I have had this blank canvas sitting around for a year or so now, and just never got around to doing anything with it. I finally decided it was time to just break it out and whip something up. I hadn’t painted in quite a while, as after my painting classes I just got really burnt out and never regained the time to experiment. So, I decided to just go for it. I am really loving geometric shapes and bright colors for spring, and decided to use that as my inspiration. I drew out a basic idea of what I was thinking, and decided on my four colors. I chose four colors because those are my top four favorite colors for spring 2012! I laid out my design with no particular fashion except I started with the big section off to the left. I then decided to do triangles for the right side. 

I went ahead and sectioned off my canvas, first with pencil and then painter’s tape. Unfortunetly when I recently retreived my art boxes from my parent’s house a couple weeks ago, I forgot to grab my last one, which has my nice paintbrushes and expensive paints….So, I was stuck with a tiny paintbrush of decent quality and really low…I mean EXTREMELY low quality paints. But, being on a budget, I sucked it up and went for it anyway. I had to do many many layers of color on each section due to my horrendous paints. The colors were pretty easy to mix, and as the paint was cheap I wasn’t afraid to use a lot!

Coral: mainly orange, with a decent squirt of hot pink and a smidge of red

Mustard: mainly yellow, a squirt of brown and a smidge of orange

Teal: decent mix of light blue, green, and a hint of cobalt blue

Brown/Bronze: equal parts brown and metallic bronze

I worked on a color at a time, taking 10 minutes between each coat. (I was doing other things while waiting for the coats to dry, but as I got busier I ended up putting the painting off for a day or two, and remixing the paints again on the weekend.) As I continued the piece, I had a hard time with my painter’s tape not sticking properly, so I ended up scratching it all together. I gently pulled off the tape, and just went with my guidelines instead. The cheap paint was rather liquidy (bad aspect of poor quality paints, thicker acrylics are better!) so the paint was just seeping under the tape, and messing it up.

After I finished the layers upon layers of color, I went back with my Gesso and fixed up the white lines. Gesso is a white primer that you typically use on the canvas to prep for painting. I however did not have a good quality white paint to cover up the mishaps, so I resorted to using gesso. It worked perfectly. I did a couple coats, specifically in the areas around the bronze triangles. I then finished it off with a top coat of medium gloss once everything was dry!

This project was really easy to do, especially if you have good quality paints. But as you can see, even with cheap materials, you can achieve a great geometric piece! Also, don’t forget to paint the sides!!! This gives a finished look!!

acrylic DIY geometric gesso painting spring