$1 Canvas Fun

Imagine my surprise as I walk through Hobby Lobby and find NONE of the AD Chartpak pens I need to get for school.  Joyous.  I am incredibly weak when it comes to resisting HL purchases, so of course I still did not get out for under $20.

How do they DO that to me, everytime?!

Regardless it worked out well. The trace pads I needed for urban design sketching this week were 40% off, they had a two pack of Pentel Sign pens I needed, and I found something very interesting.

Hobby Lobby has stick on canvas.  Now that in and of itself is pretty darn cool because you could cut it to anything you wanted.  Now that I mention it I bet you could put it on your cricut with a deep cut blade (might not even need one) and cut it.  But I am not sure.  It would definitely have to be basic shapes and the blade might not go through it.  But I would think a deep cut would.

That is neither here nor there.  What is both here and there is the fact that they have 4x4 mini sticky canvases.  Weeks and weeks and probably weeks enough to add up to a solid 4 months ago I bought 3 little beveled square wood blocks at HL for a max of 79 cents each.  They might have been on sale. I was looking for something to do with them and never really was sold on anything I came up with.

Until the canvases. They come in a 4 pack for $2, so they are effectively 50 cents a piece.  Granted, that does make the project around $1.30 but if you use a coupon on the canvases you can save a little bit and effectively make it a one dollar craft, assuming you have the paint.

Which I didn't but I wanted anyway.  So, to recap, buy a small wood block (beveled or not, it would be easier if it wasn't actually) and some mini sticky canvas. And let's get to it!

 As you can see, if it is beveled you have to fold the corners and edges like so.  I am leaning toward using puffy paint later to add a border for this, and if you were to do that using a non-beveled wood block you could essentially create your own faux frame.  Just an idea.

I am going to walk you through my basic pumpkin sketching.

The fastest way to do this is to make a slightly squished circle, which makes up the two segments around the center segment of the pumpkin.  If I were to label them left to right as 1-2-3-4-5, I am referring to sections 2 and 4.  You can see how they make a circle that looks a little like someone is slightly pushing it down.  I like to make two outer segments that meet near a midpoint where I want my stem, and connect down near the base of their respective segments, not to a midpoint at the bottom.  Then I create the central segment.

 The more of a sketched look you develop the more forgiving ANYTHING is.  The loose style of drawing is actually really pretty, is used in a lot of stamps (most likely because it is forgiving), and is visually intriguing.  It draws someone in.

The best part about this is how many places you could stop.  You could leave this just like so and it would be cute.  I was using a Pentel Sign Pen during this to draw it out.

Add a stem and some vines coming out.  A lot of fall stamps have pumpkins that look like this, or google image one if you want something to look off of.  Or, use my blog :)!

I wanted to get back in to sketching a bit before we start up in class because urban design sketches use loose sketch styles and I just wanted to give it a shot before I was in class.

 The markers we will use in UDS are based on the properties of watercolors, so I bought a set to mess around with.  Mostly because I was sad that HL did not have my ADs.

The Pentel Pen will run when water gets near it, and that is OK for this project! It actually helps in my opinion.   The bottom shadowing under the pumpkin was actually where the pen ran and involved no work of my own.  More water, more running.

So I pour water out of my water bottle into a glass, dampened some orange, and started painting the spots I wanted to be darker.  I filled in the leaves and the ground, and made vivid blue patches in the sky.  I wanted it to eventually be kind of grey like fall, but still hold that depth of blue.

 The sky I had to do a couple rounds of grey then blue then grey and more blue to get it how I wanted.  First it was too springy, then too drab, but watercolors are easy to use so it is no big deal.  You can always dab on the canvas after resoaking your brush to get completely different effects.

I added a lighter orange in to the center parts of the pumpkin, had to go back and do a little more dark towards the sides, and finally got it to where I was happy with it.

This probably took a grand total of 15 minutes max.  And that includes sticking the canvas on.  Quick sketches make for quick projects!

The reason I wanted to try this is because they make watercolor and canvas cards, and I wanted to know if I would like them.  I do believe I will.






The worst kept secret ever would be that I love maps, so of course I had to make one of those as well.

And next I wanted to try to create a version of my favorite picture I have from hiking!  ...

This is where I fully admit I am not all that fantastic at art.  It looks decent, but could have been a little better on the perspective end.

But again, I was going for quick sketches. And I am a firm believer that practice makes perfect!

Here's the real picture.  I might go back and try to redo a few things now that it is all dry to add in some more details.  And maybe some more trees. 

But hey, for no real art training, I think it could have been worse :).





I think these would make very cute pictures to hang on your wall.  For instance, a 4 combo of the same flower in different colors could be very modern looking. 

They may also be very cute in plate holders or miniature easels for display. 

Not to metnion you can stick them to anything.

So for around $1 the point is you can easily make some quick art for seasonal decorations or anything else you need.