Wednesday, December 22, 2010

DIY Artwork

I've been living in my place for 6 months now, and I'm still having so much trouble finding stuff to hang on the walls!  I think it's mainly because I'm indecisive and can't pick a theme.  I only have one (huge) painting that probably has shown up in the background of some of the pictures I've taken, which was painted by a friend and given as a gift.  Otherwise all my walls are pretty much bare.

Well my fiance inspired me earlier this week by buying a canvas and spray paint to make a very "Z-Gallery"-like artwork consisting of names of cities we traveled to on our latest trip which was to China. This is what he did.  I like it!



So it makes it personal, and not like some mass produced artwork from Ikea or something.  Not that I have anything against Ikea - I love Ikea actually!  But I think when it comes to art, I rather invest in art of value (like buy one expensive piece of work a year and collect for a lifetime would be a cool idea), or make personalized artwork myself.

This is a similar design from Z-Gallery:


Ok, so I decided to follow suit and do a couple of my own thing.  I remember that back in college, I was really into graphic design and art history.  Obsessed really.  I memorized all the names of famous pieces from pre-historic time to the present, the artists, the exact year they were done, the history behind them, what kind of influence they had and what influenced them, etc. etc.  In fact, I wanted to be some kind of art major, I even considered being a music major and auditioned for piano with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. But I decided eventually to opt for business economics for more $$$ potential upon graduation.  I was a practical kid.  I'm actually glad I made that choice because I like what I do now, and I can still do artsy stuff as a hobby instead of depending my income on it (though I rarely have the time).  So I dug up a computerized Picasso interpretation I drew back then in Illustrator of the Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.  This is what the Picasso version looks like.  I believe the subjects are 5 hookers.  What can I say... LOL:


And this is what my not-quite-as-cool-but-free version looks like:


It was actually a lot of work to complete this!  Because I drew everything by hand, and tried to make it resemble the Picasso version as much as possible color wise and shape wise.  I should've done the fruit plate though - not sure why I skipped that part.  I think I might have to go edit it.

So I think that I will be framing this and hanging it up on my wall so I can have my own "Picasso"!  And I think it would also be great if I do a couple more Illustrator drawings of different Picasso pieces to make a series!  These are not that big - like 2 ft x 1 ft each, so I can hang them side by side in the hallway or something.  It's a fun exercise anyway, I just really enjoy silly stuff like this. 

At least that's a start to covering my bare walls!  I still need more ideas though because I have a lot of wall space so feel free to throw them my way!  Hopefully slowly it will all come together.  This whole owning a home thing, is really a lot of work!

2 comments:

  1. I love the spray paint thing, it's so cool. Hanging your own art is always better than an ikea poster. I like decorating with collages of pictures of friends. I have one of those multi-frames with different shapes and sizes for pictures and I put up at least one of all my family members and pets, I love it. Every time people come over they find themselves or see parties they remember and it's great.

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  2. You are right, it's always fun to have your own pictures. It's funny that nowadays everything is digital - I don't remember the last time I printed out pictures. Maybe I'll have to buy frames that you can put your SD card in so you can have a moving slideshow. Hehe.

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