The girls and I had so much fun decorating for Christmas this year! Tim was so awesome and scored us a real tree for only $20 bucks down the road at our local nursery. Why... because it had a hole in the back where a branch or two must have fallen off lol! We didn't care. We just put that section against the wall, strung some lights and started hanging all of our favorite ornaments from Christmas past, years past really. The girls are grown but we hung ornaments and decorations they made from kindergarten on:)
Isn't it so amazing to bond with family like that and reminisce?! It's those little moments in life that make the world go round.
The winter holidays are such a magical time of the year & especially this year considering we got almost 5' of snow in our first storm! Yikes lol! I don't know about you but right after Christmas, if I'm honest, I can't wait to take everything down to have "room" back in the house hehe:) I'm torn when I do this because we still want to hold onto that Magical Feeling! That's when I got the idea to just create a beautiful winter painting that would hang on our wall and not clutter our "living" space. I wanted it to be special and remind us of that bonding time of when we decorated. So... that's where my inspiration came from.
Emily had put two wreaths together and hung it on the front door. She put the berries wreath inside of the green pine wreath & it looked so adorable! So that's what I used for inspiration for this piece of art. I combined the poinsettias into the painting as well and oh.... I LOVE the outcome and wanted to share it with you:)
Be sure to use the FREE Video, Tracer & Supply list I'm giving you and then follow along with the instructions below. You can download them HERE.
**WINTER WREATH STEP BY STEP PAINTING**
Ok so first thing.. Cover the entire canvas with a background color. One of my customers suggested a slate gray & I thought that would look kinda cool;)
My idea here was to make the canvas look like a door with the wreath hanging on it!
(Can you see my inspirational piece in the background? I took it off our door and hung it in the studio so I could use it as a reference.
I'm using a flat brush. You can use a 1 or 2 inch. I just put a bit of black into my blue and mixed until I got the color I liked.
Tip: start with only a tiny dab of black first & add more if needed.
Another Tip lol: I didn't mix it all totally smooth. I wanted this to look like an old barn door so I left the colors a bit streaky.
Use up and down quick vertical strokes to cover the canvas with this color (or whatever color you choose:) You can watch HERE to see exactly how I did it.
NEXT BARN DOOR
So here's where I made it look like wood by dragging a bit of darker blue down 2 sections of the canvas.
You can use an angled or flat brush & hold it so the bristles are vertical.
Oh.. Don't forget to paint the sides of your canvas especially if you're using a wrapped canvas like me. That way when you hang it the sides don't look unfinished.
TONES
I added a bit of lighter blue and some darker blue in random places around the canvas. That way the boards look old and weathered. BUT... make sure your strokes are still up and down like with the grain of the wood.
WREATH
All I did was use the angled brush and quick strokes with my Christmas green color.
TIP: you can put 4 dabs of color with the green to map out where your wreath will go. 1 on top, bottom and each sides. Then it's easier to fill in the pine needles. Or you can just print out the tracer HERE and use that:)
Add some lighter green pine needles in certain spots around your wreath to show highlights. (Same with lowlights, use a darker green for that).
You can put some white snow on your wreath now with a round brush or wait till after you put on your red berries.
You don't have to make it exactly like mine. You can put in pinecones or whatever. Get Creative!!
BERRIES
Add your berries anywhere you'd like on your wreath. I liked to concentrate mine inwards.
I used red paint with my round brush.
TIP: paint white circles & let dry. Then paint the red over it. This will make your berries really pop! If they are looking too pink, just add a tiny bit of black or blue to your red paint.
As you can see from the photo, the lighter green really makes those pine needles pop!
Finish your painting off with whatever you would like for an added decoration. As you can see in my finished product I painted Poinsettias!! You could paint any flower, pinecone, birdhouse etc that you would like:)
If you want to use my design exactly that's fine too. You can get the tracer HERE for the Poinsettias.
*I would LOVE to see how yours came out! Tag me on Instagram @ amyparkerart in a post or story:)
NOTE: If you are a member of Creative Warriors you will automatically have access to this design plus marketing materials ready to go for your art business!!
I hope you have a Wonderful Winter Season! & Remember... Keep on Creating!
~Amy~