Do It Yourself Artwork

We finally finished remodeling and started to decorate our new house when we realized we would need a lot more art.  Our last apartment was 650 square feet and more than half the walls had windows, which means we owned very little art.  We had a few favorites which we immediately hung on our freshly painted white walls, but the majority of our house remainder bare.  As I scoured the internet for Art I realized it wasn't in our budget to purchase this much art and instead I went to the craft store and began making do it yourself art.  These are two of my favorites and can be easily customized to match the colors in your house.

Supplies Needed:
Black Acrylic Paint
Assorted Colorful Acrylic Paint - I used Craft Smart (Bright Red, Chrome Orange, Phthalo Red, Pink, Deep Yellow, and Chrome Yellow)
Foam Pouncers - this project is much easier if you have the same size pouncer for every color paint
Blue Painters Tape
Large Canvas or Poster Board - I used 21" x 36"canvas for the color block and regular poster board for the dots



Directions for Color Block Art:
Step One: Use painters tape to block off 5 sections, pressing down to ensure a good seal.  If you want the sections to be equal then a measuring tape would be helpful here.  I prefer less exact art so I just eyeballed it and taped away.
Step Two: Start with the first color of acrylic paint and completely cover the first section including the side (be careful not to paint beyond the tape).  Continue with the next color until all sections have been painted.  If you want to have perfectly straight white lines wait for the paint to dry completely before removing painters tape.  In my case I removed the tape right away to allow for a little bit of bleeding at the edges.
Step Three: Wet a paint brush and dip in black paint. Flick the paint onto the canvas in an irregular pattern as you learn when splatter painting in Kindergarden. Some spots will be large while others will be very small.  Continue splatter painting until the desired amount of black has been achieved.

Directions for Dot Art:
Step One: Practice on inexpensive white paper before starting on a canvas or poster board.  I tried lots of different color and pattern combinations before finally deciding on this one.  I free handed this artwork, but if you prefer you can measure out the pattern and lightly mark the center of each dot with a pencil dot or drawn very faint lines to resemble a grid system and then dot in the middle.
Step Two: Start in the very corner with the first color and a dot foam pouncer, continue down the canvas alternating colors. When you get to the next row start with the second color in your pattern and them continue down the canvas once again. For each new row you will drop a color and then eventually the pattern will become apparent both down and across the canvas.
Step Three:  Continue alternating your pattern until the entire canvas has been filled and the diagonal dot pattern will be easily visible and quite dramatic.