Copying and painting images...

[lml41981]

I am planning to do the artwork for my daughter's bathroom and wanted to use the dragonfly and beetles from her towels as the design. Here they are, for reference.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5d923b3127cce92d36fb9a6a900000016108IbuHDlm1aE

What is the best way for someone with zero artistic skills to go about transferring the image onto canvas and then painting it? Also, are there any special paints I should use or should I seal it somehow since it will be hung in a bathroom? And do I paint the canvas white and then paint my bug on it or do I paint the bug on the canvas and leave the rest unpainted?

[amtaylor]

I would say one of the easiest ways to copy it onto your canvas would be with an overhead projector. We did that with our walls and it turned out nicely. Just make a copy of the bugs at a copy place and then project it onto the canvas. I don't know anything about painting on a canvas, so hopefully someone can help you with that :)

[lml41981]

Did you take your item to somewhere like Kinko's and copy it onto a transparency or what?

[amtaylor]

Yep.. that's exactly what we did :)

[jenji]

I was going to suggest the same thing with a color transparancy. If I were you, I would just buy a canvas that has already been primed with gesso. That helps keep your colors from bleeding through, then you don't have to worry about buying gesso and priming the whole canvas yourself

[artist]

What is the best way for someone with zero artistic skills to go about transferring the image onto canvas and then painting it? Also, are there any special paints I should use or should I seal it somehow since it will be hung in a bathroom? And do I paint the canvas white and then paint my bug on it or do I paint the bug on the canvas and leave the rest unpainted?

As others mentioned, making a transparency photocopy, then projecting it onto an overhead projector.

However, if you do not have an overhead projector, the next best option would be to make a photocopy of the image, then draw a grid over the photocopy. Put the same grid on your canvas. (The squares on the grid on the canvas can be a different size as the squares on the photocopy, but the proportion will then be different.) You may have done something like this in your high school geometry class. I had to anyway.

As for materials, I suggest in your case using acrylics. As for brushes, I like sythentic or a sythentic blend, simply because the hairs on those brushes don't shed as much as some of the natural hair brushes do. A sales person at your art supply store should be able to help you. But, the size and type of brushes you get will depend on the size of your canvas and the amount of detail you need. Perhaps you can get a nice brush set on sale?

What you prime canvas with is gesso. But, unless you are planning on doing a lot more painting in the future, it might be easier in your case to just buy an already primed and stretched canvas. They kind of expensive in my opinion, but since I paint all the time, it's better for me to build and stretch my own canvases. But if you've never done that before, again, it's probably just less of a headache to buy it pre-stretched. If you decide you love this and want to do more, let me know and I'll explain how to build and stretch canvases.

Anyway, the other thing is, you will probably want a background or background color. Even if you just want it white, I still suggest using white acrylic paint and not leaving the whole thing blank. (But a color, even an offwhite or something will probably look more interesting then just plain white.)

As for something to seal it with, I'd use gloss acrylic gel or gloss acrylic gel medium.

For example:
http://www.utrechtart.com/dsp_view_products.cfm?classID=1013&subclassID=101311

You should be able to purchase this at any art or craft supply store. Also, you can mix this stuff with the paint if you want the painting to look glossy/shiny.

(But as for applying a finishing coat, wait until the whole painting is dry.)

Hope that helps!

[Jane&Andy]

I'm not much help, just wanted to say those towels are so cute. :)

And I've seen various projector type thingies at craft stores in the painting sections.

[Koala_Gurl]

Dumb question...

Those canvases at the store that are white & stretched on a frame...are those already primed with gesso? (It doesn't say outright that it is primed, but I am guessing it is??)

[Tanya]

Couldn't you just copy the image onto paper and get some carbon paper and trace the image onto the canvas with the carbon in between? I used to do that when I was a kid. I would think that would be easier than the overhead projector since you are just doing in onto a canvas (and you can enlarge the image on the copier) and not a wall.