Everyone needs a hobby

Had a busy week, which means lots to blog about, but I need to unwind a bit before I sit down and spill the beanz.

I happen to have the perfect little project to unwind with. Last weekend I spotted a postcard that I really liked and I've been racking my brains since, trying to find a way to copy it on a larger scale canvas. The lines of the drawing are too sketchy to do with spraycans. I'm not a steady hand at any rate, so taking my chances with an expensive canvas and some paint would be a big risk as you really only have the one chance to get it right. Photographing it and enlarging would be too easy, too expensive and not much fun.

So I was browsing the artstore today for some inspiration and I think I may just have found the trick. I bought a 100x120cm canvas for acrylic paint that was priced down. I also bought two very cheap bottles of blackboard paint. You normally use it to decorate kids' rooms so they can use crayons on the walls. The bottles state that the paint is acrylic-based, which means it SHOULD stick to the canvas without blistering. Although it's a risk as it's not a hard surface. Anyway, I'm willing to take my chances.

The idea is as follows: I'm going to put two layers of blackboard paint on the canvas, hopefully creating a large simple, non-shiny blackboard. Then I can use white crayons to sketch the drawing on it. If I get it wrong, I can erase and re-start. Also, if, after a few weeks, I tire of the sketch, I can start over and do something else with it.

I'm not very good with permanent things.

So, here's the situation today:

Will hopefully come back with a nice result by the end of the weekend (paint needs to dry 24 hours). Fingers crossed.