DIY Abstract Canvas Art
Even if you’re the least artistic person like me, you can make this DIY canvas art for less than $50 by following this super easy step by step tutorial
Listen you guys.
I’m not artistic. Like at all. Comedically not so.
If you’re new here, you may have missed the biggest DIY art fail that I still decided to post because it was just so hilarious it was so terrible. The photo above was simply how it started. Check out the post to see how it went.
Ah, young Carmen. I was so hopeful.
However, DIY is all about trying and failing and trying again and this time, I gotta say, I’m happy with how this DIY abstract art turned out!
DIY Canvas Wall Art
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- Joint compound
- Wide putty knife
- Narrow putty knife
- Canvas dropcloth
- Staple gun
- 1×2 furring strip (for inner frame)
- 1×3 pine (for outer frame – to match our DIY Samsung Frame TV)
- Acrylic paint in whatever colors you choose (This is my favorite brand or if you would rather see it in person, you can pick it up at Michael’s)
- For reference, I used the Tera Cotta line of Folk Art paint in Ocean Cavern, Shale Green, Sea Frost, and then from the regular line, I used Silver Marlin
We wanted our art to be the exact same size as our TCL Roku TV which is 43″ so this reflects that size, but you can make this as large or as small as you need!
Jordan created the inner frame by taking the 1×3 furring strips and attaching them together using a clamp and screws.
Taking the canvas, stretch it over your frame and use a staple gun to secure it to the inner rim of the frame.
Cut off the excess so you don’t have a ton of extra canvas just hanging out in the back of your soon-to-be wall painting.
Pro tip – if we were to do this again (which is likely) we will probably staple the canvas to the inside of the frame as opposed to just the back side like you can see here. It will just provide more “support” of the canvas itself.
Now comes the fun part – at least for me.
Joint compound!
Using a wide putty knife, start adding the joint compound to your canvas in no particular uniformed way. If you’re a perfectionist, prepare for this to chafe against you, but I’m really not so I just slathered it on.
After adding the joint compound on with a wider putty knife, use the more narrow putty knife to go back and add in the joint compound to spots that may be bare or to make more marks to add more texture.
The key to making your own abstract piece of art is to step back every now and then and look at it. When you’re up close, things may look weird or annoying or “wrong” to you, but by stepping back and looking at it from a distance, you can get a better feel for it.
If you’re going to do a look similar to this with darker to lighter paint, start with your darkest color at the bottom.
This abstract art is going to be hanging horizontally, but if yours will be hanging vertically, just make sure you turn it and start your painting on the short side, not the long one like I’m doing here.
Add your next lighter color, but make sure you go back and get both colors on your brush to blend in the line where they meet so it looks less harsh.
Since this is textured and abstract, I really didn’t have a specific painting technique. I didn’t care if there were visible brush strokes or spots that weren’t fully painted on this.
Add your final colors and make sure it’s all blended.
Again, don’t forget to occasionally step back and see what it looks like from afar. Remember – the best thing about abstract wall art is that it doesn’t have to be perfect! Which is good cuz ya girl isn’t even kinda close to that.
We put a couple of screws in studs and hung this bad boy up. It’s only canvas and some lightweight wood so it doesn’t weigh that much at all.
In under 30 minutes, this DIY wall art was done. I was so shocked by how easy it was and also how much I actually liked it!
Again, when I say I’m not artistic at all, I mean that in every sense of the word. But this makes me want to tackle more art projects.
Ha. Just kidding.
I love the texture up from up close and far away.
This would be a great solution if you have huge blank walls in your home somewhere like in a living room or bedroom and don’t want to spend a ton of money on art.
There are so many canvas art ideas you can tackle with a project like this.
Throw some gold leaf on there. Leave it unpainted with just the joint compound and have just a simple white painting with texture. The possibilities are endless!
I gotta say – this One Room Challenge is shaping up to be one of my favorites 🙂
