Some Personalized Art...

I've had a few canvases laying around for awhile and have been wanting to do something with them, but could never settle on what. Enter a 50% off Michael's coupon & some great inspiration from YHL. I also came to the conclusion that I'd love to attempt something for a gift. My little brother is getting married this fall & I thought it'd be fun to try and make something for their new place. And since I helped them register I thought I had a pretty good sense of what colors they'd like...so this last weekend I went for it. Went and got a large canvas at Michael's and some tester paints at Home Depot. (Paint at Michael's is like $8.99 for a small bottle and you can get a tester sample at Lowe's or Home Depot for about $3 - plus then you can make it any shade you want :)) I got brown, white & red for this project. (The white so that I could make different shades of brown) I started by creating lines horizontally on the canvas with a yard stick.

I just made each section the width of the yard stick so it was quick and easy.

I then took the corner of a postcard and made some 'arrows' throughout each line...and then I hand drew (scary!) a large heart in the middle, as you can kinda see in the next picture.

Then it was time for the paint. I did the brown first, without any mixing. Then I made a lighter shade and filled in some more sections...
All together I did four different shades of brown. I hope they're enough different that they're distinct but not so much that there's too much contrast. There was no method to the shades I just kept adding drops of white & brown until I found a shade I liked.

And then I just filled in the heart...

I think it turned out pretty cool...

The only thing I'd like to change is the dark brown section right above the center of the heart. I think if it was a lighter shade the heart would stand out better. I'll work on that... :)