Dining Room Artwork...

So here goes my first post...

For a while I had been looking for a big painting to go in our dining room since we had one large blank wall in a room with vaulted ceilings.  It seemed that ALL the paintings of the size I wanted were EXTREMELY expensive and weren't exactly what I was looking for. So...I decided to paint my own! I talked with my husband and we decided we would like a painting of a horse so I hopped online and got some inspiration.  I knew I wanted it to be mostly red since all of our kitchen accents and small appliances are red so I found a couple of different horse paintings I liked to use as a reference and got to work.  It took me about 6 hours total, since it is sooo huge, but I got it done and LOVED the finished product...

To paint it I just used an ordinary pencil to sketch out the shape of the horse and where the eyes, ears, etc. would go and then I got to work on the background, blending the paints while they are wet (you can use a squirt bottle with water in it to keep the paint wet but be careful and don't add too much or the paint will run).  After that I started the base coat of red for the horse and just kept adding layers of paint until it looked the way I wanted.  Last, I painted the hair and VOILA, you have the finished painting.

All in all, this project cost me about $32 since I already had the acrylic paint and brushes and I got the giant canvas on sale at the craft store (WAY better than I price tag of at least $180 for a painting of this size at the store).  I know I have a background in art and some people may be intimidated by a project like this but you will never know if you like painting, or art for that matter, until you try.  Get out your paint and brushes and just paint something YOU enjoy.  That is what matters.  If you have to, print out some images in silhouettes and trace them onto the canvas then paint inside the lines (in fact, I may do just that in a later post).  I know this wasn't a really a tutorial but I wanted to give you all something to look at for now (later posts will have step by step photos and directions).  I hope you like it!

Remember, whatever you are inspired to do, whether it's painting, cooking, crafting, baking, interior design, photography, or just getting outside for some fresh air, get up off the couch and DO it!