Reusing an old canvas, my husband created an awesome modern giraffe painting to bring some personalized art to Isla’s bedroom, here’s how he did it, in his own words:
Step 1 – Paint the canvas
Since the canvas wasn’t blank, I took some leftover white paint and gave it a few coats. Incidentally, I think the paint helped the tape form a nice seal, and avoided the pink leaking under the edge of the tape.
Step 2 – Find examples
Before doing anything else, I had to figure out what I wanted to draw. Searching for “modern giraffe” was a good start, and Olivia’s pinterest helped too.
Step 3 – Small sketch
Using a pencil, I sketched out the general outline of the giraffe, and slowly darkened the edge details. I wanted simple, straight lines without too much detail. Small shapes are hard to tape.
Step 4 – Transfer to canvas
This part was tough; using a straight edge, I redrew the giraffe on the canvas, keeping as faithful as I could to my original drawing. Her neck came out a bit shorter and fatter than the original, but overall I was pleased.
Step 5 – Tape
Using blue painters tape, scissors, and plenty of patience I carefully cut and taped every edge of the giraffe. This was by far the most time consuming part, but also the most critical for success. The ear and horn were especially troublesome. Make sure to press down the edges of the tape really well; you don’t want it to peel up and get paint below.
Step 6 – Paint!
If you weren’t repurposing a canvas, and you want the best edges possible, it might be a good idea at this point to go over all the inside edges of the tape with some white paint. This would help seal the tape and avoid any color leaking underneath.
As it is, I’d already put about three coats of white paint on the canvas, so it was nice and smooth and the tape had a good seal.
Using a small paint sample and a $1 foam brush, I painted the inside of the giraffe. You can see I added a bit more tape to cover the canvas between the legs; I didn’t trust myself to avoid painting that!
Step 7 – Let it dry, then remove the tape
I let the paint dry for several hours (maybe even overnight to be safe), and then carefully pulled off all the tape. Thankfully, no paint had seeped under the edge and it looked perfect! I hung it up above Isla’s dresser, and now she has a cool modern giraffe to decorate her room!
