Easy Original Artworks

Ok these days I can feel myself growing up, and as such i look at the houses my friends have bought or are renting, with their IKEA furniture and mass produced (but pretty) artwork and thought to myself, "isn't that swell, maybe when I have a house then I should get some".

Being not only a g33k but also poor and stingey as hell, I figured I could make something to hang on my walls that would look good, be original, and cost me a little a possible.


Brief:

• Requires very little artistic skill
• Looks good enough to be store bought
• Stylish and contemporary
• Cheap as chips
• Easily replicated incase I want to make more to match

Step 1: Preparation

Materials Needed:

• Iron
• Ironing Board (or other heat resistant flat surface)
• Canvasses (I used box canvasses)
• Palette & Brushes
• Paint (I recommend water-based acrylic)
• Inkjet 'T-shirt' transfer paper
• Inkjet Printer

Find an image you want to turn into a piece of art. I like using Fonts as they are really simple and I am going for a sillohette look.

Step 2: Printing and Cutting

• Print image you don't need to worry too much about the quality settings of the printer as we will be painting over it
• Cut out image

*TIP* I later found that you get better results if you cut around the image a little more carefully than I have in the picture.

Step 3: Position and Iron

• Turn transfer over
• Iron transfer onto canvas - follow instructions for your type of paper

*TIP* use some cardboard from a box and an old book to support the underside of the canvas to stop it from stretching

Step 4: Painting

• Paint around lines of the transfer and fill in background
• Let it Dry
• Check for missed bits and paint over them

Step 5: Paint Inside

Carefully paint the inside of the shape a contrasting colour.

Step 6: Repeat

Repeat with more to complete the pretentious multi-canvas effect that is so popular in all trendy loft apartments

Comments

[FlatLinerMEDIC]

I LOVE IT ! ! the colors are great

[FlatLinerMEDIC]

just finished mine...theyre awesome, did brass knuckles, girl in martini glass, a hookah, and my handprint coz i messed up the painting on the last one! very decorative

[golfchick005]

I recently did this, but used silhouettes of men in suits instead. And to get the image to the canvas I just printed off the image, cut it out with an exacto knife, traced it on with a pencil, and painted inside the lines. They came out great!

[rustyjack]

i was wondering where you got the men in suit printout. i really enjoy them

[golfchick005]

I found them all online...mainly by googling men in suits clipart, or business clipart. If you want some of the ones I used, and can't find them anywhere, I can send the jpeg files to you in an email

[distractable]

Great instructable!
I read through really quickly so this may have been addressed but a low tech alternative is carbon copy paper to trace an image onto the canvas instead of using an iron-on.
if you're printing an image you can also just scribble with pencil on the opposite side of the page and trace around the image to transfer the carbon to the canvas.

again great instructable and great artwork!

[wild_hemlock]

Definitely doing this! I have a bunch of canvases I bought and need to do something trendy with. Thank you!

[Leleo5]

This is a wonderful idea...i am definitely going to try it...but what do you mean by using "Fonts"

[munkey_b0y]

Fonts are typefaces that a computer uses. Things like Times New Roman and Comic Sans are fairly standard. However some fonts (dingbat fonts) are not constructed of letters and numbers but of symbols or pictures. These images were made using a picture font.

[Leleo5]

thank you very much!

[BarginsTech]

You can also go to DAFONT.COM and download a variety of Dingbat fonts. They would be easier to copy, as you can print them out and trace them.

[Rupert95]

Wouldn't it be possible to simply iron on the full picture?

[IntoxicatedSight]

where did you get those girl silhouettes from?

[munkey_b0y]

silhouette fonts are available @ http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=718

[jacetheace]

google image it thats wt i did

[cappatown]

for the stencils

http://all-silhouettes.com/retro-girls/

[cappatown]

btw you need photoshop to open that file, import it into shapes

[bec1988]

I'd like to know where you got the lady silhouettes from also?Great work by the way. They look fantastic & I can't wait to try doing them myself.

[munkey_b0y]

I don't remember where I got them all from, but you can get some of them from here dafont

hope that helps

[nelelr]

I just found this link with tons of stencils and stuff

Print them out- and use an exacto Knife to cut out the black parts-

Then spray paint=-

http://www.spraypaintstencils.com/index.html