Painting Your Own Art - Kansas City Apartment and Rental decorating Advice

You’ve just moved in to your new apartment, the furniture’s arranged and the boxes are empty. Everything’s perfect, but wait. What about those four blank walls? Yuck! Now here’s the real problem – the budget’s so tight artwork will never fit into it. Scrimp and save as you might, precious pennies just can’t be spent on an original oil or even a framed print.

What do you do? Crazy as it may sound, put on your creative smock and get to work!

Making your own art worthy of framing isn’t as difficult as it may sound. While it’s quite likely your finished pieces won’t be of museum quality right out of the gate, they can be very attractive and really help take the bleakness out of a room.

To paint your own pieces, you’ll need:

• Imagination or something good to copy. Think about what you’d like to create and even scour a few art books or magazines to get some ideas. Choose the colors wisely to bring out your room and start out with something that looks fairly simple. Remember, DiVinci didn’t learn to paint a human in a day and it’s likely you won’t either. The more simplistic the better for the inexperienced.
• Picking out paints. Take a trip to your local art supply store and pick out paints whether oils, watercolors or acrylics. Keep in mind if you’re just starting out, watercolors can be tough. It’s very difficult to hide “mistakes” like you can with oils or acrylics. Acrylics are generally considered the best for beginners as oils can take a very long time to dry. Even when dry to the touch, oils generally are still drying under the surface, a process that can take years in some cases depending on the oil used. Professional acrylics can be found at any art supply store and even at hobby shops or craft centers. There are even acrylics of different thickness to allow a painter to make raised surfaces.
• Other alternatives for painting: If you’d like to introduce cohesive elements to a painting, but your not sure just how to go about it, try stencils and stamps. These are easy to use and with just a small amount of practice with thickness of paint and/or pressure to apply, you’ll have an image that looks awesome.
• The canvas. While at the art supply store, pick out a canvas or two and have it stretched to fit the dimensions you’d like your piece to be. To save some money here, you can even pick up pre-made canvases from art stores and some hobby shops. If you are on a serious budget, you can even consider just doing the work on paint quality paper, or use pencils or charcoal on paper for a subtler piece. Don’t forget brushes if you’re painting.
• Once you have your supplies, practice the piece you’d like to create on paper. Once you get it down, move on to the final piece.

Okay, painting’s not for everyone. If you’re not so adventurous as to try your hand at painting like the masters, there are still other ways you can tackle those bare walls.

Here are some ideas:

• Frame items you might already have. Ideas here include family pictures, post cards, calendar photos, finished puzzles and even game boards. You can even frame interesting invitations, your college degree, a flag or a page from a book. Use your imagination and frame whatever tickles your fancy. The walls are yours, so whatever makes you happy works as art.
• Get out the camera. Make your own art using prints. Take a trip to the zoo, a park, downtown, get great portraits of your family and frame them! Take the best ones and blow them up to really show off the work. Photography is serious art so don’t think you’re going a second rate route to fill those blank walls. If you’re using a digital camera, don’t forget to set it on one of the higher settings. The higher quality the file, the better a blown up image will look.
• Natural art. For this get your favorite flowers, press and preserve them. Once complete, arrange them in a frame for quick, easy and beautiful art.

Don’t let the challenge of bear walls get you down. All it takes is a little imagination and you can create your own works of art. Remember art is very subjective, so only worry about pleasing yourself. Go with what makes you happy and you’ll be well on your way. Also, don’t discount using crafts, collages or even shadow boxes to create interesting pieces to help bring rooms together. It’s art, so anything goes!

by Tiffany Lewis, Kansas City Premier Apartments, Inc.