Making A Little Art

Maybe I'm too picky, but I never seem to see artwork when I'm out and about that sets my heart aflutter.  I see tons of stuff on other blogs, I see stuff on Etsy, and in magazines, but never when I'm at HomeGoods/Ikea/etc.  Like I said, maybe I'm picky.  Here's the thing - I'm 100% ok with being picky - why should I have to compromise on something like a picture on the walls of my house?  I only have so many walls and many spaces to put stuff, so I want to make sure that I truly LOVE what I do choose to display.

So what's a girl to do when she can't find the right thing to bring some color and whimsy to her world?  DIY it of course!  I'm no artist, but I do have some ability so I decided to go for it with a nice chunky block of watercolor paper and some watercolor paints that I received as a gift a million years ago.

My plot was suddenly foiled when I couldn't find the dang paints.  So I sat on the couch and sulked for about 5 minutes and then it was like a light bulb went off right above my head - MARKERS!  My silly Sarah had gotten a sweet set of markers for Easter - like a set of about 40 gorgeous fine-tipped Crayolas. Love 'em!

This might seem silly/cheesy and maybe I wouldn't recommend markers if you were doing a landscape or a portrait of your poodle, but for this it seemed to work great!  Back in college (and high school and middle school probably) I was a bit of a doodler.  I'd sit in class and draw geometric designs in my notebooks (not during important classes, Mom & Dad).  So when I decided that I wanted to add some new artwork to the living room, I figured maybe some variation on these designs would work well.  My old notebook pics were always pen on lined paper, but since this would be on display, and because I wanted to bring some COLOR to a mostly BROWN space, I picked out 6 perfect colors (plus black) and started in on my design.

I didn't take progress pics, but I can describe my overall process - start out by outlining a few large shapes.  Don't be afraid to make them BIG to cover a lot of real estate on your page.  After you've gotten a few areas defined on the page then go back and start adding in details a little at a time.  Move around to different areas on the page so that the whole picture develops rather than just a single corner.  It think that helps it stay balanced.  You're finished when you say you are - but remember you can always add more, but it's hard to take some away so resist the temptation to cover every inch.

What do you think?  I'm thinking of creating a gallery wall somewhere and having this be one of the pieces.  It should look ok among some black/white photos or some more monochromatic prints.

I'll try to update tomorrow with a better photo - stuff looks pretty washed out at night.