Have we inspired you to begin impasto painting? If so, you can find an excellent range of paints, canvases and other painting accessories right here at Spotlight! Browse our range of art supplies online, where you can choose from a great range of payment options, as well as click and collect or home delivery for your order. You can also pay your local Spotlight store a visit and our lovely team will help you find all the impasto painting supplies you need!
DIY painted canvas flowers
I’m all about recycling old materials, especially to make these painted canvas flowers.. For example, I had a framed canvas I painted that was…well, let’s just say I would never let it see the light of day it was so awful. But in my Crafty Chica land, I’m all about making tasty lemon bars out of lemons. (Lemonade is too boring)
I cut the canvas away from the frame and used the back side to make some fun flowers. I then bundled them into a cute spring bouquet as you see above.
Supplies:
Spray Acrylic Sealer
Glitter
Glue or double-adhesive tape
Raw canvas (you can use an old painted canvas you don’t like)
Paint brushes
Scissors
Thread
Floral tape
Floral wire
Make a flower petal template, or just freestyle. That’s what I do! Cut out assorted sizes of pedals. Separate them into stacks of five or six.
Paint each group into your favorite colors.
Water down the craft paint and brush on a layer. Let dry.
Use a darker or lighter shade of the same color to add shading.
Go in with contrasting highlights to really give your petal personality!
Finish them up!
Glue the petals together at the base to create a flower. You can mix up the petals or create them color by color.
This is my favorite part. Add white craft glue and apply glitter at the edges!
Use a spray sealer to make them shine.
Now it’s time to add them to floral wire so you can make a bouquet or set them in a vase.
Start with one pedal, add glue to the bottom and wrap around the piece of floral wire. Continue adding other pedals all around. Make sure they are all secure. Brush on some glaze and add glitter!
Take some leaves from silk flowers and add them to the bottom of each flower. Or you can paint your own leaves from the canvas! Glue in place.
Arrange them to your liking and group them together. Wrap with one wire to secure them and then wrap with floral tape to cover the wire.
And there you have it – a fun spring bouquet of canvas flowers!
Quick Links
- What kind of paint do I use for the impasto technique?
- What can I make impasto art on?
- What do I need for painting with a palette knife?
- Palette knife painting techniques
- Impasto painting tips and tricks
- Palette knife painting ideas
- How to protect my textured art
Impasto art is usually made with one of two kinds of paint, oil or acrylic – but what is impasto paint exactly? Oil paint is naturally thick enough for impasto techniques, but has a very slow drying time. Acrylic paint must be mixed with an appropriate medium for impasto painting, but it will dry faster than oil paint. Whichever paint you use will depend on your budget and experience, although if you are a beginner we recommend using acrylic paint with some mediums, as it isn’t as expensive as oil paint and it is odourless and water-based, making clean up easier as well.
When choosing acrylic paints, look for heavy-body varieties to get you off to a good start. Then for your medium, look for gel medium or the aptly-named impasto medium to add body and thickness to your acrylics. This will allow you to create the textures so often seen in oil paintings!
What can I make impasto art on?
The most popular surfaces for impasto art are stretched canvas and wooden board.
A high-quality, stretched cotton canvas provides you with a toothy, crisp surface that has a little give to it. Many store-bought canvases are pre-primed and ready to paint on, and come in a bright white or cream colour that really makes your colours pop.
Wooden boards provide a lovely smooth surface with none of the woven texture of canvas to fill in, and they are much more durable than canvas. You can customise the surface of your board, but you may need to prime it yourself if you are making a board from scratch.
Avoid making impasto art on thinner materials like paper or card, as the weight of impasto paint and the techniques used can cause them to sag and even tear!
What do I need for painting impasto art?
Here are the basics of what you’ll need for creating textured art:
- Oil paint or acrylic paint (heavy body)
- Gel or impasto medium
- Stiff, synthetic paint brushes
- Palette knife
- Painting knives
- Palette
- Stretched canvas or board
- Cleaning rag for brushes
- Linseed oil (if using oil paint)
Make sure to have a good selection of painting knives, as different sizes and shapes will allow you to create different effects on the page. Brushes are not used as much as knives but are great for creating any little details you need. Synthetic brushes will hold more paint than natural fibre ones, and are less likely to leave brush-strokes in your work.
Painting knife vs palette knife
Upon checking your local art store, you may notice the terms ‘palette knife’ and ‘painting knife’ being thrown around… but that’s the difference? They are often used interchangeably, but technically, a palette knife is what you use to mix paint colours on your palette, while a painting knife is what you use to apply the paints to your canvas.
Here’s a more in-depth explanation of the painting knife vs palette knife question:
- A painting knife will have a narrow handle and an angled blade to help keep you from getting your knuckles in the paint as you work. They come with heaps of differently-shaped heads to create all sorts of interesting effects, and have a springy blade that allows you to apply different amounts of pressure as you paint.
- A palette knife is shaped more like an icing spreader, with a long, straight handle and a straight blade that is used to mix colours on your palette. The straight handle means they are no good for painting with, but they are effective at scraping dried paint off your canvas.
Unfortunately, many of the places that sell these products label them all under the ‘palette knife’ label, which can be confusing when you actually know the difference. When buying your own, pay less attention to what they’re called and more to the shape of the product and the materials they’re made from. Metal and wooden knives are more durable than plastic ones, although learning on a plastic set is a great way to start off as a beginner.
