How to: Halloween canvas sign

We have never gotten into halloween that much here in Australia but in the last few years that has started to change. (just between you and me I think its because retailers are pushing it harder on people as another way to make money… :P) I was never a big halloween person until last year when I held a halloween party and now I can’t get enough of its spooky goodness!

Today I am going to show you how to make a creepy Happy Halloween sign.

You will need:

– A canvas

– A paintbrush

– Yellow/Orange/Red acrylic paint (what ever colour you want!)

– Black acrylic paint (a lot of it!)

– A palette knife

– About half an hour 🙂

Step 1:

Layer one

Paint the canvas with the orange paint. Cover it as best you can. It doesn’t matter if its a bit patchy as you are only going to be seeing a small amount of it in the end anyway.

Step 2:

Layer two

Once the orange layer has dried apply the black layer. Don’t by shy with the paint for this bit. The thicker the better. Use a palette knife to spread the paint around. This will give you a lovely thick globby effect. (is globby a word?!) By using this technique it gives your work a rougher look, more halloween-ish. 🙂

Step 3:

Start writing!

Use the palette knife again to carve through the thick wet black paint to reveal the bringt coloured paunt underneath. The great thing about this technique is that if you are not happy with how your words have turned out you can simply get smooth the paint back over the area and start again!

Gotta love a pressure free artwork! 🙂

Step 4:

Let it dry.

This will take a while… it is only acrylic paint so it is fast drying however because we have applied it so thickly it will take much longer than usual. Leave it to dry over night and it should be fine. 🙂

Now you have your own creepy halloween sign! 🙂

Optional additions:

You could calve otherthings into the paint. Scary faces, a cat, a ghost, any other halloween cleche that takes your fancy.

You could use a varnish over the top of your work. Either mat or gloss depending on your personal prefference. Just make sure the paint it totally dry before you do this!

F.Y.I. I did paint the edge after I saw the pics. he he… oops.

What have you made for Halloween?

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