This tutorial is pretty simple. Follow it and you’ll have an ombre background in 5 minutes!
Canvas Painting
Paint At Our Studio – Paint at Your Site or Home
Classes – Walk In Canvas Painting – Group Paintings
Fundraisers – Acrylic Pours – Your Designs Or Ours
Your Creation Station offers Canvas Painting! We have all the materials and tools you’ll need to create your own canvas painting. As with other projects at Your Creation Station, the mess stays here, the price includes everything and all you need to do is show up. For Canvas Painting, you’ll leave with your finished canvas, suitable for hanging that evening.
What to Expect
Walk In Canvas Painting
Have an idea for a painting you want to do? Not sure what you want to try but your sure it isn’t going to be what everyone else in your group wants to do? Just feel like giving it a go? Your Creation Station is the answer. We offer Walk In Canvas Painting allowing you to just walk in anytime during our normal business hours, choose your canvas size, choose your design and take as long as you want to complete your project. Paint what you want, when you want to paint it on the size canvas of your choosing.
Workshops or Classes
At a Canvas Workshop, participants work step by step through each element of the selected design. The instructor will provide assistance in selecting the correct brush, mixing colors and applying them to the canvas to achieve the desired effect. We’ll have transfer patterns available to make the layout easier or tips and hints on how to do it freehand if you prefer that route. Workshops are offered on a per design basis and although everyone is working on the same picture, be prepared for individual results.
Painting Canvases at Your Creation Station
Canvas Painting Designs
Ideas come from anywhere. But sometimes we understand getting stuck. At Your Creation Station, we have a few years under our belts painting canvases and we’ve hung more than a few of our more popular desins right on the walls for you to choose from. Some have instructions on how to paint, some have designs to transfer on and some don’t, and while results may vary, all are achievable by anyone coming to our studio. Don’t like what you see, check out our Pinterest boards, Facebook page and Instagram page for ideas of what others have done.
Acrylic Pours
It looks like a big fun mess and it is but we take care of all the fuss and clean up so you can focus on your creation. Choose any size canvas we offer, the thicker ones are particularly fun to do, and go to town. We have paints mixed and thinned to the right consistency for doing fluid art designs and all you need to do is walk in and start pouring. Use our hairdryers to move the paint around, spritz in some silicone for cool bubble effects or fill a cup and flip it over on the canvas. Our staff is on hand to help and offer suggestions.
Canvas Painting Environment
Canvas Paintings are done right here at Your Creation Station in the relaxed, can-do atmosphere you’re already comfortable with. Off site alternatives are available. Our studio was initially established in 2005 and Your Creation Station has been open to the public since 2008. We are not a chain or a franchise. You can expect our workshops to be reasonably sized with as much time as you need to finish your painting. Plan on spending two to three hours painting at a relaxed pace. Dress comfortably but don’t wear your Sunday best, we’re using acrylic paints and they don’t come out as easily as the ceramic underglazes (the paints used for pottery painting) do. If you have a apron or smock you like to use, feel free to bring it. You are also welcome to bring anything you like to eat or drink.
Helpful Staff
As always, we’re here to help you succeed in achieving your artistic vision with the same patience and easy to follow instructions you expect at Your Creation Station. Don’t expect us to hold your hand but we won’t leave you hanging either. We’re more about showing you how to use fishing poles than we are about giving away fish.
Most importantly, remember, your more creative than you give yourself credit for and we know it, even if you don’t believe it.
Here’s what you’ll need*:
- Stretched canvas (look for one that is back-stapled rather than side-stapled)
- Acrylic Paint (choose two contrasting colors that you can use right out of the tube. For this tutorial I used Cerulean Blue and Titanium White)
- Retarder (this will make the paint dry slower- it’s not necessary but if this is your first time painting it will make the process easier)
- 2 wide bristle paint brushes
- Paint pallet (or a paper plate)
- Jar of water
- Drop cloth or cardboard to keep area clean
- Finishing spray (optional- my favorite is Krylon’s Satin finish, which you can get at Hobby Lobby or other major craft stores)
*Amazon links are provided to the products I use when possible.
Get Started
Lay down your drop cloth and change your clothes– this could get messy! Squeeze out a big pile of each color of paint separately on your pallet. Add a squirt of the retarder to each paint color if you’re using it. Keep the jar of water handy to put your used brushes into.
Start with your lighter color paint and your wide paint brush. Using even, horizontal strokes, paint the lighter color on the bottom 1-2 inches of the canvas. Paint along the bottom edge as well. Try to load the paint on thick and allow the excess paint to gather on the sides of the canvas. This will make it easier to paint the sides later! Always paint in the same direction, horizontally.
Step 2:
Add a small amount of color #2 (blue) to color #1 (white) on the pallet. Add this color just above color #1 and begin to blend back and forth into color #1, until you can’t notice a line between the two.
Remember, always move in even, horizontal strokes. Keep moving the brush back and forth on the canvas until the colors are blended seamlessly.
