Painting Extra Big on brown paper

Adopt this philosophy: When it comes to art journals, anything worth doing is worth overdoing!
Quote from the book True colors (found at The Altered page)

Love this quote! And so appropriate, because overdoing is my favorite thing to do too.

Last month I did a few flowers on brown paper and noticed how much paint the brown paper can take. I’ve got a few rolls of brown paper for gift wrapping and it is amazing how much paint you can slap on it without it tearing or getting bubbly. And if you roll it out you can also enjoy painting big without the need of a expensive canvas. So if you worry about being neat and producing wall-worthy art when you paint on canvas, this is a great option.

At almost no cost you can paint huge paintings, and you don’t need to worry about the result. If you don’t like it throw it away and then just roll out another piece of paper. If you want to make super cheap art – pick up some brown paper and start painting! You can use the paper from grocery bags, buy a whole roll – or recycle some brown paper like I did (got this one in the mail with gifts inside).

Did you notice the pen on the paper above? It’s there for size comparison:

Because this is XL for crusade #40, called Step up the scale! I thoroughly enjoyed painting these backgrounds, mixing colors as I went along. Experimenting with dry brushing, stencils (both bought alphabet stencil and some round ones I’ve made myself), stamping (my new favorite is a empty sewing thread spool) and some collage (from an old school book, recycled wrapping paper from dad’s birthday plus some labels). You could go in and add details, doodle on top of this, cut out shapes or just paint something figurative on top of it I guess. You could do anything. I kept on painting.

I painted the backside of the above brown paper too. Here it is again, covered in paint:

Then I moved on to another sheet of paper, even bigger this time:

Both of the big papers together (notice the pen again!):

I promise I will let you know what these are being turned into in my next post!

And check out some close up photos while you wait:

Stamping with my fingers is always fun, making little white dots all over the place.

Paint splatter. Then letting blue paint with lots of water splash and drip. Blue like rain.

Stencil made with the round punch. Thick color through stencil, then paint on top of that, then water, then swipe. Then… what ever you want to do.

Address label with my name, glued to the paper and then almost gone again, lost in paint.

Alphabet stencil used. Finally, what took you so long Hanna? Let’s use it every day from now on. At least once.

A wee girl in a colour explosion. I guess it is me as a kid. Or inside iHanna’s head – there is no difference.

Painting extra big took a bit more time than usual but was also extra fun. I’m digging it and will scale up again. Feel free to join the crusade by going small, going large or mixing it up: Step up the scale! Yes, lets.