foray into painting: part i

I'm such a tease with all these broken up posts, right? Sorry! Part ii hasn't happened yet. It's hopefully in the fuuuuuture.

I think my purpose in life is to cover my walls with things. I'm always on the hunt for something interesting to display. Lately I was inspired by this wall mural and thought I could recreate something like it on a smaller scale. I probably could have picked up supplies somewhere more convenient to my home or office, but I will always look for an excuse to go to Michaels (and Home Goods) waaaay on the Upper West Side. I grabbed an economy pack of canvases and some craft paint (on sale!) while unsuccessfully trying to brainstorm other craft projects.

Once I had a couple hours blocked out for painting, I spread out on my amazing new table and planned the size and angle of my chevron stripes and sketched them out in pencil. My completely unhelpful assistant was there to supervise.

The palette. The colors look completely crazy onscreen but you get the idea: burnt orange, deep magenta, mustard yellow, gold, and aqua.

Then I began the tedious process of applying color by color. I wanted a hand crafted look so I didn't want to tape the edges but tried to stay within the pencil lines with my brush strokes.

Looking back I wished I had been more loose with the design like my inspiration (and her inspiration). I was pretty rigid with the color arrangement and could also vary the width of the stripes. It didnt turn out as miraculously as I had hoped. C'est la vie! Good thing I bought a multi pack of canvases! There's always part ii!

I actually like the closeup best. Maybe I will chop it up into tiny pieces. What do you think?