DIY: Painted Word Art

I created, what I think is, a really cool piece of art. I wrote about why I chose this arrangement and what it means to me in a post titled after the name of the painting..."I Don't Want To Be Just One Thing." The style and design can be as original as your imagination, but I wanted to go through the general steps of creating painted word art like this.

Step 1

Choose your paper or canvas and paint it how you want the letters to look like. I used acrylic paint for this project because it dries quickly and easily allows for distinct layers.

I wanted five different lines to all be different colors. To do this I measured it out and put down guide lines in pencil to divide the sections evenly. Then I used painters tape to mark off each section as I painted it so it would stay neat. If you are good with painting straight lines, you could do it free hand with the guidelines, but painters tape is fairly cheap and makes it easy.

You can see the painters tape on the bottom of the red section in the picture. I had already pulled the tape up on top of the red section, but it gives you an idea at least.

Step 2

The next step is to make letters for what you are spelling. I used a stencil and cut letters out of painters tape using both scissors and an X-ATO knife. It took some time, but it was very effective. You could also use stickers to do this. However, make sure the stickers are easy to lift off the paper and do not stick or tear the paint underneath. You will need all the letters in your painting so you can cover it with the top layer of paint.

Step 3

The first part of this step is to lay down all the letters that you made out of painters tape or stickers. Make sure they are arranged exactly how you want them. Then cover the entire painting with your top color. Again, you can design this however you like, simple or complicated, the sky is the limit. I wanted mine to be very bold and simple so I chose black as my top color so the colors underneath would stand out.

One tip, that I learned through this process, is to outline the letters either with a marker of the same color or with the paint. I had a little of the paint pass under the edges of the tape making the edges look fuzzy when I first took the stickers off. Possibly, this could be avoided just by being aware of it and being careful around the edges of the letters.

Step 4

Next you must carefully peel the letters off of the painting.

As I said before, my letters were a little fuzzy at first from extra paint along the edges of the letters. I went back and fine tuned it with a permanent marker around the letters to crisp the edges and make the letters pop off the page.

And voila! You have a really cool piece of art. Happy Painting!