Alright, see that orange painting on the left? I bought that piece at a thrift shop. I didn't love the subject which is a somewhat abstract cityscape with a large sun/moon. I did like the size and that it was framed. Now a year later I have a chance to spruce it up. I was part of a girl's getaway with nine other friends over the weekend and I decided this would be my project.
So my inspirations were ideas I saw on Pinterest (yes again) that revamped old paintings using a stencil. Ideally your first painting has some good color to it because that is the part that will show through. However, since mine was mostly one color I had to improvise. I applied as many colors from the quilt in the room as I could, not really in any pattern. I knew I would be placing the stencil off center so I didn't need to cover the entire painting with color.
You can barely see it in the picture above, but I cut out a stencil using clear shelf liner. I chose to do a tree but you could really pick any shape. I have seen geometric patterns, criss cross tape, chevrons, and even letters spelling out words or sayings. Once the stencil was down and the frame covered with painter's tape I squeezed big blobs of paint onto the picture. In this case I used Titanium White but it could be any color. Using a painting knife I spread the paint thickly over ever inch. I then spread a few dots of color horizontally. While the paint was still wet I pulled the stencil up to reveal the colors underneath.
Here is the painting in its old spot. I think the pop of white brightens the space quit a bit. One of the things I would have done differently would be to use painter's tape as my stencil. While the shelf liner is sticky, it was not sticky enough to keep paint from getting under it. Otherwise, it was a pretty easy and quick way to completely change an old painting I didn't really like.
Alright, see that orange painting on the left? I bought that piece at a thrift shop. I didn't love the subject which is a somewhat abstract cityscape with a large sun/moon. I did like the size and that it was framed. Now a year later I have a chance to spruce it up. I was part of a girl's getaway with nine other friends over the weekend and I decided this would be my project.
So my inspirations were ideas I saw on Pinterest (yes again) that revamped old paintings using a stencil. Ideally your first painting has some good color to it because that is the part that will show through. However, since mine was mostly one color I had to improvise. I applied as many colors from the quilt in the room as I could, not really in any pattern. I knew I would be placing the stencil off center so I didn't need to cover the entire painting with color. 
You can barely see it in the picture above, but I cut out a stencil using clear shelf liner. I chose to do a tree but you could really pick any shape. I have seen geometric patterns, criss cross tape, chevrons, and even letters spelling out words or sayings. Once the stencil was down and the frame covered with painter's tape I squeezed big blobs of paint onto the picture. In this case I used Titanium White but it could be any color. Using a painting knife I spread the paint thickly over ever inch. I then spread a few dots of color horizontally. While the paint was still wet I pulled the stencil up to reveal the colors underneath.
