Copy Cat

A few years ago I fell in love with these canvas paintings of the Eiffel Tower and Colosseum on Pottery Barn's website but, at that time, I couldn't afford them on the few measly beans I made each month. I was crushed when I went searching for them online a year ago and all I could find were "product no longer available" postings. Not even someone selling one on ebay! So sad. :(

Then my genius and very encouraging husband gave me the idea that we could make them ourselves using the projector at his work for a fraction of the money I had planned to spend. Hmmmm???? Interesting challenge...

So after two 40% off coupons from Michael's I'd spent less than $10.00 total on two canvases and one tube of black paint and I was ready to start painting (ok, not quite mentally ready, but I had the materials). I'll admit that I've done a fair share of successful painting in the past - but those projects were easier - ie. little snowmen on Christmas bulbs. I was super nervous to paint these because the ones from Pottery Barn were just so perfectly imperfect and really captured a certain feeling when I looked at them. How on earth was I going to do that?!

Here is the picture from POTTERY BARN that originally caught my eye. I just love how they pop against the bright apple green:Here are our copy cats:

How did we do it?
All you need are: 2 canvases, one $.59 tube of black acrylic paint, some cheap paint brushes, a scrap piece of paper, an easel, a projector...

AND, one super cute and handy dude to help work the projector and give encouragement if you're feeling shaky :)
After testing a few ideas I realized using a scrap piece of paper to get the feel of painting the image and how heavy-handed you want to be with your brush strokes is extremely helpful. This is also how I learned that I didnt want to use a big permanent marker (my original idea-no dry time) especially because I was really after that faded look of the brush strokes as you use up your paint.

Then just project the image onto a big wall so you can get a feel for it and then paint away!

They're so fun arent they?! I have to say, for all my worrying about how I would possibly recreate the same feeling as the PB ones, this was actually quite easy! And, much thanks to Daniel who gave me great perspective when he said that I couldn't screw up because their charm was in their imperfections and quirks. Hooray for that!

So, paint away and good luck!