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit in order to bond to the concrete properly. “This product is very weather-dependent,” Newton said. “You definitely want to have a good window of a few days with no rain before and after, and a few days without temperatures dipping below 40 degrees.” I studied the Weather.com app for the proper window, and saw a good week of unseasonably warm days and nights ahead. All systems were go.

An empty garage, ready for the project.

The only part of the project where I engaged help was in clearing out the bay. I engaged a crew of three men for two hours from HireAHelper.com for $298.05 (plus tip), and together we were able to clear out the garage bay to the bare floor. I considered it money well-spent.

The next step of the process was cleaning and degreasing the floor. I swept thoroughly, then wet the floor and applied Rust-Oleum Cleaner and Degreaser for Concrete. I used a push broom to scrub the floor, rinsed again, and then went after tough stains with more degreaser and a long-handled scrub brush. I brought out my pressure washer for another rinse – only to have the hose on the washer burst shortly after starting. A quick search of the Internet revealed my pressure washer to be discontinued, and the repair part unavailable. Rather than allowing this to derail my progress, I doubled down on scrubbing, and got to a satisfactory level of cleanliness. I used a big squeegee to get excess water out of the garage, set up a big fan to blow across the surface, and left the floor to dry for two days. 

The floor has been cleaned and degreased.

Next up was etching. When I did my floor in Los Angeles, I used Muriatic acid to etch the floor, which Rust-Oleum no longer recommends using. Muriatic acid is a very hazardous, harsh chemical, not actually DIY-friendly. Instead, the RockSolid kit includes a bag of citric acid crystals for etching. I emptied the bag into a two-gallon watering can, filled with water, mixed, and poured the solution onto the concrete. Citric acid is still acid, so I worked with Nitrile-coated gloves, safety goggles, and rubber boots, but I didn’t need to be concerned about fumes or runoff into planting beds outside. Again, I scrubbed with the broom and scrub brush. After letting the acid sit for 10 minutes, I rinsed and squeegeed repeatedly until the etching liquid was diluted and gone from the surface. Out came the fan again, and I let things dry for two days. 

Time to coat – wait, no. 

Before I could apply a coating, I had to do some more prep work. My garage floor is 15 or 20 years old, and had developed a few cracks and dings. Now was the time to make repairs, before coating. Some of the cracks were narrow, a few were up to ½-inch wide, and deep into the slab. I got several quart containers of pre-mixed liquid concrete patch and some foam filler cord for the wider cracks. I packed the wider cracks with filler cord, and then filled all of the cracks with the concrete patch mix. Liquid patch filler is self-leveling in ideal circumstances, and should require little or no troweling. I used disposable plastic putty knives sparingly to smooth out any lumps and bumps. I also discovered that I had a few very deep cracks in the slab, cracks that simply swallowed patch filler endlessly, even when packed with foam filler cord. I bought a 50-pound bag of fine sand and poured it into the deepest cracks until they finally filled, then added foam filler cord on top before patching. That solved the problem, and gave me confidence that the cracks would not reappear. I let the patches cure for 24 hours before moving on to the next step.

Garage floor cleaned, etched, and patched.

Time to coat – really!

The temperature had been above 40 degrees overnight, and was expected to rise to 70. In October. In Michigan. Amazing. Perfect weather for epoxy coating and curing. Following the directions, I mixed the first of two pouches of material. First, I put it on the floor and rolled it with the Part A side up toward the Part B side until the internal barrier between the two sides burst. I then picked up the bag, and shifted the bag from side to side for three minutes, mixing the two parts of epoxy. I now had one hour to apply the epoxy to the floor. I cut a corner off the bag, and poured some into the back of the garage bay. I used a new, medium-quality four-inch edging brush to cut in the edges of a 10-foot section (medium-quality, because I knew that I’d be disposing of the brush when I finished this job, rather than attempting to clean it). I then poured more epoxy on the floor, and used the included nine-inch foam roller (mounted on my trusty old roller frame) to spread the material evenly, using W patterns. When I had finished half of the garage and emptied out one bag of epoxy, I paused to spread the decorative paint chips across the wet epoxy. I then mixed the second bag, and repeated the process on the remaining bare floor, following up with a broadcast of paint chips. I planned ahead so I could paint my way out of the room toward the door, avoiding the need to step on wet epoxy. I used all of the epoxy in the 2.5-car garage kit on my 358-cubic-foot bay. If I had had leftover material, the instructions say to let it dry in the package, and discard in normal trash.

The base coat has been applied and has cured for 24 hours.

I allowed the epoxy to cure for two days, though it was safe to walk on in eight hours and to drive on in 24 to 36 hours. I then applied the RockSolid textured top coat, using the same procedure as I had for the base coat. After another 24 hours, my garage floor project was done.

I love how this project turned out. It’s not perfect, through no fault of the product. My perfectionist’s eye can spot an area where the base coat is a little thinly-applied, and another spot where I might have missed applying the top coat. I wish I had broadcast the decorative chips a little more evenly, but my wife disagrees. She likes the random pattern. If and when I do another garage floor, I will recruit a helper with a flashlight to help identify these issues before the floor cures, and hopefully achieve a higher level of finish. In reality, though, it looks great, and even better, functions brilliantly. The total cost of this project, including tools, floor-patching materials, floor-coating kits, and excluding labor (the HireAHelper.com crew) was under $800. A professional installation would have run $3,000 or more. 

The finished project — ready to be used.

I’ve used Rust-Oleum’s garage floor coating systems twice now. I’ll definitely use RockSolid again – once I can get my other garage bay cleared out.

More from Cars & Bikes in Perfectirishgifts

[chuchumeister]

Diablo 3 Wizard (based on concept art by Glowie aka Wang Wei)

I started this cosplay in late January 2017, and debuted it in early February at Sigmacon. It took about 3 weeks of work to complete the base costume, although I am still working on other details, such as her spellbook and scrolls, and prop (still deciding on staff/wand/source). I’ll either update this post or make another one for those bits. I started with the cloth portions. The base dress is made of two parts. The back skirt is connected to the “vest” which are really just two strips of fabric which drape in front. The side and front skirt panels are attached to a waistband which keeps the vest and back skirt in position. I’m sure there are better ways I could have done this, but honestly it works pretty well. For modesty’s sake, I’m wearing a black leotard and dance tights underneath.  The main fabric is a blue shot purple silk taffeta and I was over the moon to find it -- it’s absolutely gorgeous in person, and is perfect for the wizard aesthetic. 

The waist cincher is self-drafted and made out of black stretch pleather, which I lined with some leftover suedecloth in order to stop it from stretching. It is also boned with plastic boning which is always a no-good terrible bad idea and you should never do it. I was worried I would not have enough time to source the spiral steel boning online, so I went with the cheap stuff I had on hand.

I used cotton sateen for the white skirt panels, a burgundy phoenix brocade for the breastplate and gold lame for the trim. I also bought a tiny bit of duochrome organza for the decorative thingy in the front. The skirt panels were basic A-lines so that they would have a bit of flow without too much gathering at the top. 

Then, I moved on to the armor. After my disappointing effort with EVA foam for Sylvanas, I decided to go back to my roots and use Worbla for this. This time, I did the sandwich method instead of a single-layer wrapped around as I have done in the past. Although it uses more Worbla (double, obviously) I found that I liked the results a lot better. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s objectively better, but I just found the resulting pieces to be sturdier and, somewhat ironically, easier to form. I ended up using right around two and a half jumbo sheets of Worbla for this (yikes).  I drafted the patterns using the good old Saran wrap and painter’s tape method. For the gauntlets, I added a “platform” on the inside so they would have the proper shape when sitting on my arms. 

The concept art is unfortunately short on high-resolution details, so I just kind of winged it. I first sketched out a rough idea directly onto the base piece, then just added detailing until I felt it “looked” right. The boobie cups were shaped over a 140mm plastic ornament so I could get maximum roundness (huehue). 

The gems were cast out of clear epoxy resin. Instead of tinting the resin, I painted the backs of the cured pieces with an iridescent flaky top coat first, then iridescent purple throughout the middle almost to the edges, and finishing with a black holographic on the edges and overlapping some of the purple. Next time I think I’ll embed iridescent flakes directly into the resin, but the nail polish on the back gave the whole piece a nice clarity that I find is otherwise difficult to get with tinted resin. 

The gem seen above on the breastplate is a placeholder, as it wasn’t large enough. I ended up making a master out of hot glue using a spoon as a mold (ooh la la so high-tech), then casting RTV silicone over that to make a mold. I cast two of these -- one for the breastplate, the other for the spikey thingamabob on the front of the waist cincher. 

The crown was an exercise in frustration. After a lot of wasted cardstock drafting patterns, I settled on this design, which I’m still not entirely happy with. I unfortunately didn’t have time to figure out a good way to secure it, and it ended up falling off my head the whole day. This is definitely something I’m going to rework, if not redo entirely for the next time I wear this. 

The wig is a Jeannie from Arda Wigs, and I luckily didn’t have to do much styling to it. I did have to take in the wig cap for it to fit me, although the back-heavy nature of the wig meant it was sliding around my head a lot of the time. My current plan is to stub the base wig and perhaps permanently affix the ponytail on to it in order to stabilize it, but I will play around with it and see. 

Then, painting! I first primed each piece with wood glue to get a smooth finish. I used about 5-6 layers of wood glue for each piece, although the boobie cups in particular got several more as they were very rough from being stretched. 

Afterwards, I gave it a couple light coats of filler primer, then a very quick black base coat. I like to put down a dark base coat first so that I have an easier time when it comes to adding the weathering later on. 

It’s really easy to get the weathered look after you have your darkest shade in place. I just dry-brush on the base color, which honestly does a lot of the work for me. Anywhere that needs extra weathering, I go in with straight black and feather it out. After that, I mix up a lighter version of my base color and feather it on the high points. Finally, I use a white Sharpie paint pen to outline all the details. This step is super tedious, but I feel like it really makes the pieces stand out in photos. I used to use a thin brush dipped in white acrylic, but the Sharpie pens are way easier to use. I have some comparisons below, with just the base colors on, and after weathering and highlighting. 

The attachments were D-rings, paracord, and Velcro. It’s pretty difficult to describe, so I may take some extra pictures or even film a video of what the attachments look like some day. It all held up very well with the exception of the pauldrons, which I need to reassess. 

And that’s basically it! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! <3

[endlessarchite]

DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art)

This night sky painting was so easy and fun to make! Catch the full step-by-step tutorial or take a look at the speed video to see it come to life.

Hey, friends! Hope your weekend went well. Mine was SO ridiculously busy: K and I built a new bed for the master bedroom (plans coming soon). Then, we made significant progress on the Murphy bed in the guest room (Charlotte, I’m comin’ for ya). Finally, Stella got into the garden bed so bad she needed an immediate bath (painted. the tub. with mud.). Oh, and I finished another DIY video, which means I can finally publish this night sky mountain painting today!

Before and After

As you can probably tell, this painting wasn’t originally any of those words. My original was a terribly painted flower vase at one of those “paint and sip”-style events. It was actually a promotional thing a brand put on with a bunch of Atlanta bloggers. It was honestly no different than what you would expect in one of those classes: show up, drink, paint (other than they put it all on their Facebook page; this isn’t a plug and they’re not my sponsor or anything; I just went because free booze and free canvas to take home and I got to see some of my blog friends like Erin Spain).

I know why I paint so poorly in those someone-teaches-you-how-to-paint-a-specific-thing classes. Since this is now the second time I’ve decided to paint my own thing instead, I think I’m just not into it. (It could be the wine. It’s a mystery.) If you’ve ever been fiercely put off by your horrible technique in one of those things, it’s because you’re being forced to paint something you don’t love. So, go rogue! It’s your canvas and to hell with the ugly flowers.

Finding Inspiration

I was inspired — random-est of things — by one of the screensavers displayed by the Amazon Fire TV device connected to the TV. If you aren’t familiar, it’s series of 182 different photos that would give just about anyone some serious wanderlust. And with my vacation to St. Lucia in my rear view and K and I talking about this whole vintage camper renovation project, this photo of The Milky Way over Mt. Hood (Oregon) just struck me. The other screen savers would come and go, and every time this one appeared, I would pause and stare.

So, I typed up a quick tutorial about an organic process that would be unique to every painting (I couldn’t replicate this to the same result every time either). Nothing about a bunch of swirling colors would really be repeatable, but if you want to give it a try, I highly encourage it and would love to see the variations you get! I stopped to take a few of these photos and grabbed a few stills from the video I took overhead.

How to Paint a Starry Sky and Mountains

The trick to a painting like this is pretty straightforward, believe it or not: it just takes continuous layering of colors. I used acrylic paints in the following colors (note: affiliate links to products may be used here):

Supplies

10×10 wood panel

Anita’s Craft Paint (picked up at Hobby Lobby ages ago): Twilight Blue, Medium Blue, Christmas Red (all matte)

Apple Barrel: White, Black, Wild Iris, Purple Iris (all matte)

Small and medium all-purpose paint brushes

Gesso (surface prep medium)

Frogtape Delicate Surface painter’s tape (I know they do a lot of sponsoring on blogs, but this isn’t sponsored)

paper towels

container for clean water

paper plate for mixing

Prep

Start by painting over the entire surface of the existing 10×10 panel with gesso, which is a “medium”. In this context, there are several mediums designed to do cool things with acrylic paint. Some add a crackling effect, some help paint adhere to fabric… this one is basically a thin version of white acrylic paint and simply helps prep the surface for adding more paint on top, like a primer.

I then did a quick pencil sketch to mark the sky, mountain, trees, and water on the bottom. A few general shapes are all that’s needed to get started.

Color Blocking

As you’ll see in the speed video, I started with the sky first — blocking off color areas such as black in the top corners and white in certain areas on either side of the mountain. This was somewhat monochromatic at first, but I also kept adding in blue and red. To layer in the paint, I also used a damp paper towel to help “sponge” in some of the texture and help layer in paint colors.

With most of the general color blocking done, I moved on to the tree line in black, and then the single mountain in the center — which pretty much exclusively has layers of black, white, and a small hint of blue. Since the sky would be the focus of my painting, I wanted to make the mountain highlighted but muted (so as not to compete).

The whole non-compete idea carried through in the rest of the painting. I marked off the mountains and created quick swipes with a small paint brush to give the trees texture (black only). For the water below, I painted large swipes of blue with white and black. Watering down the paint makes it look really streaky.

As the mountain dried, I added in more black and white areas for highlight and shadow.

After the first night (I did all of this while sitting in front of the TV), it looked like this:

This is a great stopping point, since acrylic sometimes needs some dry time when you begin to add water. Wiping off paint after it starts to dry might remove large blobs of paint (it happened to me a couple of times). General rule of thumb: do not mix more than 30% of water or use an acrylic medium to thin the paint instead; I’ll admit to using just water on this one, but you now know better!

More Color Layering

The next night after some sufficient drying, I added in more color to the sky area with the same swiping, sponging pattern: more blue, more purple, more white.

The photo below is after it had more time to dry and I added a second black layer of the trees.

Tape and Stars!

Once you’re done with this part and are happy with the sky’s color variation, let it dry COMPLETELY.

The canvas is now freshly painted, so protect the bottom area with painter’s tape meant for delicate surfaces. Tape anything that isn’t the sky.

Then, I used a VERY dry brush to dab just a little pure white paint onto the tip. With each flick little tiny spots flung all over the sky surface. I varied both with the quantity of paint on my brush and with how close to the canvas I got, so there were little clusters of white paint flecks and bigger flecks all randomly dispersed. This is the magic that makes it look like a starry sky, and my favorite part! If you make a mistake, use a tiny dab from a wet paper towel to take the paint back up. Do it quickly and don’t rub… it could still disturb the newly dried paint below.

In areas I wanted to emphasize a little more, I went in by hand and added a couple more stars.

With that done, I pulled all the painter’s tape off and my painting was complete. I plan to seal it with some art resin and frame (new posts!), but I’m really pleased with how it turned out. It will probably eventually hang in the vintage camper.

K immediately loved this painting. He’s offered to scan it at work for me, so I will have that available as a print soon as well!

Catch the full video:

Want another example of going rogue at a paint n’ sip class? Here’s my laundry room art inspired by talented artist Emily Jeffords.

The post DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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[georgeycowell]

DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art)

This night sky painting was so easy and fun to make! Catch the full step-by-step tutorial or take a look at the speed video to see it come to life.

Hey, friends! Hope your weekend went well. Mine was SO ridiculously busy: K and I built a new bed for the master bedroom (plans coming soon). Then, we made significant progress on the Murphy bed in the guest room (Charlotte, I’m comin’ for ya). Finally, Stella got into the garden bed so bad she needed an immediate bath (painted. the tub. with mud.). Oh, and I finished another DIY video, which means I can finally publish this night sky mountain painting today!

Before and After

As you can probably tell, this painting wasn’t originally any of those words. My original was a terribly painted flower vase at one of those “paint and sip”-style events. It was actually a promotional thing a brand put on with a bunch of Atlanta bloggers. It was honestly no different than what you would expect in one of those classes: show up, drink, paint (other than they put it all on their Facebook page; this isn’t a plug and they’re not my sponsor or anything; I just went because free booze and free canvas to take home and I got to see some of my blog friends like Erin Spain).

I know why I paint so poorly in those someone-teaches-you-how-to-paint-a-specific-thing classes. Since this is now the second time I’ve decided to paint my own thing instead, I think I’m just not into it. (It could be the wine. It’s a mystery.) If you’ve ever been fiercely put off by your horrible technique in one of those things, it’s because you’re being forced to paint something you don’t love. So, go rogue! It’s your canvas and to hell with the ugly flowers.

Finding Inspiration

I was inspired — random-est of things — by one of the screensavers displayed by the Amazon Fire TV device connected to the TV. If you aren’t familiar, it’s series of 182 different photos that would give just about anyone some serious wanderlust. And with my vacation to St. Lucia in my rear view and K and I talking about this whole vintage camper renovation project, this photo of The Milky Way over Mt. Hood (Oregon) just struck me. The other screen savers would come and go, and every time this one appeared, I would pause and stare.

So, I typed up a quick tutorial about an organic process that would be unique to every painting (I couldn’t replicate this to the same result every time either). Nothing about a bunch of swirling colors would really be repeatable, but if you want to give it a try, I highly encourage it and would love to see the variations you get! I stopped to take a few of these photos and grabbed a few stills from the video I took overhead.

How to Paint a Starry Sky and Mountains

The trick to a painting like this is pretty straightforward, believe it or not: it just takes continuous layering of colors. I used acrylic paints in the following colors (note: affiliate links to products may be used here):

Supplies

10×10 wood panel

Anita’s Craft Paint (picked up at Hobby Lobby ages ago): Twilight Blue, Medium Blue, Christmas Red (all matte)

Apple Barrel: White, Black, Wild Iris, Purple Iris (all matte)

Small and medium all-purpose paint brushes

Gesso (surface prep medium)

Frogtape Delicate Surface painter’s tape (I know they do a lot of sponsoring on blogs, but this isn’t sponsored)

paper towels

container for clean water

paper plate for mixing

Prep

Start by painting over the entire surface of the existing 10×10 panel with gesso, which is a “medium”. In this context, there are several mediums designed to do cool things with acrylic paint. Some add a crackling effect, some help paint adhere to fabric… this one is basically a thin version of white acrylic paint and simply helps prep the surface for adding more paint on top, like a primer.

I then did a quick pencil sketch to mark the sky, mountain, trees, and water on the bottom. A few general shapes are all that’s needed to get started.

Color Blocking

As you’ll see in the speed video, I started with the sky first — blocking off color areas such as black in the top corners and white in certain areas on either side of the mountain. This was somewhat monochromatic at first, but I also kept adding in blue and red. To layer in the paint, I also used a damp paper towel to help “sponge” in some of the texture and help layer in paint colors.

With most of the general color blocking done, I moved on to the tree line in black, and then the single mountain in the center — which pretty much exclusively has layers of black, white, and a small hint of blue. Since the sky would be the focus of my painting, I wanted to make the mountain highlighted but muted (so as not to compete).

The whole non-compete idea carried through in the rest of the painting. I marked off the mountains and created quick swipes with a small paint brush to give the trees texture (black only). For the water below, I painted large swipes of blue with white and black. Watering down the paint makes it look really streaky.

As the mountain dried, I added in more black and white areas for highlight and shadow.

After the first night (I did all of this while sitting in front of the TV), it looked like this:

This is a great stopping point, since acrylic sometimes needs some dry time when you begin to add water. Wiping off paint after it starts to dry might remove large blobs of paint (it happened to me a couple of times). General rule of thumb: do not mix more than 30% of water or use an acrylic medium to thin the paint instead; I’ll admit to using just water on this one, but you now know better!

More Color Layering

The next night after some sufficient drying, I added in more color to the sky area with the same swiping, sponging pattern: more blue, more purple, more white.

The photo below is after it had more time to dry and I added a second black layer of the trees.

Tape and Stars!

Once you’re done with this part and are happy with the sky’s color variation, let it dry COMPLETELY.

The canvas is now freshly painted, so protect the bottom area with painter’s tape meant for delicate surfaces. Tape anything that isn’t the sky.

Then, I used a VERY dry brush to dab just a little pure white paint onto the tip. With each flick little tiny spots flung all over the sky surface. I varied both with the quantity of paint on my brush and with how close to the canvas I got, so there were little clusters of white paint flecks and bigger flecks all randomly dispersed. This is the magic that makes it look like a starry sky, and my favorite part! If you make a mistake, use a tiny dab from a wet paper towel to take the paint back up. Do it quickly and don’t rub… it could still disturb the newly dried paint below.

In areas I wanted to emphasize a little more, I went in by hand and added a couple more stars.

With that done, I pulled all the painter’s tape off and my painting was complete. I plan to seal it with some art resin and frame (new posts!), but I’m really pleased with how it turned out. It will probably eventually hang in the vintage camper.

K immediately loved this painting. He’s offered to scan it at work for me, so I will have that available as a print soon as well!

Catch the full video:

Want another example of going rogue at a paint n’ sip class? Here’s my laundry room art inspired by talented artist Emily Jeffords.

The post DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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[foggyhideoutgoatee]

DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art)

This night sky painting was so easy and fun to make! Catch the full step by step tutorial or take a look at the speed video to see it come to life.

Hey, friends! Hope your weekend went well. Mine was SO ridiculously busy: K and I built a new bed for the master bedroom (plans coming soon). Then, we made significant progress on the Murphy bed in the guest room (Charlotte, I'm comin' for ya). Finally, Stella got into the garden bed so bad she needed an immediate bath (painted. the tub. with mud.). Oh, and I finished another DIY video, which means I can finally publish this night sky mountain painting today!

Before and After

As you can probably tell, this painting wasn't originally any of those words. My original was a terribly painted flower vase at one of those “paint and sip”-style events. It was actually a promotional thing a brand put on with a bunch of Atlanta bloggers, but it was honestly no different than what you would expect in one of those classes: show up, drink, paint (other than they put it all on their Facebook page - and this isn't a plug and they're not my sponsor or anything; I just went because free booze and free canvas to take home and I got to see some of my blog friends like Erin Spain).

I don't know what it is about me that makes me paint so poorly in those someone-teaches-you-how-to-paint-a-specific-thing classes, but since this is now the second time I've decided to paint my own thing instead, I think I'm just not into it. (It could be the wine. It's a mystery.) But if you've ever been fiercely put off by your horrible technique in one of those things, then my argument is this: it's because you're being forced to paint something you don't love. So, go rogue! It's your canvas and to hell with the ugly flowers.

Finding Inspiration

I was inspired - random-est of things - by one of the screensavers displayed by the Amazon Fire TV device connected to the TV. If you aren't familiar, it's series of 182 different photos that would give just about anyone some serious wanderlust. And with my vacation to St. Lucia in my rear view and K and I talking about this whole vintage camper renovation project, this photo of The Milky Way over Mt. Hood (Oregon) just struck me. The other screen savers would come and go, and every time this one appeared, I would pause and stare.

So, I typed up a quick tutorial about an organic process that would be unique to every painting (I couldn't replicate this to the same result every time either). Nothing about a bunch of swirling colors would really be repeatable, but if you want to give it a try, I highly encourage it and would love to see the variations you get! I stopped to take a few of these photos and grabbed a few stills from the video I took overhead.

How to Paint a Starry Sky and Mountains

The trick to a painting like this is pretty straightforward, believe it or not: it just takes continuous layering of colors. I used acrylic paints in the following colors (note: affiliate links to products may be used here):

Supplies

10×10 wood panel

Anita's Craft Paint (picked up at Hobby Lobby ages ago): Twilight Blue, Medium Blue, Christmas Red (all matte)

Apple Barrel: White, Black, Wild Iris, Purple Iris (all matte)

Small and medium all-purpose paint brushes

Gesso (surface prep medium)

Frogtape Delicate Surface painter's tape (I know they do a lot of sponsoring on blogs, but this isn't sponsored)

paper towels

container for clean water

paper plate for mixing

Prep

I started by painting over the entire surface of the existing 10×10 panel with gesso, which is a “medium” (in general, “medium” can be used for just about anything that is used to create art, but in this context, there are several specifically designed to do cool things with acrylic paint - some add a crackling effect, some help paint adhere to fabric… this one is basically a thin version of white acrylic paint and simply helps prep the surface for adding more paint on top, like a primer).

Then, I did a quick pencil sketch to mark what would be sky vs. mountain vs. the black trees vs the water on the bottom… just a few general shapes to get me started.

Color Blocking

As you'll see in the speed video, I started with the sky first - blocking off color areas such as black in the top corners and white in certain areas on either side of the mountain. This was somewhat monochromatic at first, but I also kept adding in blue and red. To layer in the paint, I also used a damp paper towel to help “sponge” in some of the texture and help layer in paint colors.

With most of the general color blocking done, I moved on to the tree line in black, and then the single mountain in the center - which pretty much exclusively has layers of black, white, and a small hint of blue. Since the sky would be the focus of my painting, I wanted to make the mountain highlighted but muted (so as not to compete).

The whole non-compete idea carried through in the rest of the painting, marking off the mountains and creating quick swipes with a small paint brush to get the trees to look like they had some texture (black only). For the water below, I painted large swipes of blue with white and black and kept watering down the paint so it would look really streaky.

As the mountain dried, I added in more black and white areas for highlight and shadow.

After the first night (I did all of this while sitting in front of the TV, winding down from other DIY activities), it looked like this:

This is a great stopping point, since acrylic sometimes needs some dry time when you begin to add water. Adding more paint or sponging after it starts to dry might remove patches of paint (it happened to me a couple of times). General rule of thumb for what's recommended is to not mix more than 30% of water or use an acrylic medium to thin the paint instead, but I'll admit to using just water on this one.

More Color Layering

The next night after some sufficient drying, I added in more color to the sky area with the same swiping, sponging pattern: more blue, more purple, more white.

The photo below is after it had more time to dry and I added a second black layer of the trees.

Once you're done with this part and are happy with the sky's color variation, it really needs to dry COMPLETELY. Because next, you'll be adding painter's tape!

Tape and Stars!

I taped off the entire bottom area with painter's tape meant for delicate surfaces (since the canvas was so freshly painted) - anything that wasn't the sky.

Then, I used a VERY dry brush to dab just a little pure white paint onto the tip of the brush and flick the paint all over the sky surface. I varied both with the quantity of paint on my brush and with how close to the canvas I got, so there were little clusters of white paint flecks and bigger flecks all randomly dispersed. This is the magic that makes it look like a starry sky, and my favorite part. If you make a mistake, use a tiny dab from a wet paper towel to take the paint back up (do it quickly and don't rub… it could still disturb the newly dried paint below).

In areas I wanted to emphasize a little more, I went in by hand and added a couple more stars.

With that done, I pulled all the painter's tape off and my painting was complete. I still need to seal it with some art resin (coming up in a new post) and frame (also another post), but I'm pleased with how it turned out. It will probably eventually hang in the vintage camper. K immediately loved this painting and offered to scan it at work for me, so I will have that available as a print soon as well!

Catch the full video:

Want another example of going rogue at a paint n' sip class? Here's my laundry room art inspired by talented artist Emily Jeffords.

The post DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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[bespokekitchesldn]

DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art)

This night sky painting was so easy and fun to make! Catch the full step-by-step tutorial or take a look at the speed video to see it come to life.

Hey, friends! Hope your weekend went well. Mine was SO ridiculously busy: K and I built a new bed for the master bedroom (plans coming soon). Then, we made significant progress on the Murphy bed in the guest room (Charlotte, I’m comin’ for ya). Finally, Stella got into the garden bed so bad she needed an immediate bath (painted. the tub. with mud.). Oh, and I finished another DIY video, which means I can finally publish this night sky mountain painting today!

Before and After

As you can probably tell, this painting wasn’t originally any of those words. My original was a terribly painted flower vase at one of those “paint and sip”-style events. It was actually a promotional thing a brand put on with a bunch of Atlanta bloggers. It was honestly no different than what you would expect in one of those classes: show up, drink, paint (other than they put it all on their Facebook page; this isn’t a plug and they’re not my sponsor or anything; I just went because free booze and free canvas to take home and I got to see some of my blog friends like Erin Spain).

I know why I paint so poorly in those someone-teaches-you-how-to-paint-a-specific-thing classes. Since this is now the second time I’ve decided to paint my own thing instead, I think I’m just not into it. (It could be the wine. It’s a mystery.) If you’ve ever been fiercely put off by your horrible technique in one of those things, it’s because you’re being forced to paint something you don’t love. So, go rogue! It’s your canvas and to hell with the ugly flowers.

Finding Inspiration

I was inspired — random-est of things — by one of the screensavers displayed by the Amazon Fire TV device connected to the TV. If you aren’t familiar, it’s series of 182 different photos that would give just about anyone some serious wanderlust. And with my vacation to St. Lucia in my rear view and K and I talking about this whole vintage camper renovation project, this photo of The Milky Way over Mt. Hood (Oregon) just struck me. The other screen savers would come and go, and every time this one appeared, I would pause and stare.

So, I typed up a quick tutorial about an organic process that would be unique to every painting (I couldn’t replicate this to the same result every time either). Nothing about a bunch of swirling colors would really be repeatable, but if you want to give it a try, I highly encourage it and would love to see the variations you get! I stopped to take a few of these photos and grabbed a few stills from the video I took overhead.

How to Paint a Starry Sky and Mountains

The trick to a painting like this is pretty straightforward, believe it or not: it just takes continuous layering of colors. I used acrylic paints in the following colors (note: affiliate links to products may be used here):

Supplies

10×10 wood panel

Anita’s Craft Paint (picked up at Hobby Lobby ages ago): Twilight Blue, Medium Blue, Christmas Red (all matte)

Apple Barrel: White, Black, Wild Iris, Purple Iris (all matte)

Small and medium all-purpose paint brushes

Gesso (surface prep medium)

Frogtape Delicate Surface painter’s tape (I know they do a lot of sponsoring on blogs, but this isn’t sponsored)

paper towels

container for clean water

paper plate for mixing

Prep

Start by painting over the entire surface of the existing 10×10 panel with gesso, which is a “medium”. In this context, there are several mediums designed to do cool things with acrylic paint. Some add a crackling effect, some help paint adhere to fabric… this one is basically a thin version of white acrylic paint and simply helps prep the surface for adding more paint on top, like a primer.

I then did a quick pencil sketch to mark the sky, mountain, trees, and water on the bottom. A few general shapes are all that’s needed to get started.

Color Blocking

As you’ll see in the speed video, I started with the sky first — blocking off color areas such as black in the top corners and white in certain areas on either side of the mountain. This was somewhat monochromatic at first, but I also kept adding in blue and red. To layer in the paint, I also used a damp paper towel to help “sponge” in some of the texture and help layer in paint colors.

With most of the general color blocking done, I moved on to the tree line in black, and then the single mountain in the center — which pretty much exclusively has layers of black, white, and a small hint of blue. Since the sky would be the focus of my painting, I wanted to make the mountain highlighted but muted (so as not to compete).

The whole non-compete idea carried through in the rest of the painting. I marked off the mountains and created quick swipes with a small paint brush to give the trees texture (black only). For the water below, I painted large swipes of blue with white and black. Watering down the paint makes it look really streaky.

As the mountain dried, I added in more black and white areas for highlight and shadow.

After the first night (I did all of this while sitting in front of the TV), it looked like this:

This is a great stopping point, since acrylic sometimes needs some dry time when you begin to add water. Wiping off paint after it starts to dry might remove large blobs of paint (it happened to me a couple of times). General rule of thumb: do not mix more than 30% of water or use an acrylic medium to thin the paint instead; I’ll admit to using just water on this one, but you now know better!

More Color Layering

The next night after some sufficient drying, I added in more color to the sky area with the same swiping, sponging pattern: more blue, more purple, more white.

The photo below is after it had more time to dry and I added a second black layer of the trees.

Tape and Stars!

Once you’re done with this part and are happy with the sky’s color variation, let it dry COMPLETELY.

The canvas is now freshly painted, so protect the bottom area with painter’s tape meant for delicate surfaces. Tape anything that isn’t the sky.

Then, I used a VERY dry brush to dab just a little pure white paint onto the tip. With each flick little tiny spots flung all over the sky surface. I varied both with the quantity of paint on my brush and with how close to the canvas I got, so there were little clusters of white paint flecks and bigger flecks all randomly dispersed. This is the magic that makes it look like a starry sky, and my favorite part! If you make a mistake, use a tiny dab from a wet paper towel to take the paint back up. Do it quickly and don’t rub… it could still disturb the newly dried paint below.

In areas I wanted to emphasize a little more, I went in by hand and added a couple more stars.

With that done, I pulled all the painter’s tape off and my painting was complete. I plan to seal it with some art resin and frame (new posts!), but I’m really pleased with how it turned out. It will probably eventually hang in the vintage camper.

K immediately loved this painting. He’s offered to scan it at work for me, so I will have that available as a print soon as well!

Catch the full video:

Want another example of going rogue at a paint n’ sip class? Here’s my laundry room art inspired by talented artist Emily Jeffords.

The post DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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.yuzo_related_post img{width:170px !important; height:170px !important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{line-height:14px;background:#ffffff !important;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover{background:#ffffff !important; -webkit-transition: background 0.2s linear; -moz-transition: background 0.2s linear; -o-transition: background 0.2s linear; transition: background 0.2s linear;;color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a{color:#102a3b!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb a:hover{ color:#113f5e}!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover a{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo__text--title{ color:#113f5e!important;} .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb:hover .yuzo_text, .yuzo_related_post:hover .yuzo_views_post {color:#454747!important;} .yuzo_related_post .relatedthumb{ margin: 0px 6px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; } jQuery(document).ready(function( $ ){ jQuery('.yuzo_related_post .yuzo_wraps').equalizer({ columns : '> div' }); }); from Ugly Duckling House https://www.uglyducklinghouse.com/diy-night-sky-mountain-painting-easy-custom-art/

[darensmurray]

DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art)

This night sky painting was so easy and fun to make! Catch the full step-by-step tutorial or take a look at the speed video to see it come to life.

Hey, friends! Hope your weekend went well. Mine was SO ridiculously busy: K and I built a new bed for the master bedroom (plans coming soon). Then, we made significant progress on the Murphy bed in the guest room (Charlotte, I’m comin’ for ya). Finally, Stella got into the garden bed so bad she needed an immediate bath (painted. the tub. with mud.). Oh, and I finished another DIY video, which means I can finally publish this night sky mountain painting today!

Before and After

As you can probably tell, this painting wasn’t originally any of those words. My original was a terribly painted flower vase at one of those “paint and sip”-style events. It was actually a promotional thing a brand put on with a bunch of Atlanta bloggers. It was honestly no different than what you would expect in one of those classes: show up, drink, paint (other than they put it all on their Facebook page; this isn’t a plug and they’re not my sponsor or anything; I just went because free booze and free canvas to take home and I got to see some of my blog friends like Erin Spain).

I know why I paint so poorly in those someone-teaches-you-how-to-paint-a-specific-thing classes. Since this is now the second time I’ve decided to paint my own thing instead, I think I’m just not into it. (It could be the wine. It’s a mystery.) If you’ve ever been fiercely put off by your horrible technique in one of those things, it’s because you’re being forced to paint something you don’t love. So, go rogue! It’s your canvas and to hell with the ugly flowers.

Finding Inspiration

I was inspired — random-est of things — by one of the screensavers displayed by the Amazon Fire TV device connected to the TV. If you aren’t familiar, it’s series of 182 different photos that would give just about anyone some serious wanderlust. And with my vacation to St. Lucia in my rear view and K and I talking about this whole vintage camper renovation project, this photo of The Milky Way over Mt. Hood (Oregon) just struck me. The other screen savers would come and go, and every time this one appeared, I would pause and stare.

So, I typed up a quick tutorial about an organic process that would be unique to every painting (I couldn’t replicate this to the same result every time either). Nothing about a bunch of swirling colors would really be repeatable, but if you want to give it a try, I highly encourage it and would love to see the variations you get! I stopped to take a few of these photos and grabbed a few stills from the video I took overhead.

How to Paint a Starry Sky and Mountains

The trick to a painting like this is pretty straightforward, believe it or not: it just takes continuous layering of colors. I used acrylic paints in the following colors (note: affiliate links to products may be used here):

Supplies

10×10 wood panel

Anita’s Craft Paint (picked up at Hobby Lobby ages ago): Twilight Blue, Medium Blue, Christmas Red (all matte)

Apple Barrel: White, Black, Wild Iris, Purple Iris (all matte)

Small and medium all-purpose paint brushes

Gesso (surface prep medium)

Frogtape Delicate Surface painter’s tape (I know they do a lot of sponsoring on blogs, but this isn’t sponsored)

paper towels

container for clean water

paper plate for mixing

Prep

Start by painting over the entire surface of the existing 10×10 panel with gesso, which is a “medium”. In this context, there are several mediums designed to do cool things with acrylic paint. Some add a crackling effect, some help paint adhere to fabric… this one is basically a thin version of white acrylic paint and simply helps prep the surface for adding more paint on top, like a primer.

I then did a quick pencil sketch to mark the sky, mountain, trees, and water on the bottom. A few general shapes are all that’s needed to get started.

Color Blocking

As you’ll see in the speed video, I started with the sky first — blocking off color areas such as black in the top corners and white in certain areas on either side of the mountain. This was somewhat monochromatic at first, but I also kept adding in blue and red. To layer in the paint, I also used a damp paper towel to help “sponge” in some of the texture and help layer in paint colors.

With most of the general color blocking done, I moved on to the tree line in black, and then the single mountain in the center — which pretty much exclusively has layers of black, white, and a small hint of blue. Since the sky would be the focus of my painting, I wanted to make the mountain highlighted but muted (so as not to compete).

The whole non-compete idea carried through in the rest of the painting. I marked off the mountains and created quick swipes with a small paint brush to give the trees texture (black only). For the water below, I painted large swipes of blue with white and black. Watering down the paint makes it look really streaky.

As the mountain dried, I added in more black and white areas for highlight and shadow.

After the first night (I did all of this while sitting in front of the TV), it looked like this:

This is a great stopping point, since acrylic sometimes needs some dry time when you begin to add water. Wiping off paint after it starts to dry might remove large blobs of paint (it happened to me a couple of times). General rule of thumb: do not mix more than 30% of water or use an acrylic medium to thin the paint instead; I’ll admit to using just water on this one, but you now know better!

More Color Layering

The next night after some sufficient drying, I added in more color to the sky area with the same swiping, sponging pattern: more blue, more purple, more white.

The photo below is after it had more time to dry and I added a second black layer of the trees.

Tape and Stars!

Once you’re done with this part and are happy with the sky’s color variation, let it dry COMPLETELY.

The canvas is now freshly painted, so protect the bottom area with painter’s tape meant for delicate surfaces. Tape anything that isn’t the sky.

Then, I used a VERY dry brush to dab just a little pure white paint onto the tip. With each flick little tiny spots flung all over the sky surface. I varied both with the quantity of paint on my brush and with how close to the canvas I got, so there were little clusters of white paint flecks and bigger flecks all randomly dispersed. This is the magic that makes it look like a starry sky, and my favorite part! If you make a mistake, use a tiny dab from a wet paper towel to take the paint back up. Do it quickly and don’t rub… it could still disturb the newly dried paint below.

In areas I wanted to emphasize a little more, I went in by hand and added a couple more stars.

With that done, I pulled all the painter’s tape off and my painting was complete. I plan to seal it with some art resin and frame (new posts!), but I’m really pleased with how it turned out. It will probably eventually hang in the vintage camper.

K immediately loved this painting. He’s offered to scan it at work for me, so I will have that available as a print soon as well!

Catch the full video:

Want another example of going rogue at a paint n’ sip class? Here’s my laundry room art inspired by talented artist Emily Jeffords.

The post DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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[petraself]

DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art)

This night sky painting was so easy and fun to make! Catch the full step-by-step tutorial or take a look at the speed video to see it come to life.

Hey, friends! Hope your weekend went well. Mine was SO ridiculously busy: K and I built a new bed for the master bedroom (plans coming soon). Then, we made significant progress on the Murphy bed in the guest room (Charlotte, I’m comin’ for ya). Finally, Stella got into the garden bed so bad she needed an immediate bath (painted. the tub. with mud.). Oh, and I finished another DIY video, which means I can finally publish this night sky mountain painting today!

Before and After

As you can probably tell, this painting wasn’t originally any of those words. My original was a terribly painted flower vase at one of those “paint and sip”-style events. It was actually a promotional thing a brand put on with a bunch of Atlanta bloggers. It was honestly no different than what you would expect in one of those classes: show up, drink, paint (other than they put it all on their Facebook page; this isn’t a plug and they’re not my sponsor or anything; I just went because free booze and free canvas to take home and I got to see some of my blog friends like Erin Spain).

I know why I paint so poorly in those someone-teaches-you-how-to-paint-a-specific-thing classes. Since this is now the second time I’ve decided to paint my own thing instead, I think I’m just not into it. (It could be the wine. It’s a mystery.) If you’ve ever been fiercely put off by your horrible technique in one of those things, it’s because you’re being forced to paint something you don’t love. So, go rogue! It’s your canvas and to hell with the ugly flowers.

Finding Inspiration

I was inspired — random-est of things — by one of the screensavers displayed by the Amazon Fire TV device connected to the TV. If you aren’t familiar, it’s series of 182 different photos that would give just about anyone some serious wanderlust. And with my vacation to St. Lucia in my rear view and K and I talking about this whole vintage camper renovation project, this photo of The Milky Way over Mt. Hood (Oregon) just struck me. The other screen savers would come and go, and every time this one appeared, I would pause and stare.

So, I typed up a quick tutorial about an organic process that would be unique to every painting (I couldn’t replicate this to the same result every time either). Nothing about a bunch of swirling colors would really be repeatable, but if you want to give it a try, I highly encourage it and would love to see the variations you get! I stopped to take a few of these photos and grabbed a few stills from the video I took overhead.

How to Paint a Starry Sky and Mountains

The trick to a painting like this is pretty straightforward, believe it or not: it just takes continuous layering of colors. I used acrylic paints in the following colors (note: affiliate links to products may be used here):

Supplies

10×10 wood panel

Anita’s Craft Paint (picked up at Hobby Lobby ages ago): Twilight Blue, Medium Blue, Christmas Red (all matte)

Apple Barrel: White, Black, Wild Iris, Purple Iris (all matte)

Small and medium all-purpose paint brushes

Gesso (surface prep medium)

Frogtape Delicate Surface painter’s tape (I know they do a lot of sponsoring on blogs, but this isn’t sponsored)

paper towels

container for clean water

paper plate for mixing

Prep

Start by painting over the entire surface of the existing 10×10 panel with gesso, which is a “medium”. In this context, there are several mediums designed to do cool things with acrylic paint. Some add a crackling effect, some help paint adhere to fabric… this one is basically a thin version of white acrylic paint and simply helps prep the surface for adding more paint on top, like a primer.

I then did a quick pencil sketch to mark the sky, mountain, trees, and water on the bottom. A few general shapes are all that’s needed to get started.

Color Blocking

As you’ll see in the speed video, I started with the sky first — blocking off color areas such as black in the top corners and white in certain areas on either side of the mountain. This was somewhat monochromatic at first, but I also kept adding in blue and red. To layer in the paint, I also used a damp paper towel to help “sponge” in some of the texture and help layer in paint colors.

With most of the general color blocking done, I moved on to the tree line in black, and then the single mountain in the center — which pretty much exclusively has layers of black, white, and a small hint of blue. Since the sky would be the focus of my painting, I wanted to make the mountain highlighted but muted (so as not to compete).

The whole non-compete idea carried through in the rest of the painting. I marked off the mountains and created quick swipes with a small paint brush to give the trees texture (black only). For the water below, I painted large swipes of blue with white and black. Watering down the paint makes it look really streaky.

As the mountain dried, I added in more black and white areas for highlight and shadow.

After the first night (I did all of this while sitting in front of the TV), it looked like this:

This is a great stopping point, since acrylic sometimes needs some dry time when you begin to add water. Wiping off paint after it starts to dry might remove large blobs of paint (it happened to me a couple of times). General rule of thumb: do not mix more than 30% of water or use an acrylic medium to thin the paint instead; I’ll admit to using just water on this one, but you now know better!

More Color Layering

The next night after some sufficient drying, I added in more color to the sky area with the same swiping, sponging pattern: more blue, more purple, more white.

The photo below is after it had more time to dry and I added a second black layer of the trees.

Tape and Stars!

Once you’re done with this part and are happy with the sky’s color variation, let it dry COMPLETELY.

The canvas is now freshly painted, so protect the bottom area with painter’s tape meant for delicate surfaces. Tape anything that isn’t the sky.

Then, I used a VERY dry brush to dab just a little pure white paint onto the tip. With each flick little tiny spots flung all over the sky surface. I varied both with the quantity of paint on my brush and with how close to the canvas I got, so there were little clusters of white paint flecks and bigger flecks all randomly dispersed. This is the magic that makes it look like a starry sky, and my favorite part! If you make a mistake, use a tiny dab from a wet paper towel to take the paint back up. Do it quickly and don’t rub… it could still disturb the newly dried paint below.

In areas I wanted to emphasize a little more, I went in by hand and added a couple more stars.

With that done, I pulled all the painter’s tape off and my painting was complete. I plan to seal it with some art resin and frame (new posts!), but I’m really pleased with how it turned out. It will probably eventually hang in the vintage camper.

K immediately loved this painting. He’s offered to scan it at work for me, so I will have that available as a print soon as well!

Catch the full video:

Want another example of going rogue at a paint n’ sip class? Here’s my laundry room art inspired by talented artist Emily Jeffords.

The post DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art)

This night sky painting was so easy and fun to make! Catch the full step by step tutorial or take a look at the speed video to see it come to life.

Hey, friends! Hope your weekend went well. Mine was SO ridiculously busy: K and I built a new bed for the master bedroom (plans coming soon). Then, we made significant progress on the Murphy bed in the guest room (Charlotte, I’m comin’ for ya). Finally, Stella got into the garden bed so bad she needed an immediate bath (painted. the tub. with mud.). Oh, and I finished another DIY video, which means I can finally publish this night sky mountain painting today!

Before and After

As you can probably tell, this painting wasn’t originally any of those words. My original was a terribly painted flower vase at one of those “paint and sip”-style events. It was actually a promotional thing a brand put on with a bunch of Atlanta bloggers, but it was honestly no different than what you would expect in one of those classes: show up, drink, paint (other than they put it all on their Facebook page — and this isn’t a plug and they’re not my sponsor or anything; I just went because free booze and free canvas to take home and I got to see some of my blog friends like Erin Spain).

I don’t know what it is about me that makes me paint so poorly in those someone-teaches-you-how-to-paint-a-specific-thing classes, but since this is now the second time I’ve decided to paint my own thing instead, I think I’m just not into it. (It could be the wine. It’s a mystery.) But if you’ve ever been fiercely put off by your horrible technique in one of those things, then my argument is this: it’s because you’re being forced to paint something you don’t love. So, go rogue! It’s your canvas and to hell with the ugly flowers.

Finding Inspiration

I was inspired — random-est of things — by one of the screensavers displayed by the Amazon Fire TV device connected to the TV. If you aren’t familiar, it’s series of 182 different photos that would give just about anyone some serious wanderlust. And with my vacation to St. Lucia in my rear view and K and I talking about this whole vintage camper renovation project, this photo of The Milky Way over Mt. Hood (Oregon) just struck me. The other screen savers would come and go, and every time this one appeared, I would pause and stare.

So, I typed up a quick tutorial about an organic process that would be unique to every painting (I couldn’t replicate this to the same result every time either). Nothing about a bunch of swirling colors would really be repeatable, but if you want to give it a try, I highly encourage it and would love to see the variations you get! I stopped to take a few of these photos and grabbed a few stills from the video I took overhead.

How to Paint a Starry Sky and Mountains

The trick to a painting like this is pretty straightforward, believe it or not: it just takes continuous layering of colors. I used acrylic paints in the following colors (note: affiliate links to products may be used here):

Supplies

10×10 wood panel

Anita’s Craft Paint (picked up at Hobby Lobby ages ago): Twilight Blue, Medium Blue, Christmas Red (all matte)

Apple Barrel: White, Black, Wild Iris, Purple Iris (all matte)

Small and medium all-purpose paint brushes

Gesso (surface prep medium)

Frogtape Delicate Surface painter’s tape (I know they do a lot of sponsoring on blogs, but this isn’t sponsored)

paper towels

container for clean water

paper plate for mixing

Prep

I started by painting over the entire surface of the existing 10×10 panel with gesso, which is a “medium” (in general, “medium” can be used for just about anything that is used to create art, but in this context, there are several specifically designed to do cool things with acrylic paint — some add a crackling effect, some help paint adhere to fabric… this one is basically a thin version of white acrylic paint and simply helps prep the surface for adding more paint on top, like a primer).

Then, I did a quick pencil sketch to mark what would be sky vs. mountain vs. the black trees vs the water on the bottom… just a few general shapes to get me started.

Color Blocking

As you’ll see in the speed video, I started with the sky first — blocking off color areas such as black in the top corners and white in certain areas on either side of the mountain. This was somewhat monochromatic at first, but I also kept adding in blue and red. To layer in the paint, I also used a damp paper towel to help “sponge” in some of the texture and help layer in paint colors.

With most of the general color blocking done, I moved on to the tree line in black, and then the single mountain in the center — which pretty much exclusively has layers of black, white, and a small hint of blue. Since the sky would be the focus of my painting, I wanted to make the mountain highlighted but muted (so as not to compete).

The whole non-compete idea carried through in the rest of the painting, marking off the mountains and creating quick swipes with a small paint brush to get the trees to look like they had some texture (black only). For the water below, I painted large swipes of blue with white and black and kept watering down the paint so it would look really streaky.

As the mountain dried, I added in more black and white areas for highlight and shadow.

After the first night (I did all of this while sitting in front of the TV, winding down from other DIY activities), it looked like this:

This is a great stopping point, since acrylic sometimes needs some dry time when you begin to add water. Adding more paint or sponging after it starts to dry might remove patches of paint (it happened to me a couple of times). General rule of thumb for what’s recommended is to not mix more than 30% of water or use an acrylic medium to thin the paint instead, but I’ll admit to using just water on this one.

More Color Layering

The next night after some sufficient drying, I added in more color to the sky area with the same swiping, sponging pattern: more blue, more purple, more white.

The photo below is after it had more time to dry and I added a second black layer of the trees.

Once you’re done with this part and are happy with the sky’s color variation, it really needs to dry COMPLETELY. Because next, you’ll be adding painter’s tape!

Tape and Stars!

I taped off the entire bottom area with painter’s tape meant for delicate surfaces (since the canvas was so freshly painted) — anything that wasn’t the sky.

Then, I used a VERY dry brush to dab just a little pure white paint onto the tip of the brush and flick the paint all over the sky surface. I varied both with the quantity of paint on my brush and with how close to the canvas I got, so there were little clusters of white paint flecks and bigger flecks all randomly dispersed. This is the magic that makes it look like a starry sky, and my favorite part. If you make a mistake, use a tiny dab from a wet paper towel to take the paint back up (do it quickly and don’t rub… it could still disturb the newly dried paint below).

In areas I wanted to emphasize a little more, I went in by hand and added a couple more stars.

With that done, I pulled all the painter’s tape off and my painting was complete. I still need to seal it with some art resin (coming up in a new post) and frame (also another post), but I’m pleased with how it turned out. It will probably eventually hang in the vintage camper. K immediately loved this painting and offered to scan it at work for me, so I will have that available as a print soon as well!

Catch the full video:

Want another example of going rogue at a paint n’ sip class? Here’s my laundry room art inspired by talented artist Emily Jeffords.

The post DIY Night Sky Mountain Painting (Easy Custom Art) appeared first on Ugly Duckling House.

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