Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Painting the town red 
I've been racking my brains over a good present to get E on our second anniversary- I didn't want anything store-bought and wanted a gift that meant something to the both of us.
And then I realized that I was surrounded by arty friends in Melbourne and it would be a shame not to employ their help. Which is when I came up with the idea of painting something for E to hang in his bedroom, since we've spent time looking at art when we're out and about and when we travel.
Because it was my first time doing an acrylic painting on canvas, I was pretty worried about stuffing up. When I was at Lockie's to work on the painting, I didn't really know what I was going to do, but he went through some websites with me and gave me some ideas.
We then headed to the city to buy art supplies, and he generously lent me his paintbrushes and paint (and the occasional hand ;)) so I only had to buy the canvas and masking tape.
We first primed the canvas and then gave it a coat of white paint. I then used the masking tape to recreate a graphic skyline of Minatomirai in Yokohama, Japan where E and I first met. I didn't want to leave any pencil marks, so I had to do it freehand!
After the skyline was complete, I painted the canvas over with two layers of black.
When the black paint dried, I then painted the sky with two coats of bright red.
Once the red had dried, I carefully removed the masking tape to reveal the contrast and painted Minatomirai in hiragana on the bottom left corner of the painting. I was really excited with the final product and thought it was even better than I had envisaged!
Meanwhile, Lockie was having fun doing his "Lachlan takes on Godzilla in Japan" piece, and I was amazed at how quickly he finished it! I was tempted to steal it for my room, but I told him I want one of me in Melbourne next time.
And a photo of the two of us holding our paintings at the end of a productive day, for memory's sake.
Lockie reads like a fiend, writes well, cooks up a storm and enjoys drawing cartoons and painting. Why, he is almost like a female version of me! (And he's very single, ladies.)
You can view the slideshow here.
I can't wait to see E's reaction to my surprise tomorrow!Labels: australia, friendship, love, painting, photo
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