How I get from a pencil sketch to a stretched canvas print

Todays blog is about giving you  a glimpse behind the scenes and showing you how Kids Art gets  from a sketch on paper to a completed canvas print, like this fairy one below.

Fairy on a mushroom - watercolour print on canvas

First I start with the sketch

Sketch of fairy on mushroom drawing

 This is the first painting that Iused the medium of Watercolours, all my other paintings up until now have been acrylic, but I wanted to have a play with my watercolour pencils. You can use watercolour pencils two ways, one colour the paper in with the pencil and then wet the pencil with a wet paintbrush. Or you can dip the end of the watercolour pencil into water and paint/colour in on the paper. I like to colour in first and then wet the coloured in area with a wet paintbrush.

Starting to paint with watercolours

 Once the areas are painted, I go over each area and highlight and put shadows which helps give more a 2d effect and adds depth. After the painting has completly dried I use a water proof black tip pen and outline the painting.

Doing the finished touches on painting

 Once I am happy with the painting and feel that it is completed, I scan the painting using a scanner. This puts the image into a digital format as a jpeg or a pdf file. When you scan you need to change and adjust the contrast and brightness to get the artwork as close to the original as possible.

Scanning the finished painting

  I ended up with about 4 different digital files using the different settings during the scanning process. To see which one will be as close to the original as possible, the only way to really see this is to do some test runs on the canvas itself. In the photo below you can also see the other watercolour paintings that were painted around the same time, and I tested them all in this canvas run so that I would not waste and canvas & I wanted to see how the colours would print.

Test run - printing artwork onto canvas

 Once the artwork has been printed onto canvas it is then treated with varnish and stretched over a quality wooden frame. It is stapled at the back and picture cord is attached so that the canvas print is ready to hang when it arrives at its destination.

Stretching canvas over wooden frame

 The artwork continues around the side of the frame and around to the back. The completed canvas print is 20x25cm.

Completed stretched canvas print with other Kids Art products

 The completed canvas print is then hung onto the wall using a ordinary household picture hook. I am really happy with the result. The canvas print looks so close to the original watercolour painting, that it is hard to tell it apart from the original.

Completed Fairy on Mushroom canvas print hanging on wall.

I have decided to paint a few more fairy and mushroom drawings to match this fairy painting.

The Fairy painting is now for sale on the website - http://kids-art.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=33_83&products_id=556

Cheers Chantelle

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