Permanent Marker “Paintings”

Since I moved into my new place in mid-September, I’ve had a huge blank space over my very white sofa in my mostly white living room, unable to decide what to hang on that wall. A week or so ago, I decided to take a gamble on creating my own artwork, but since I’m not too much of a risk-taker, I figured I’d experiment with inexpensive materials first.

About a month earlier, I had picked up a few four-dollar 16×20″ canvases (the biggest size I could find at Dollarama) so I pulled those out and stared at them for a while. I knew I wanted something floral and funky and bright, but I didn’t feel like spending hours painting something with a lot of detail. Flipping through some of my art books, I saw a print that gave me an idea. I create colouring books. Surely I could doodle a design and then colour it in!

I grabbed a set of Bic Marking Permanent Markers and used the brown, red, turquoise and two greens (the accent colours of my living room) to sketch out these huge roses and leaves. I think I should have stopped there and made three or four of these as I love the simple outlined shapes… but I had already drawn in the polka dots on one leaf segment, which I didn’t like, so I felt like I needed to colour the whole thing in. Then I added extra leaves and dots.

In the end, I was really happy with how it turned out, considering the cost and time involved, but this was just one small “painting” and I needed more. What to do next?

I pulled out a second canvas and tried adding the light blue after doodling similar but somewhat different roses and leaves. The overall effect didn’t please me as much as the first canvas (particularly because the blues are darker than the blues in my living room) but I still like it and think the two look good together. If you don’t look at them up close, you can’t even tell it’s just marker

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Now I’m stuck again. 🙂 I can’t decide whether I should make a third floral print that mixes the blues and red/brown to hang between these two, another red design and another blue design to alternate with these, one big quote with black lettering to hang in the middle or six more different designs to hang a grid of eight canvases. Ack! What do you think? I’d love some suggestions. 🙂

But that’s not the main reason I’m posting this. I wanted to give YOU the idea of taking an inexpensive canvas and using permanent marker to “paint” a fun picture. Just to offer another example, I took a smaller canvas and a different set of markers (alcohol-based brush ones that bleed too much through paper so they’ve been sitting in their box) and quickly whipped this up. (I probably wouldn’t hang it up anywhere as it’s just a practice picture, but didn’t even take half an hour, which means you could create something much nicer in an hour or two–perfect for when you need a last-minute gift or want a quick change-up to your decor.)

I will keep you posted on my progress with my living room art. I hope to have the project completed by spring, at least! If you try this idea, I hope you’ll share photos with me. 🙂

Have a lovely, creative Saturday, and see you back here on Monday!

Ann-Margret