Recently a friend asked me to paint her black clothes hamper with bright flowers similar to the pattern on some other decorative items in her newly remodeled bathroom (above). I immediately said YES! This project is completely different from the classical realism painting I do in my studio and sounded fun.
When I started it was during a snow storm and I was happy to set up in our warm living room using the dining table as my work surface.
The first step was to figure out the pattern and paint a base layer of white on the hamper. I sort of really like how it looks like this but eventually moved on to the second step.
The next step was to put in the first layer of colors, this is where the design really started to take shape and you could see where I was going.
And finally I added the finishing touches! It's amazing what shadows and accents can do to make an image really "sing"!
The big, easy strokes with a paint brush (as opposed to holding soft pastel sticks) and the simple, graphical pattern was a lot of fun.
And best of all, my friend LOVES it!
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