Sweet Heart Painting Tutorial

Wanting to do a sweet project for your sweetheart this Valentine's Day?  Here's one for you to try:

What you will need:

8" x 8" canvas
acrylic paint (I used a mossy green, antique brown, red, white, light pink and light purple)
"Love" definition stamp
decorative background stamp (this is the closest I could find to mine)
Archival Ink stamp pad -black
black Gelatos crayon
pencil
sandpaper
paintbrushes


Step 1:  Paint the whole canvas in the moss green color and allow to dry completely.  Using sandpaper, sand the whole canvas so the texture of the canvas comes through.  Pay particular attention to the center and edges of the canvas.

Step 2:  Using your pencil, draw a heart onto the canvas and fill it in with the red paint.  Allow a bit of the canvas texture to show through the paint, and paint heavier in some places than in others.

Step 3:  Paint over the red paint with the light pink paint, using a very dry brush.  You can achieve this by loading up your brush with the pink paint and then blotting it on a paper towel before you paint over the red paint.  Let some of the red show through and let your brush strokes show.  This adds texture to the overall piece.

Step 4:  Using the light purple paint, use the same dry brush technique to lightly add some highlights to the edges of the heart, leaving the center of the heart pink.  You can also add some white highlights to the center of the heart, following the lines of the heart shape.

Step 5:  Finish the piece by stamping the "Love" definition off-center in the heart, stamping the decorative background stamp in the corners and using the gelato crayon with water around the outline of the heart and on the edges of the painting.  Using your fingers, you can add some of the antique brown paint sparingly around the edges, making sure to blend it into the design.  You can also add a bit of the white paint around the outside of the heart outline to further highlight the design.

Here's another variation of the painting using a different color palette:

Have fun with this project.  Use my directions as a guideline and add your personality to your painting.  If you do try this project, I would love to see it, so leave me a link in the comments!

Have fun!