Fun Painted Backgrounds
by Shannon Sawyer
This is a fun, easy technique for making beautiful backgrounds for your collages and more!
First pull out all of the colored paints you are wanting to use- any acrylic paints will work just fine.
Next, assemble your templates- circles was the theme for this background, so bubble wrap, circle templates and even recycled plastic lids are great for this
Make your background paper as big or as small as you like- large sheets of watercolor paper or acrylic paper are great- you can cut them down to any size afterwords.
Start by dabbing globs of acrylic paint randomly over the paper- be messy and pick lots of fun bright colors!
Smear the paint with a brayer into horizontal lines to cover all of the white paper with stunning streaks of color.
Let your background dry before you start adding your circles.
Apply paint to bubble wrap and press randomly onto your background- use different colors!
When the first layer of circles have dried, move on to the next step...
Add the next layer of circles by picking several graduating sizes on a plastic template and paint the circles in with complimentary colors.
Experiment a little- Shannon used this krylon webbing spray to make some of the larger circles on this awesome background- adds texture!
Again, let your background dry for a bit to set the colors and patterns.
Plastic lids make great stamps! Add some black paint to the edges of a lid with a make up sponge.
Stamp a few times around your paper for a dramatic effect.
As a final touch, pull out your markers and turn some of the circles into flowers by making some really small dots around the edges of a few circles- or just spontaneously color!
Voila, backgrounds are done! Let them dry overnight. If you'd like, you can cut them up and turn them into backgrounds for lots of different projects. See how Shannon turned these backgrounds into Artist Trading Cards!
back to top