Trompe L'Oeil Curtains

Hello all,

I live on 5 acres of land on the outskirts of the Everglades of SW Florida in Naples.  I don't have any neighbors to see into my backyard and I love to wake up and see my garden, my land,and peek out at my chickens so I decided to go without curtains on my back windows.  I still wanted a curtain for decor therefore I painted curtains on my wall.  Below is the finished result. Most people walk thru the house for the first time and don't realize that they are painted and after a while even friends forget they are painted.  I do love to fool people.  The definition of the words Trompe L'Oeil comes from the french and is translated to mean, "Fools the Eye".  Although I hand painted these curtains if you're not quite ready for that there are many curtain stencils available around. 

 

I have now changed the color of my Kitchen walls so I also changed my "fabric " curtains.  I created my own fabric design.  I actually intend on creating the fabric for real on a site called www.spoonflower.com where you can upload your designs and purchase your own fabrics by the yard .   FUN STUFF!!!!!.  Technology is absolutely amazing!!!!!

 

Creating Trompe 'Oeil Art starts with knowing the item you want to paint inside and out. Take the curtains for example, I studied the folds of fabric and how it hangs over a rod. I held a bamboo rod to the wall to see how the light moves and reacts to the colors and where the shadows fall. 

 

HOW TO: Trompe L'Oeil the above Curtain.

 

When you start a Trompe L'Oeil project, draw it out first on paper to get a feel for it and the perspective you are looking for.  Practise, Practise, and Practise.    Most beginners tend to be afraid of drawing or painting on walls, but remember it's only paint and you can always paint over it and start again.

 

1. draw your bamboo rod outline on the wall in pencil

2. With liquid acrylic art paints, base coat the bamboo rod shape in a medium brown, let dry.

3. Paint a soft line of a darker brown on upper and lower edges. Sideload your brush so that one side of the brush has more paint than the other. This will create the rounded effect of the rod.

 

 ("sideloading a brush" is a technique used to apply the paint so that the side with less paint will create a softer edge, and the side with more paint will have a stronger darker edge.)

 

Remember practise makes perfect

 

4. With a lighter shade of your brown, run a soft edged line across the middle of the rod.  This gives the highlighted area and creates a more pronounced roundness to the rod. Then streak the rod a little with the medium brown to create the vertical lines found in real bamboo.

5. Add bamboo growth circles 2-3 of them on each rod at uneven spacing.  Sideload the darker brown paint on your brush  and run a line perpendicular to your rod direction. giving the soft and hard side to create a growth ring as in real bamboo.

6. Add your rod holders by drawing them onto the wall then painting them your color.  What ever color you want them to be.  I chose black to go with the rest of my decor around the house.  Place the holders 'behind" the bamboo rod and the hook part "in front of" the rod. Think illusion.

7.Now we do the curtains. :) Draw your design onto your painted bamboo rod. remember that real curtains are not stuck to the rod they have substance.  look at your real curtains for comparison.

8. Base coat the entire curtain design in off white, 2 coats. let dry.

9. Add folds in fabric unevenly. Don't have the folds looking like soldiers. keep thinking soft and undulating.  Sideload brush with dark brown and run a line of paint down and along one side of the fold creating a hard dark side and a soft faded side of the fold.  This is where it gets tricky.  you have to watch where your light source is coming from and try to do the darker shades on the opposite side of the fold from the lightsource. Have a piece of fabric near you so you can check out the folds as you go along.

10. When you have your folds the way you want them. its time to put in the designs of the fabric.  I made stencils of a starfish and 2 different coral fans.  I then stencilled the 3 designs sporadically around the painted fabric.  As I came to a dark edged fold I cut the stencil design off so that it looks like the starfish or coral fan went into the fold. 

11. Next I added a dark brown ribbon on some of the outer edges to emphasize and define the fabric. Don't do all of the edges, let some of them look like they have folded behind as real fabric would.

12. Last step is to add the shadows.  Study your design in its area and put shadows on the opposite side of your painting than your lightsource. I did below my bamboo rod and to the left of my curtains on one wall and then on the other side of the room my lightsource switched sides so I did the right side. I shadowed below the bottom of my curtains as well. Shadows create the illusion that the fabric is seperated from the wall and is a very important element in Trompe L'Oeil Art.  Do the shadows in a bluer tone of your own wall color as it will create the reality you are looking for. (If you have any of your actual wall color you can take a couple of ounces of that paint, add a small amount of a dk blue acrylic paint to it to make the shadow color).

 

 

This project may take a few days to complete so dont fret if you didnt finish it in one day.  It took me 4 days to complete the 3 faux curtains I have in my kitchen.  Also if you find you've missed something or dont like an area, you can always go back and correct it.  Acrylic paint is very forgiving.

 

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with me either by phone or email.  I'll be glad to help.

 

Happy Trompe L'Oeil-ing!!!!

 

-Linda

Painting a wood floor on concrete

          I had to take up the carpet in my spare bedroom that I was going to use as my art studio.  I didnt know what to put back down.  It stayed bare concrete for quite a while.  Eventually I decided to paint it.  I toyed over the ideas I had in my head. I wanted bamboo like my living room but I thought painting it would be more fun.  So I did.

    What do you think???  My friends didnt know I was going to do this so when they came over they first thought that we had actually put a wood floor down.  I had to tell them that it was painted. Either that or they were being very nice to my ego:)  Painting the floor was quite easy to do.

                                                               HOW TO:

     First I made sure the concrete floor was extremely clean and vacuumed very well.  Then I painted the floor with 2 coats of Kilz water based sealer. Let it dry overnite.  Then  I painted the entire floor in a tan latex house paint. let it dry overnite. I streaked the entire floor with similar browns and beiges of my real bamboo floor , creating a streaky light and darker effect.  When it was dry I then drew parallel lines every 6" across the entire floor with a sharpie. Next I drew short perpendicular lines in between the 6" lines at 3' intervals to create the effect of the 3' boards you usually buy stock wood flooring in. I offset the line each time I drew them by 1' to give the effect of the a staggered board. 

sample of staggered boards drawn on floor

Then I tweaked the lighter and darker effects to create a more pronounced definition in individual board colors.  I let the entire floor dry overnite.  The last thing I did was rolled on 5 layers of waterbased semigloss polyurethane. Let them dry between coats for a couple of hours. Let the entire floor dry for a couple of days before putting furniture on it to make sure the poly has completely dried.  It has now been nearly a year and the floor looks as good as it did when I first finished it.  except maybe for the odd few blotches of paint from my art projects. Enjoy!

Mother's Day Cards are among my latest creations.

       I am growing my collections of occasional and specialty cards in my Etsy store and Im having loads of fun. I'm finding that people are responding to them quite well and I have sold many of the word art husband and boyfriend cards.
     While creating these specialty cards I found out that I love the "matte photo paper" that Staples sells. It has a wonderful soft texture and a great weight for my larger cards than the smooth card stock paper I have been using.  This photo paper also gives the cards a more professional look and quality.  I will continue to use the card stock for the smaller multiple sets of cards though, as I do like the paper overall.  I also found that Staples has the better card stock paper for my notecards. It also has a smoother softer surface but still a nice weight (110lb) paper. This is good for me because I have 2 Staple Stores in Naples.  Very handy!!!
  My Mother's Day card is a text card of your love and devotion to your mother. You can add a name or more verbiage if you wish.  All of my cards are available for customizing. I hope you enjoy it as I do.

Greeting Card Art- my number one love!

I have wanted to do notecards all my life as a job.  Do you know the saying "Never let go of your Dreams"?  Well, it's true.  I am now creating note cards for a business.  I am loving it!!! This design above is called "5 Chicks on a log" and it is part of my larger series about chickens and the "What the Cluck!!"  series- which includes greeting cards as well as other items.

 

 I have T-shirts on zazzle with my

"What the Cluck!" designs.  but I digress.....

 

 

When I was younger, just first married, I was hand drawing all of my christmas cards for my friends and family-there was no computers or handy printers.  They were very primitive and not very polished but many of my family still have some of my original christmas cards.  I have now been creating them for over 30 years!!!!! I originally sent my ideas to greeting card companies all over the country only to be shot down everytime. Not one got sold. I sent them again and again, finding as many card companies as possible.  They just didnt like them.  But I still kept on creating because I knew I still wanted to be a greeting card artist.  Now I create as many cards as I can and use my computer to help design and sell them. I have over 150 designs so far and climbing.  I have the 4 webstores to prove it:)  I get such a kick out of making them.  I paint with watercolor, acrylic, colored pencil or oil and combinations of those mediums and create my artwork for cards.  I sidetracked for many years doing other areas of art but have come full circle back to greeting cards.  It is such a wave of relief to know I was on the right track all along.  I am going to look for stores in Naples and around Florida to sell my work as well. 

Nantucket Antique store- pen and ink card blank inside

I usually do a series of cards-such as my 6 set of cards showcasing Naples Fl area attractions, or my set of Country Benches- as that way I get all my ideas for that subject(s) out at one time, then I move to the next subject. They range from pen and ink drawings that are representational to comical whimsical fun art.

Daddy's Home - Father's Day card

I am having way too much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Social media- My thoughts for today

I am beginning to become a social media fanatic.  Boy this takes up a lot of time and energy. But Im having way too much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!
 I have a pinterest acct (love it), linkedIn acct, twitter acct (never thought I would twitter), facebook, 2 email accts, Craftori acct, and my blog.  WOW!!!!

But if it gets my name out there into cyberspace and people notice me and my artwork, it is all worth it.  I sit at my computer for hours uploading to my 4 web stores and all the sites and then go back to my drawing table and draw.  And this is how I get paid and how I want to live.  Life is Great!!!!