Art Lesson: Painting Colored Images on Dark Backgrounds.

For today's lesson, I thought I would show you a painted project with some tips along the way.

I had a little wooden sign that I picked up.

I sanded it down a little bit and then measured it for the image I wanted to put on.

 I added the word "freedom" to the banner I found at the Graphics Fairy using Word.

Then I printed up the banner and colored charcoal pencil on the back of it.

 I cut the image just a bit smaller than the board size so that I could see to place it centered on the board and then taped it down.

I then traced over the image with a pen on the top side, causing the image to pass onto the board

(I did not need to trace over the lettering and fine detail at this time: just the outline of it).

 After I took the paper off, I painted the whole image white.

The reason I did this was because, it being on a dark background,

if I just painted the colors that I am going to use directly onto it, they would not be as vibrant as I want.

I will show you what I mean.

 First though, let me show you that after the white paint dried (and I did two coats of it),

I cut the paper banner out exactly on the outside edge of it and then colored the charcoal pencil on the back of it again. I carefully taped it onto the dried painted white banner.

 I then traced the top side of the graphic so that the detail was now on the white painted banner.

After carefully removing the taped banner, I began painting the colors using one of my favorite small paintbrushes.

(Do you find you tend to have a few favorites?)

 See how bright and crisp the colors show up on the white?

For the flag pole, I decided to mix some yellow with gold to give it a slightly shiny look.

(Please excuse my paint pallet: the bottom casing from my frog tape.  

I tend to use what is in my supplies and this does make a handy plate of paint.)

I used this gold/yellow also on the circles border I put around the edge, mixing in just a touch of black on those to give them some dimension.

I outlined a few parts of the banner with some black,

mostly on the lower parts of the graphic to look like shadowing and to help define it from the brown background.

I also added some water to some black and painted a smeared black background in around the banner. 

 While this dried, I added the gold strings handing from the flagpole and let them dry.

I wanted to make the blue in this image pop more because I love blue canning jars and thought this would look pretty displayed with some, so I added some water to my blue to make a blue background over the top of the dried black one.

 This is where the difference can be seen between the blue on the white background of the banner and the blue on the dark background.  The blue on the white is bold whereas on the dark background, it is muted.

I painted a coat of this watered down blue and then while it was still wet,

I painted a thin line of black around the outside edge of the blue background,

blending it with a slight circle motion slightly into the blue.

 I felt it still needed just a touch more of blue, so I dipped my paintbrush in it

and swiped a few more bold blue strokes across the background.

After the whole thing dried well, I wiped off any excess charcoal markings and slightly sanded the wood to give it an antiqued look,

finishing it with a brown stain wax.

It is just a small decoration, but it will work well for the 4th of July as well,

and being small, it is easy to store.

Have you painted anything lately? 

Paint is such a different medium to use after so much of the colored pencils and markers I have used lately,

but it is a fun change.

Thank you for stopping by!

Sharing this at these blogs:
Gnowfglins.com
Thegraphicsfairy.com

How to Transfer Images Onto Word to Use for Craft Projects

For today's craft, I am going to give some simple instructions on how to apply an image 

*(make sure it isn't copyrighted)*

 from the internet or your computer onto your projects using Microsoft Word.  This took me such a long time to figure out, that I thought it might be helpful to somebody else wanting to do something like this.

1. First of all, open up Word on your computer.

2. Then open up the internet and find the graphic that you want to use
(Be sure that the image is not copyrighted.  That is why I like to use vintage graphics like the ones I find at the Graphics Fairy or here on my blog from old books.  If you type "Free Graphics" on the internet search, there are many available options to use.  You could also use your own photos, etc.)

3. Here are the horses that I wanted to use from the Graphics Fairy.

I click on them on her site, and this image appears.

 

4. Then I right-click on them 

(click on the right clicker on the mouse)

and this window pops up:

 

5. I will then click on the "Copy Image."

(sorry for the wavy computer marks in the photos).

 6. I click open Word again and click on the Edit button, here, at the top;
and I then click on the "Paste" line under the Edit.

 Sometimes it takes a few seconds to load up but then suddenly, there the image will be.

8. The picture will be surrounded by a box with little black squares on each corner

as well as at each side and the top and bottom.

To make the image smaller, simply go to one of the corner squares, click on it,

and while holding down on the click, move the mouse inward to make the image smaller,

outward to make it larger.

9. Now, if you want only part of the image, such as I wanted to print the horses individually, you can crop the image (like taking scissors and just cutting out one horse). 

 This is done by bringing up the Picture Toolbar

(put your mouse cursor onto the image and then click the right button on your mouse).

The Picture Toolbar should show up on the screen somewhere.  Mine came up above the image.

In the toolbar, you will see different icons that can do different things to the image. For now, we'll just discuss the cropping feature, which is the one that looks like two intersecting angles.  When you hover over it, it will say "crop."  Click on this.

Once you have clicked the crop button, roll the mouse down to one of the black squares, depending on what you want to cut out of the image.  I wanted to crop out all the horses except for the white one, so I started at the side.  Once you have the mouse directly on the square, click and hold down, dragging the mouse inward to what you want cropped out.  

 You can continue to do this on all sides.  It will stay in "crop" until you click off the image.  That will shut the "crop" off and return it to normal, where the black squares can be again used to resize the image.

 After I cropped here, I had just the image of the white horse on my screen, 

I enlarged it by dragging out one of the corner black squares.

10. Once I had the image the way I wanted, I clicked on "File" up at the top, and hit the print button.

(Sorry for the black horse image on this shot.  I took this picture while working on another horse).

11. You then follow your printer's prompts to print the image.

 (TIP: If, as I did, you want to continue to use the original image that was on the screen when you first copied it from the internet,
you just have to click on the crop icon again.

 Dragging the square box around the image back to the way they were originally will reveal that the original image is still there, as if they've just been hidden under the white screen outside the box.

The original image will stay there until you save your image and close Word up.
Then whatever image you saved will be saved on your computer and whatever you cropped from that image will be gone.)

I
For my project, I then moved the crop areas around and printed up each horse that I needed, enlarging each to the way I wanted as well and then printing each up until I had all the horses I needed for the top of the chair I was painting for my daughter's room

(I could have just printed up the original image and used the horses as they were, but I wanted different sizes of the horses to make it look random).

 I then cut the printed horses out and laid them on the chair for the look I wanted.

Using a charcoal pencil, I rubbed the back of the images well with it

and then taped the image back in place on the chair.

 Using a pen, I then outlined the images of the horses, adding any detail I wanted to transfer onto the chair.

Then I carefully removed the taped image and used a fine tipped paint pen for the outline and a broader tipped one for the inside image of the black horse.

(Paint and paintbrushes could also have been used.  You may want to check the material you use if you do a project such as this to make sure that what you use will not bleed.  I had painted the material first for this project, using the back of some upholstery material I didn't need so I could have the colors/look I wanted without having to spend any money for just a small seat cover like this.)

With this technique, as little or as much detail as you wish may be traced,

or you can do some of the detailing you want to do yourself and just trace the basic shape.

This is a fun and fairly easy was of creating a unique piece for your home.


If you have any questions or if anything I explained did not make sense, please let me know.

Also, if you have any tips or input, we would all love that as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up with these fun blog parties:
Wearethatfamily.com 
Firefliesandjellybeans.com 
Notjustahousewife.net 
Adiamondinthestuff.comBetweennapsontheporch 
Funkyjunkinteriors.net 
 Wise-Woman-linkup
Asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com 
DIYbydesign.blogspot.com 
Domestically-speaking.com 
Savvysouthernstyle.net 
Abowlfulloflemons.net 
Missmustardseed.com