DIY Canvas Art: Technique 2

If you read my previous post, you discovered one way to make canvas art.  There are many different ways out there and my latest favorite, using pencil and paper, is detailed below.  I know, how do you use pencil and paper to transfer letters?!  It’s a fairly easy project.

This is a canvas I made for my brother for his birthday.  The color isn’t great, but the words are silver and gold and the canvas background is a navy color.  Here’s what you need to use the same technique to make your own style of canvas art.

Materials:

• Canvas
• Paint
• Paint markers or metallic paint pens (optional)
• Sponge brush or paint brush
• Word art (there’s lots of free subway or chalkboard art out there) or your own word design with fancy fonts
• Pencil or charcoal pencil

First, paint your canvas the color that you would like for the base.  You can also leave the canvas white if that’s what you prefer.  I painted mine navy.  Darker colors are harder to work with, but as you’ll see it’s possible…it just takes a little patience and good eyesight.

Next, choose your design.  Like I said before, you can design your own or find free subway or chalkboard art like the one I found.  Flip the printed design over so you can see the words (backwards) through the paper.  Then, with a sharp pencil making dark lines, trace over the reverse image of the words.  Again, your letters will be BACKWARDS.  This is what you want.

Flip your paper over and tape it to the canvas.  After you have it aligned where you would like it, take the pencil, again with lots of pressure, color over THE FRONT of the words, like shown below:

This will transfer the pencil from the back of the paper to the canvas.  If you started with a dark canvas, it will be light, so this is where those keen eyes come in.  Now you can paint or use paint pens to fill in the words on your canvas art.  Great for giving the illusion that you have great lettering and handwriting skills, without needing the actual ability.

Happy crafting!